Hermit Crabs

yes they do. is you frighten or scar a hermit crab then they will hide in their shell until they sense its safe to come out again. you can get your hermit crab to come out if you blow on it. they like warm air so that makes them usually come out. then you can let it crawl on your hand. if you have pet hermit crabs then you can spray them with special hermit crab spray on their claws. you can get some from a pet store that sells hermit crab stuff. its like a conditioner for them and they love to be sprayed with it. it helps their claws feel better. and also, the need salt water in a little bowl that is easy to climb up. and tap water too. one salt water and one tap water. (cold) you can get the salt from pet stores as well. change the waters every few days. they like to swim in it and drink it. im not exactly sure what food they need. they also need spare shells in the tank or wherever you keep them so they can move home when the get to big for their current shell. (make sure its a slightly bigger one!) they also like a thick layer of sand on the bottom so they can bury themselves in the sand if they like. handle your little hermies often so they get used to you. they also definantly need a heat pad stuck under the bottom of the tank for warmth. they need warmth. good luck1!!

Hermit crabs are one of the smallest pets available for consumers to bring home. They are often found as prizes at fairs or on the boardwalk. The crabs do not reduce the amount of nitrates in the water.

Yes, they are located under their carapace (shell) and known as deadmans fingers

no because male hermit crabs and femail hermit crabs will fight with each other or other male or femail's over space,if they have a little space and arround 50 hermit crabs there will be fights.i don't want to give you the wrong image but if they have little space and 2-15 there will proubably be no fights.

There are different rumours about this, however, crabs are said to be omeosmotic euryhaline (can tolerate wide ranges of salinity by maintaining constant the body fluids concentration), but quite different waters will surely shock and kill them. This really depends on the crab species in question, and also what you mean by ocean water. First, if you mean full strength sea water, most crabs can tolerate less saline water, and even adjust to changes in salinity. But as a rule of thumb, you need to consider the natural habitat from which the crab originated. If it came out of the ocean, it should stay in full strength sea water. If it came out of an estuary, it can tolerate less salt, and probably changes in salinity also, particularly if the estuary experiences periodic changes in tidal height. But extreme changes in salinity, especially if they are sudden, are likely to shock and kill a crab, as the previous commenter noted.

Hermit crabs dig holes for several reasons. They will dig down under the substrate to help regulate their body temperature as they are cold blooded animals and depend on their environment to help them regulate. Without a temperature variance so that they can cool down or warm up when they need to, eventually the hermit crabs will sicken and die.

In captivity, they will often dig holes and stay under the surface for upwards of two weeks as they need to de-stress from the awful experience they have just had of being harvested, thrown into a bag with hundreds of other crabs, thrown into a container and shipped to a pet store where conditions most likely were not ideal or healthy for hermit crabs (lacking humidity or warm temperatures and even water).

They are extremely stressed after this and can easily die as a result, and should therefore not be handled or disturbed, other than changing food and waters (ocean salt water and dechlorinated fresh), for the first two weeks after they come to your home.

When it is close to time for the crab to molt, he may also begin exhibiting digging behavior. He may dig down and stay down for several days, but when it is time for him to molt he may stay under the substrate for several weeks to several months.

You should never, ever dig up a buried crab. As they could very well be molting, digging up your crab during this delicate time can kill him.

Some crabs will just dig because they appear to be bored. Equadorian hermit crabs are quite active, and will dig for what seems to be "just for fun".

Purple Pincer hermit crabs are more sedate, and usually when they dig it is to destress or to molt.

Generally, a hermit crab will not leave it's old shell until it has a good option in it's claws. If your crab leaves it's shell and does not pick up a new one right away, there is likely another issue going on that you should be concerned about.

The abdomen of the crab is very delicate and soft. The abdomen also requires moisture to keep it supple and healthy, and the crab keeps water in it's shell just for this. The crab will not risk exposing it's abdomen for long unless there is a very real issue going on.

There are several reasons a crab may leave it's shell and won't pick up a new one.

One reason may be that the crab has been in a shell that has a sharp ridge or an irritant in it that has caused injury to the abdomen over time. If a crab has an injury that prevents if from picking up a new shell, it is likely he will die, as he will think that every shell he puts on has an irritant in it, when actually it is the injury to the abdomen.

Another reason may actually be that an irritant has gotten into the crab's shell, and in this case, you should remove the shell the crab has dropped, boil it for a few minutes in dechlorinated water, rinse and cool it off, then spray a little ocean salt water into the opening and place it with the hole up so he can easily slide in if he chooses. Don't be concerned if he tips the shell over and gets substrate in it, he can clean it out himself at this point.

