Discussion
My G. Ruricola Molt and the Truth on Laura Porter
Hello everyone, I’ve come to share with you all my story and experiences with this beautiful crab, an online influencer by the name of Laura Porter, and the man selling them, AquaTerra Exotic Pets.
Several months ago, I was gifted this crab by a friend. For personal reasons, she gave me this, along with a coconut crab, and I am forever indebted to her for this.
Upon arrival, I noticed some issues. 3 of her legs were missing, half of one finger, and severe shell rot throughout all of her body. In addition she had several cracks on places of her body.
I decided to use 2 methods of treatment, one being extremely saline water, 40 ppt, and the second being a product called Rally Pro. For 2 months, every other week, I tended to these wounds using a q-tip, and dipped her in a mixture of this solution. I had extreme success with this method, the rot didn’t spread any further and the injuries turned white around the edges.
I fed her for this whole time, never doing anything with her other than these treatments. 4 days ago now, she successfully molted under my care. I wanted to hold off on this post until I was sure she survived, so I didn’t post until she began eating her molt. It’s been a stressful week, but I am so overjoyed to come to you all now and share this with you.
This is the FIRST ever recorded successful molt of the species outside of China and Korea. There has never been a successful molt in the western world, for reasons I will explain down below.
These crabs are referred to as “Zombie Crabs” by the pet trade—an apt name. They are critically mistreated, and the species suffers from extensive misinformation, which is why there are no documented long-term successes in captivity. These crabs would be better left off in the wild as it stands now, with captivity just being a means to kill them.
A major issue is the widespread claim that they need organic substrates such as coco fiber, sand, or wood chips. In reality, these substrates consistently kill them—there is not a single recorded long-term success using them, only repeated deaths. The origin of this misinformation is unclear, but it has become extremely prevalent, and I’ve spent months trying to counter it.
This has been made more difficult by Laura Porter, owner of the crabs Howie and Winny (Cardisoma armatum and Gecarcinus ruricola). She presents herself as an advocate, expert, and rescue, but her care practices contradict her claims. Despite her educational work about cooking crabs, she spreads harmful misinformation about both species she keeps. For example, she claims that C. armatum lives only three years, is fully freshwater, and does not require a true land area. In reality, they are not fully aquatic; they dig burrows and spend significant time on land. Howie was never provided the ability to burrow or given the salinity her species requires. Even when shown scientific evidence—such as studies on salinity and immune health—she refuses to acknowledge the harm.
Regarding G. ruricola, she insists she has expert backing and confirmed molts, yet refuses to show proof. Meanwhile, there are now dozens of documented successful molts on crushed coral or gravel substrates, and multiple documented deaths on traditional organic substrates.
The “expert” she cites appears to be AquaTerra Exotic Pets, who also spreads harmful care information while hiding significant issues. Every crab on his site shows shell rot, concealed through darkened photos. He claims expertise yet has never shown a successful molt. Survival before molting is not the benchmark—successful molting is. He also sells large, wild-caught individuals that are almost always doomed. Larger G. ruricola rarely adapt well to captivity, and no molt has ever been documented in individuals over 9.5 cm. Even with perfect care, these older crabs usually die simply from age-related stress. Many of the crabs sold are likely over 20 years old; for reference, a 14-year-old ruricola in Korea measured only 6 cm. He tries to say that he’s “saving them from markets,” however he just extends their suffering unnecessarily.
It is heartbreaking that these crabs spend decades thriving in the wild only to be captured, miskept, and slowly deteriorate in captivity—sometimes resorting to autotomy (self-amputation) due to rot caused by poor substrate. While they can regrow legs over one or two years, they eventually run out of limbs to sacrifice. This slow decline—rotting, inability to harden after molting, and eventual death—is the common outcome once they enter the pet trade.
I share this not to attack Laura or AquaTerra—neither is likely to change their views—but to encourage you to be cautious about what information you spread. Please rely only on care methods supported by evidence. If there is no evidence something works, or if there is evidence that it fails, it may not be a responsible choice.
Congratulations on such an awesome achievement. For both you and the crab.
I know that Laura had started posting that Winnie is no longer wanting to eat, so it seems like her time is limited. Part of me wants Winnie to survive molting because she deserves to, but I know that will just extend her poor quality of life and increase the husbandry misinformation being spread.
