When a person first starts crabbing they are faced with a lot dilemmas. Today we are going to talk about the dilemma of molting. A new crabber has a couple of strikes against him or her right from the beginning. First, molting is a mystery when you've never experience molting crabs or hermit crabs who like to go under and tunnel or camp and not come up for days. Second, a new crabber has to buy new crabs and a new crab behaves oddly for the first 3-6 weeks after you bring them home. So you've got a person that has no experience with molters watching over a tank of stressed out crabs that really like to dig. It's an anxiety attack waiting to happen.

My first crab was actually a foster crab. My Aunt Karen had asked me to pick up a jumbo crab for her from the mall and bring it with me the next time I visited. So he was suppose to live with me only a few short weeks. Well, two weeks into my fostership I started doing research and realized that hermit crabs were fascinating. Caries (the name my aunt eventually gave that hermit crab) became less and less active, I decided that he was depressed and went out and purchased 3 small PP (purple pincher or C. Clypeatus) hermit crabs to keep him company.

He perked up immediately! They were a lot of fun and eventually Caries made it to live with my Aunt and her other two Jumbos and I went back home to a ten gallon with the three hermit crabs (Peace, Blue, and 8-Ball). Well the three of them disappeared and I sat and wondered. For six straight weeks. Finally one day, I walked by the crabitat and all three were on the surface looking freshly molted. It was a happy day!

However, a crab can dig and dig and dig and come up weeks later, never having molted, she's just being active. While technically that's a good thing, it can be frustrating. I'm going to give you an illustrated guide on how to tell if your hermit crab is freshly molted.

A hermit crab is hairy. Did you know that? When their exoskeleton is fresh they have lots of hairs and even tiny eyelashes.

My favorite spot is that tuft of hair just inside their pinchers. Over time the hair wears off. Here is a picture of the same crab that is shown above but this was taken last spring, before he molted.

Notice how in the post-molt picture all the hair has been worn off and how the coloring at the ends of the leg is faded. Also you can see that the very tip of his walking leg has been worn smooth and the black nail tip is missing from the end of his leg. That is an excellent indicator of the molting status of any crab. A freshly molted crab will have a black and shiny "tip" on the end of all of its legs as well as the big pincher and little pincher. This, like the hair, gets worn away during the normal course of crab activity.

So that is one less mystery to be solved. If your crab that has just come up from a 12 day dig isn't sporting leg hair and a black shiny nail tips, odds are he was just digging for fun. Now smaller crabs don't get quiet as hairy as jumbo crabs do, but the nail tips are the same for both. So next time don't wonder, give your hermit crab a once over and know for sure what he has been doing down there!

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I answer a lot of question from new crabbers, both here, on Crab Street Journal and on allexperts.com. One of the things that frustrates me the most about new crab owners is the poor information that they get sent home with. I know that I've talked at length about gravel, and heat/humidity. But there is one element of the "new crab kit" that just wont die. The sponge. I don't know exactly why crabbers hang onto these for as long as they do, but I wanted to take a few minutes to debunk the "all powerful" sponge.

Some people add sponges in an effort to help regulate their humidity. While this does work to a degree, it has a number of drawbacks which do not make a sponge worth the trouble. Humidity can be effectively maintained using a DIY humidifier or some piles of natural moss. Sponges must be removed and sterilized in the microwave ever 24-36 hours to prevent a harmful bacterial buildup. This isn't a problem for the other humidity solutions.

The other reason that people add sponges to their hermit crab tanks is because they have been told that hermit crabs can only drink from sponges (NOT TRUE!) and that they can drown in too much water, which is also false. Hermit crabs are equipped to deal with pools of water similar to the water they would encounter in their natural environment. They do not need a sponge to act as a safety mechanism. Now if you have a very deep pool and some very small crabs, you might provide something for them to climb out on, but even in that instance, a sponge is not your best choice.

Finally, filling your water dish with a sponge makes it impossible for your crabs to get into the water and get water into their shells. This is important for their overall health as they keep their shell water regulated to lubricate their abdomen and keep their gills moist.

So next time someone tells you that you must have a sponge in your tank, tell them no thanks, you've found a way to do everything a sponge could do, without any of the hassle!

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"Is it safe to keep my big hermit crab and my little hermit crab together?" I get this question a lot. In fact I've even been told by pet store associates that you should NOT keep different sizes of crabs together. Well today, I'd like to set the record straight. It is perfectly fine to put all types of hermit crabs together. The only thing that you must do to keep them happy is provide hiding and climbing areas that are appropriate for all the sizes you have as well as a much larger variety of shells.

It is true that I have had a few instances of aggression in my crabitat but every single instance (three) the aggression occurred between crabs that were roughly the same size.

You can also keep different species together without problems as long as you offer a bit wider variety of diet and take into account that different species like different types of shells. The only exception to this is Straws (C. Perlatus) and they too can be incorporated into your tank but it does take a bit more accomodating that the other species. I'm going to address these species-specific issues in a future post.

So if you've got some big guys and want some little guys or you just think that you might be ready for that large or jumbo, know that as long as your tank is big enough, you're in good shape. Adopt away!