The Not-So-Great Hermit Crab Rescue

I did what I could.

Photo by Ahmed Sobah on Unsplash

When I was a child, I had a pet hermit crab I named “Clipper.” We had a family dog, but Clipper was mine. He lived in a ten-gallon tank in my bedroom, where I spent a good portion of my time reading books and listening to WXIL, the Parkersburg radio station, on my clock radio.

Like all crabs, the hermit crab is a decapod — it has five pairs of legs, including a pair of claws. The hermit crab uses its claws for defense and food shredding as well as eating. The second and third pairs of legs help the crab walk, and the last two pairs hold the hermit crab in its shell.

Hermit crabs are not that difficult to care for. They are nocturnal, need salt water (not iodized) for bathing, fresh water (not tap) for drinking, and they are foragers. Hermit crab foods are available for purchase, but they also like lettuce, grapes, small amounts of meat, etc.

Hermit crabs “borrow” discarded shells of other creatures to protect their softer “tail” end, and they love to climb and explore. They will fight over the “right” shell and will wait in line to try one on. Just as we choose our clothing according to fit, comfort, and style, hermit crabs deliberate also about their shells.

On a recent excursion to North Myrtle Beach, SC, I popped into several souvenir beach shops in the region for browsing and end-of-season sales. Three of them offered “free hermit crabs” with the purchase of a plastic “habitat.” Besides the point that hermit crabs are not native to the Myrtle Beach area, I was horrified to discover that all the hermit crabs were in painted shells, with only painted shells to “upgrade” to.

When did that travesty begin?

In the past fifteen years, Hermit Crabs have been sold in painted shells in Australia and the US. Fifteen years! It is unnatural and unhealthy for hermit crabs to have painted shells. Hermit crabs breathe in toxic fumes generated by painted shells, leading to suffocation. This is a slow – and painful – way for hermit crabs to die. Some painted shells have paint that bubbles and flakes. Hermit Crabs often eat the shell to modify it so that it fits them better. Often the paint colors the water they are supposed to drink or is worn off when they dig in the sand substrate in their crabitat.

And, it’s so terribly tacky.

Because it was the end of the season, the in-store metal crab cages held the “unchosen” crabs, and in one store, had no salt water for bathing, no substrate for digging or hiding in, no environment for molting, and no natural shells to choose from. The paint on their shells had flaked through the summer season, rubbed, or worn off in some places. Had they been warm and fuzzy creatures, their situation would have been the source of outrage.

It’s like seeing puppies with mange in cages wearing their collars too tight.

I bought four hermit crabs from the cage, a crappy plastic container for them, and bought natural shells for those I purchased AND those I placed in the store’s cage. “Hermit crabs shouldn’t live in painted shells,” I told the store owner. “I’m putting these extra natural shells in your cage so those still in there can move up.”

Clearly, I wasn’t the first to inform him of the problem, but I bet I was the first one to spend $20 on natural shells just to leave them in the store. I informed other store owners selling painted hermit crabs as I encountered them, and spent $20 on shells in two additional stores to leave behind and make my point.

If it seems a bit drastic, consider this: within 30 minutes of having natural shells available to them, three of the four hermit crabs I purchased moved out of their painted shells. Within three days, the one that didn’t move died.

At that point, I had spent $40 for three hermit crabs, and $60 on natural shells left behind. And though I had not intended to adopt three hermit crabs, I spent another $150 for a crabitat and supplies on Amazon so they could move out of the too-small, crappy plastic bin when we arrived home.

Within a day of being placed in their proper home, Spike and Tarzan changed shells again. Pepper buried himself in the substrate to start the molting process.

They might not have tails to wag, but I know they are happier than they have been in a long time.

Do not paint hermit crab shells, turtle shells, or any kind of shell for that matter. It harms the creature, and anyway — aren’t they naturally pretty enough?