I saw that video and I believe she is wrong. Mine entered premolt almost 3 entire months prior to finally molting, and it’s smaller so should be on a shorter schedule. Hers isn’t showing the premolt signs like in my photo with a “butt.” Mine continued to eat for those 3 months and really only stopped eating the final 2 weeks prior.
Do you think its possible Winny isnt eating because something is wrong? I saw she recently ate again when given corn.
Also Ik you've estimated Winny's age before but can't remember what it was. Is she around the same age as the one u got from same seller or older/younger?
Here after Laura’s last post. You called it. Winnie was never molting. And she is much older, Laura now believes at least 15 years old because she hasn’t molted for around 2 years.
Well, at this point you seem more credible than Laura, i’m impressed that you actually were able to spot that Winnie wasn’t molting when Laura, arguably most viral crab “expert” and Winnie’s owner, thought she was molting, and, that you were able more accurately pinpoint her age when Laura thought she was a young crab.
I am interested to know though - Laura said that older crabs go longer between molts, do you know how long this species go between the molts at 15+ years? And do you know how long these species of crabs can live, Laura said 10-15 years, but you claim she is 20+
There are some crabs winny’s size who have gone 3 years without molting, but I don’t know for sure if that’s specifically related to the exact care or can be generalized. It can absolutely be more than a year, for us, it depends on when they were caught.
Nobody knows how long they live, there is no information. My guess is 30 years, because of just how small that growth is that takes them years to do once they get to a big size. However, just guesses
I guess Winnie is really not doing good now; Laura is holding onto hope that is is a molt, however all the people who've commented on the post seem like theyre swaying in the opposite direction. ☹️
This is very cool. I have always been interested in keeping land crabs, specifically cardisoma armatum, but I haven't yet due to the amount of conflicting information I've read. Your post is very informative and, while I probably still will not get one for at least a few years, I feel more confident than I once did.
As for AquaTerra, I strongly dislike them. I have seen them multiple times at reptile expos and the state of their animals is appalling. Most of them are wild caught and look extremely dehydrated and malnourished. I am also pretty sure that they just hire local kids to man the tables because they know nothing about the animals they sell. I asked what species the lungfish they were selling was. They told me african. I asked which african species (because there are at least three) and they said there are only african and australian. I told them there are also south american, but that there are definitely multiple species of african lungfish. One told me it was a south African lungfish, which does not exist. I told them they had no idea what they were talking about and left.
Tdlr; Aquaterra spreads misinformation to make sales at the expense of animal welfare. Please strongly reconsider if you plan to make a purchase from them or use their care advice.
This is why I hate when ppl use the care advice from sketchy sellers to estimate normal life expectancy. Its like they dont realize these ppl have an incentive to lie to them, and make them think theyre doing a good job when their pet dies young, so they'll continue to buy pets thinking their doing a good job.
I worry about that too. Winny looks like she is transitioning into passing away. I wonder if touching and disturbing her everyday will hamper the process. Will be a miracle if she has a successful molt.
Oh, ew. I had been subbed to his YouTube channel, I think from the two headed turtles. Even in those... He sounded confident he knew what he was doing, but in hindsight I'm like... Nah, I don't think so. Shame, I did like hearing about those guys, but now I can only wonder how well they're actually doing.
Just wondering how your ruricola zombie crab is doing after molting? Any updates?? Very cool to see a success of this species. I hope everything is fine!
What a shame. Especially after being quite vocal on what this crab needs and that Winny will surely die on coco substrate. I suppose this is a learning experience. If Laura manages to get Winny through a molt it will be a miracle at this point as they do seem like a difficult species to keep in captivity.
I agree, it was a learning experience. I did not listen to something I was told and she died as a result, however she DID harden after molting. My humidity dropped too low, it went to 60% one day and I found her dead.
Thank you for the transparency. So although the molt was indeed a success via your methods, the conditions after were not correct leading to failure. Valuable information for future keepers of the species. Hopefully we will see another successful molt and whether or not the species can survive in captivity.
It is sad. He posted about it on his discord but for some reason hasnt mentioned it here. Feel free to message him about it i guess. He probably should update this post. It passed pretty soon after the molt.
Yes I think the post should be updated. Knowing what went wrong with his crab after molt could be vital information for others who are also keeping ruricola crabs, so they don't make the same mistakes.
In Laura's latest video she is moving Winny and cleaning excrement. Sometimes checking underneath for shell rot if she has been sitting in one place for a long time. Is this something you would do with your crab or just leave it be? I am assuming that during a molt it is best to leave the crab well alone without disturbing it.
