keep my hermit crabs alive

I started with 4 hermit crabs in October last year. Since then, one, I know for sure, has died. One is definitely still alive, the other 2, I haven’t seen since March this year. They buried themselves – I suppose to keep out of the cold. I have read that in Oz, hermit crabs hibernate from about March through to August. Two months ago, I dug up the ground to see where my hermies were. One has liquified in his shell. There was sticky goo in his shell…this was my favourite crab…and I think what I found was his dead body…I never found the other crab. I bought 2 more because I like to see some action in my tank…they all dug and hid too. So I went and bought 4 more. I still don’t see any of them except that one single crab from the first set. I’m hoping when it gets warm again, they’ll all come back up from the substrate and make my crabitarium look alive!

My smallest crab died last night. I am horribly fed up with hermit crabs at this point. If the last one dies, then I’m gonna get rid of all of the stuff. I don’t care how much it cost me. This is the craziest pet I’ve ever had. My boyfriend spends less time cleaning his turtle cage than I do just making sure my crabs live. Anyone who has ever had turtles knows how much time that is. It is rediculous.

My little baby that molted seems to be doing ok. I don’t see the outer exoskeleton or anything, but they say they eat that, so who knows?

I keep finding mold in their cage and the little guy is molting I think. He has buried himself and it makes me worry about him. I really have to resist the urge to dig him up.

I am totally in love with hermit crabs, but so far I’ve had three of them die. The first one I think died from low humidity. The other two, it might have been mold. The food was dry food, so I left it in the cage for three days hoping they would eat it. Well, now the proper humidity has made me understand that I will need to clean out all of the dishes at least once a day.

I’ve decided to not get anymore hermit crabs, but to instead just try my best to keep the last two alive. My very favorite one was the first to die, but these last two are very big contenders for that spot. I totally love the smallest one, she’s so friendly and energetic. Right now she’s molting. I just hope she comes out of that ok. I’m gonna have to figure out a way to keep her away from the other crab until she gets her shell hard again.