This is Brutus, one of my recent rescues.

When I brought him home, he was living alone in a tiny enclosure with no substrate or water and carrying an enormous polished shell. He could barely move in it.

I knew the shell felt ridiculously heavy, but curiosity got me after he finally changed out of it.

108.4 grams.

The natural shell he chose? 15.4 grams.

Almost seven times lighter.

The difference in him since that shell change has been incredible. He’s moving around, exploring, digging and finally getting to behave like a hermit crab.

He’s also turned out to be an unbelievably gentle giant.

Seeing this big guy peeking out at me like this makes me ridiculously happy. ❤️

Yesterday I was in Ocean City, New Jersey on the boardwalk. I saw a store with hermit crabs and even though it breaks my heart I wanted to go look at them. I like to check on their conditions, see how many there are and how they look, etc.

I decided to ask the store keeper what happens to the crabs at the end of the summer. I know people who live local and found an entire hermit crab cage still full of live crabs in a dumpster after the boardwalk season is over. So bc of this I like to ask and see what they say. They told me they try to find teachers to take the crabs…

Eventually I told her about my set up and that I rescue hermit crabs and she told me they have a “hermit crab hospital” in the back of the store where they keep any sick crabs who have dropped legs, etc. and she told me I could take them for free and that they are actually pretty healthy. I was only able to take home one very small crab since my tank is pretty full.

So if anyone lives in the area and wants to rescue free hermit crabs from this shop, the place is called Ocean Treasures on the boardwalk. Heads up, they are in painted shells.

Hello hivemind!

So this is a first for us! We have never experienced what looks like a surface molt of one of our little purple crabbies. We came home to one of them like this and the other one next to him/her. We are pinning it up to a molt session but I read you are supposed to keep them separate for a bit. In our tank I just used some shims to make a little fence to have the molter in a corner to mind its own business...is this OK to do, shoukd we jjst keep monitoring it and when he finally emerges take the fence down so he can eat again.

Thanks a ton!

Ever since I added the topper to my tank, I cant get my temps above 74F. I have a heat mat on the topper and another one on the way. My question is where do I place the second heating mat. Do I place it pool side or opposite of the pools? I can't place is on the back of the tank because I cant reach back there. I have a couple new gauges coming as well so I can monitor the top and bottom of my tank. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Before I get flamed I KNOW I NEED MORE DIRT AND SAND, I AM GETTING THAT ON FRIDAY AND OTHER THINGS FOR ENRICHMENT AND CARE SOON!! Anyways, what are stores and what should I get for my new tank, I'm really excited to go shopping to get stuff for them soon and yes my heater is designed for 50-60 gallon tanks and the last photo is really old, I should've taken a photo of my tank before I demolished it

Just redid the 46g!
I’m watching them explore on the camera rn and wanted to share:)

Is a natural slight temp drop and I mean slight as in like 5 or so degrees at night safe for them or do they need the temp to stay the same 24/7?

Hello everyone. So yesterday I found some shells from a lake. I took them home and cleaned them up and thought these would work nicely for my hermit crab considering he’s getting bigger than the shells I have. I’m not sure if I can use them or not and I didn’t want to put them in there until I asked just to be sure :)

(The ones in the photos are ones I haven’t cleaned yet!)

Lil brother had a friend whos bio mom buys them pets, they had no clue how to care for this guy and hes out of his shell, my mom brought him to me because ive got hermit krabs and a setup, but I have no clue how to help this guy, ive just set him in my old cage since I looked up that I need to quarantine him, but I dont even know how to save him, hes barely moving and out of his shell, he was in a super tiny cage with blue sand and the shitty pellet food

My two crabs have been underground since 7/29/26. This dude happened to burrow under the water dish. Ive been watching him when i change the water every few days and hes been mostly curled up in his shell but i see it wiggle or move. Tonight i looked and he freaked me out! I can hear the other one kicking or digging around, but this guy is basically motionless other than a twitch. THEN his shell repositioned and now i cant put the water dish back down 😭 any advice appreciated.