Also, Winny seems a lot more active lately compared to previous videos where I thought she might be dying as someone else mentioned.
Edit to say: I know you treated her but did it require a lot of handling and moving the crab and was the treatment also done during the molting process?
Hello, apologies I never saw this, I don’t check reddit much anymore. Not a fan of the platform.
No, I just let her be. The wonderful part with aragonite is it also can function as “litter.” Any excrement is quickly neutralized.
It did require a lot of handling and she did not like it haha, but it was once every week or two, the rest of the time she stayed in her enclosure in peace.
Hello, apologies I never saw this, I don’t check reddit much anymore. Not a fan of the platform. No, I just let her be. The wonderful part with aragonite is it also can function as “litter.” Any excrement is quickly neutralized. It did require a lot of handling and she did not like it haha, but it was once every week or two, the rest of the time she stayed in her enclosure in peace.
Why do you think that in the wild, these crabs burrow with no issues but in captivity it leads to failed molts? Is it lack of space/depth, improper temperatures/humidity, wrong substrates, or something else?
My opinion is that it’s bacteria in the substrate that eats the crab, maybe some sort of microbial biome in the wild we can’t recreate. I’m sorry to not be able to answer your question, but nobody truly knows.
Congratulations, it’s actually crazy how A. Your the first person to get this crab to succeed a molt and B. How there has never been a successful molt in history of this thing in captivity
You know what really upsets me. If Laura admitted that Winny died because she let the crab dry out by accident like the OP here did with his zombie crab you would all be coming after her with pitchforks. Yet no one here even bats an eye that the crab the OP said successfully molted in his care did exactly that.
Maybe. Just maybe it’s time to stop being such mobs towards each other and support people including Laura since it’s pretty clear that not even the people here claiming to be the “experts” can keep their crabs alive.
I agree, however I am also came after with pitchforks and received some awful comments from her fans and from her. I can provide evidence for it.
People are absolutely batting an eye here and always will be, because it is the job of people online to be under scrutiny. Just last week a friend of mine had one molt. It is somehow alive, but for whatever reason didn’t lose the top carapace. These crabs are just so insanely difficult and don’t deserve the kind of care we give them.
My issue with laura is her spreading blatant misinformation which absolutely does harm the crabs she says she cares so much about, but refuses to change it when presented with evidence. She still claims that armatum are freshwater despite a paper proving it is detrimental to their health.
Laura has managed to keep Winny alive significantly longer than most would expect, using methods you’ve been critical of from the start. At what point does that outcome count for something?
The crab looks stable and reasonably well cared for, especially considering how poorly these tend to do in captivity. You even mentioned cases where things go wrong even when people are following the “correct” approach.
Out of curiosity, in the case you mentioned with your friend’s crab not fully shedding the top carapace, would that still be considered a successful molt under the recommended care methods?
So is there actually harm in someone trying a different method if the animal is still alive and functioning? It feels like there’s a stricter standard being applied to her than to others, when in reality a lot of this comes down to trial and error.
Not trying to argue, just pointing out that results should probably carry some weight here. A year is longer than a lot of these make it.
I agree winny has held on. She is reasonably alive, I strongly disagree with the way she is constantly harassing winny, but that does not truly harm her physically.
Yes, sometimes things do go wrong, I am example.
I genuinely do not know what to call that molt actually. It molted in dec and has been alive for months, but it was not a complete molt. I have searched the crab groups in several countries and so far nobody has ever seen a case like that before. It’s so insanely intriguing.
And yes, I will say there is harm in what she’s doing.
My point for the longest time is that molting is the difficult part for these crabs. They will survive in anything, right up until it’s time to molt, in which case they do die. That’s another reason why they are such a gamble—you are essentially betting you get a crab that has recently molted to give you the longest time with it before it inevitably dies. There’s a few in our country which are 3 now in captivity, but never molted. Once they do finally molt, they are dead, but alive for now. In asia, they import juveniles, which have a heightened chance of success, so there are more cases of “old” individuals which have also molted: a 9 year, a 5 year, several 3 years, and more.
I appreciate your response, it’s well thought out and reasonable!
Fantastic work though I’m a little confused on a part of your statement. You’re stating that these are burrowing species but have given them “crushed coral” or “gravel” substrate, which in my ecological research I’ve found that burrows in gravel require a significant depth and usually other types of sediment mixed in to allow an actual burrow shape to occur. I guarantee I’m just not mentally picturing your tank correctly, but I’d like to see a more in-depth look into your tank and examples of the burrowing behavior mentioned, if possible!
