I have two hermit crabs right now. I don't know why my past hermies are dying. I feed them, (the hermit crab diet) I spray them, I keep their water dishes full, I keep thier sponge wet, I use declorinated water, and I pay sooooooo much attention to them. I almost know everything about hermies, but I don't know why mine are dying. Please help!

This maybe a Dumb question but do you have plenty of bigger shells for them to go to?Sometimes they outgrow them quicker.Just a thought Good Luck and if you find the problem let us know what it is it may help someone else.

Hermie Lover,
My daughter has hermit crabs and we are having the same problem. She got her original crab right off the boardwalk on the east coast. It is reddish in color. He has lived for over a year. We keep getting crabs from the pet stores and they are brown in color and die in a very short time. (We live in the midwest) We keep getting the petstore crabs because the original crab will get into its shell and not come out for days and days unless he has company. We always provide a variety of shells and they change shells just like changing clothes! We also used bottle water, keep them warm, clean the aquarium gravel, we search the internet for information on how to care for the crabs and do everything we should. Maybe the red east coast crabs are just hardier that the brown crabs. If anyone else has any advice please help us. Hermit crabs are not expensive, but my daughter gets upset every time one dies.
Thanks,
Jude

DEB- Thanks for the advise. I think it'll work. All of the shells we have might be a little small. My hermits, Draco and Snitch, are quite the size. One is about the size of half a baseball, the other a quarter of a baseball. They've both lived about four months now. Do you have any hermies? I'd love to know!

JUDE- How are the brown hermits showing signs that they might be dead? I might be able to figure that one out. Oh, by the way, you original hermit might be killing them. One of the solutions might be to spend a little time with him/her. You might be able to get another oceanside crab to keep him company!

No not now.I used to.They are cool to have.I have been thinking of getting another.I haven't saw any in the petstores in quite awhile.
PS as big as half a baseball BOY I never saw one that big!

Hermie Lover,
I also thought the original crab was killing the new crabs and now I always buy new crabs that are bigger than the original one. We've had a new crab for a few weeks now and things are ok so far. I never know when the crabs are about to die. I do know that they come out of the shell and run around naked and within 24 hours they die. They are pretty ugly when they get naked. I have no idea how to tell a healthy crab from a sick one, do you? Do you have the red crabs or brown ones? I think the red one is prettier. Do you think the female crabs live longer than males? Our original red crab is female. Good luck.

I'm not what you would call an expert about hermit crabs, but i used to work at a pet store, and i do know alittle about them. Usually if a hermit crab is not in its shell ( comes completely out "naked"), it is looking for a new shell or a larger shell to move into. Usually you should have 1 empty shell the same size as the shell the crab is in now. You should also have at least 2 larger empty shells at all times in the hermit crabs cage. That might help alittle with your hermit problems. Good Luck