Hermit Crabs!? Why aren't they active!?

Question

hi. i have four hermit crabs and when i take them out of the cage they will walk around but they go into their shells at the slightest movement. Is there a way to get them to not be so scared?

and when i put them back they always will go bury themselves in the sand and not come out unless i take them out, they don't have signs of molting but just always bury. and at night i will smooth out the sand to see if they come out and they don't! why aren't they being so active... also i never see them climb. i have been up at like one in the morning and they won't be doing anything!

Please help with my hermies!

Also i have white beach sand as they're substrate but it sticks to them a lot. is that ok? i didn't really want the playsand cuz it looked to messy and it had little pebbles that could get stuck in the shells.

Thanks!!!!

Answer 1

Hermit crabs are more active at night. They are skittish creatures and I'm afraid that's just the way God made them.

Answer 2

i completly understand where your coming from...i've had duzzens of hermit crabs over the years..(mainly for show)...and well the suckish truth is..there not very active creatures...i would'nt advise them for a pet you want to be active....but..i few things you could try to get them to move a little more offten is to ad some cool features..like maybe some plastic palm trees or obsticles..i had a freind who even got a 20 gallon filled with 15 hermits..and added a WATERFALL..the key is to just have fun and experiment with good ideas....good luck!

Answer 3

Hermit crabs require much more care than you'd think.  It might not be warm enough if you don't have some form of a heater for the tank and that would make them much more inactive.  In nature they live in a tropical environment.  They love live plants which can be grown in the tank with coco fiber as the substrate.  I just get the plants from somewhere like home depot of lowe's because they have some tropical plants for decent prices.  They also need the tank to be pretty humid and taking them out of the tank isn't doing them any favors.  You can cover the tank with glass to keep the humidity in.  Water must be dechlorinated with one of the products you buy from the pet store.  Leaving the water over night doesn't get rid of everything.    I don't think you can make them any less scared just because as a person you are hundreds of times bigger than the hermit crab so their natural reaction is to hide.  They need a light on during the day even though they are nocturnal so they have an idea of a day night pattern.  I don't know how big you're tank is, but if it's large enough you could buy driftwood, which they love to climb on, from most pet stores.  You say that they're in a cage (I don't know if you mean it literally), but it is much better to keep them in a glass tank (like a fish tank) because it makes it easier to keep the humidity and temperature up.  They will be most active and brave when you mimic they're natural environment as closely as possible.

http://www.crabbytalk.com/05202005/light...     this site has specifics on what the humidity and temperature should be