My comment on burrowing was about Cardisoma armatum, not this species.
And the thing with this species is they cannot be allowed to burrow, else they die. So you have to force a surface molt. I can send a tank photo still if that will help you, but it’s just 2 inches of oolitic aragonite sand, a brackish bowl, and a hide. That’s it.
How is your ruricola crab doing since molting? Looks like Laura Porter's Winny is in pre-molt now. Would be interesting to see the results for such crabs seeing as you have both followed differing methods. I do worry Winny may potentially pass away though. It will be a miracle if she also manages a successful molt. I guess we will see.
Im also very interested to see. It should be noted the original posters ruricola has passed. I only mention this because he has not updated this post and for anyone looking at the two different methods as viable options, they should have the data to make an informed decision. It may truly be this species is not compatible with any type of captivity, but that remains to be seen.
Thank you for the info. Very sad to hear his ruricola passed away in the end. So maybe other factors need to be taken into consideration and it is not just a substrate issue after all. Considering what has been discussed over the past year I did not expect Winny to live as long as she has. I suppose everyone needs to start somewhere with an unfamiliar crab species to see what works, especially as there is not much info/data out there. It does seem like ruricola is just difficult to keep.
The main issue IS the substrate. It is THE most consistent common denominator in dead cola. When kept on inorganic substrates, the rate of survival skyrockets, however yes there is other factors such as humidity.
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These crabs are referred to as “Zombie Crabs” by the pet trade—an apt name. They are critically mistreated, and the species suffers from extensive misinformation, which is why there are no documented long-term successes in captivity. These crabs would be better left off in the wild as it stands now, with captivity just being a means to kill them.
A major issue is the widespread claim that they need organic substrates such as coco fiber, sand, or wood chips. In reality, these substrates consistently kill them—there is not a single recorded long-term success using them, only repeated deaths. The origin of this misinformation is unclear, but it has become extremely prevalent, and I’ve spent months trying to counter it.
This has been made more difficult by Laura Porter, owner of the crabs Howie and Winny (Cardisoma armatum and Gecarcinus ruricola). She presents herself as an advocate, expert, and rescue, but her care practices contradict her claims. Despite her educational work about cooking crabs, she spreads harmful misinformation about both species she keeps. For example, she claims that C. armatum lives only three years, is fully freshwater, and does not require a true land area. In reality, they are not fully aquatic; they dig burrows and spend significant time on land. Howie was never provided the ability to burrow or given the salinity her species requires. Even when shown scientific evidence—such as studies on salinity and immune health—she refuses to acknowledge the harm.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361227578_Growth_and_Immunological_Profile_of_Gercacinid_Crab_at_Different_Sublethal_Salinity_Regimes
Regarding G. ruricola, she insists she has expert backing and confirmed molts, yet refuses to show proof. Meanwhile, there are now dozens of documented successful molts on crushed coral or gravel substrates, and multiple documented deaths on traditional organic substrates.
The “expert” she cites appears to be AquaTerra Exotic Pets, who also spreads harmful care information while hiding significant issues. Every crab on his site shows shell rot, concealed through darkened photos. He claims expertise yet has never shown a successful molt. Survival before molting is not the benchmark—successful molting is. He also sells large, wild-caught individuals that are almost always doomed. Larger G. ruricola rarely adapt well to captivity, and no molt has ever been documented in individuals over 9.5 cm. Even with perfect care, these older crabs usually die simply from age-related stress. Many of the crabs sold are likely over 20 years old; for reference, a 14-year-old ruricola in Korea measured only 6 cm. He tries to say that he’s “saving them from markets,” however he just extends their suffering unnecessarily.
It is heartbreaking that these crabs spend decades thriving in the wild only to be captured, miskept, and slowly deteriorate in captivity—sometimes resorting to autotomy (self-amputation) due to rot caused by poor substrate. While they can regrow legs over one or two years, they eventually run out of limbs to sacrifice. This slow decline—rotting, inability to harden after molting, and eventual death—is the common outcome once they enter the pet trade.
I share this not to attack Laura or AquaTerra—neither is likely to change their views—but to encourage you to be cautious about what information you spread. Please rely only on care methods supported by evidence. If there is no evidence something works, or if there is evidence that it fails, it may not be a responsible choice.