Please note that while painted shells may be fun to look at, they can be a health hazard for your crab. With the moisture that a crab must keep in his shell, paint that may have gotten inside the shell when it was painted will become wet, then dry, causing the crab's abdomen to be permanently stuck within the shell. This always leads to death. The crabs are always forced into these shells, so there could be an irritant inside that the crab would have avoided to begin with, but he was forced to take the shell he has. Painted shells should be strongly discouraged. Do not purchase painted shells for your crabs. The paint is also possibly toxic for them. It may be non toxic for humans, but has never been tested on crabs.

Another reason he may leave his shell is because he has suffered heat damage at some point in the past few weeks. This can happen by using heat rocks (a definite no-no in a hermit crab tank) as they can heat up to over 100*F, which is a dangerous temperature for a hermit crab. It will also dry him out if he is sitting on it, also killing him. This can also happen if you are using an under tank heater without a thermostat attached to control the temperature. If you use an under tank heater, use a probe type thermometer to take the temperature of the substrate over the center of the heating mat. If it is over 82*F, you should unplug it until you can get a thermostat to maintain the temp below 82*F. A crab burrowed down over a too-hot heating pad will also "cook", and the symptoms may not be apparent for several weeks. A crab does not recover from heat damage, it is permanent and deadly.

Do not try to force your crab into a new shell. If you really must encourage him to take a new shell, place several clean shells spritzed with ocean salt water in the openings into a container and place your crab in the container with them. Then set the container into the crabitat so the temp and humidity are good for him, and just leave him alone. It may be best to cover his part of the tank so that outside movement does not startle him. he is extremely stressed, or he would not be out of his shell without picking up another to begin with.

Land hermit crabs can live many years if properly cared for. I have had one for over 11 years now. If your crab dies after three months- or worse, one week!- then you either bought a sick crab or you're doing something very wrong. something wrong meaning feeding too much or to little not wetting the sponge very often, changing the water every day or giving them baths

and i have one too and it dies lastnight or today. we have him for 5 months.

Marine hermit crabs live underwater and can sometimes be found in tidepools. Land hermit crabs do not live in the water but need fresh and salt water to survive.

Crab's mouths are either in the middle of their head or just under their shell below their eyestalks. Each species has a slightly different mouth, but the majority have mandibles and maxillae that cover other internal mouthparts.

Though it is impossible in captivity, wild land hermit crabs have babies. The female lays eggs in the ocean that hatch into small zoea that live in the tide for several weeks until they emerge on shore and find their first shell.

Moslty marine worms and bivalve mollusks

The shells can be any color. It depends on what they have available to change into. The crab itself can be a variety of colors, depending on what type they are. Some common hermit crab colors are red, pink, brown, and purple.

They shouldn't be too far out. When I was on the beach in Texas, USA they were all over the beach on in shallow water. But you have to look inside the shell. Unless you see them moving you won't know that they are a hermit crab.

Most crabs are omnivorous, meaning they eat whatever they can get. They feed mostly on algae but take other food including worms, molluscs and other crustaceans, bacteria, fungi and other organic waste depending on the species and their availability. Most crabs eat both plant and animal matter, but some are specialized to eat plankton or shellfish, and some actually catch fish.

you need to fill up the food bowl/plate/etc. up whenever it empties, wet the sponge with water every time it dries, keep the crabitat warm and humid, etc, and when it's molting, do whatever the answer to that say. DO NOT GIVE IT BATHS.

Paper nautilus, conch shell, whelk shells, british pearl shells, and scallop shells. :)

Answer: Usually a sea snail's.

in a ten or five gallon tank, you can use one of the lids especially made for those tanks. Those are the only cages hermit crabs can live in, so if you don't have a glass 10 gallon tank, get one! Make sure the lid has airholes

It will either stay out of it's shell or have a shell fight with another crab to take its shell.

I do not recommend letting your crab have no shell for very long though, it makes them very vulnerable and stressed out making them a good target for other crabs to harm.

baby hermit crab is usually 1 and a half inches They start out life in the ocean less than the size of a pinhead and swim around for a time before they settle to the bottom and pick up their first shell and move to land.

If your Hermit Crab has babies then leave them. You would hate it if the mother abandoned the babies and they died. Leave the litter for 2 - 4 months atleast until they get a shell and their skeloton hardens. Look after them propoly.