Crabbytalk.com - Hermit Crab Care, food/diet, crabitats, & pictures of land hermit crabs

This is one of my Cavipes, Mr. Carrot. He’s my mom’s favorite crabby. Someone on the HCA had posted that they hadn’t seen many pictures of Cavipes, so I thought I would post a few.

This is Houdini, he was my first Cav. He was very social, but as soon as he changed out of the awful painted shell he got shy on me. This was about the same time that I got Mr. Carrot. My two Cavipes do not socialize at all. In fact, I can usually find them at opposite ends of the tank. I don’t post two many pictures of them because they are usually in hiding during the day, unlike my ruggies who are out at all hours. You can see the other few Cavipe pictures I have here.

This is Mortimer. Unfortunately, he was only with me for a few days. I’ve found that Cavs tend to be very delicate too; I’ve lost three within days of bringing them home.

I’ve had my Indo Gomez for three months. He’s pretty unsocial, prefers to spend his time alone in the vines. The last week and a half he has been spending a lot of time in the salt water pool. It started with him taking extended dips. Then he would sit for long periods of time in the salt water and extend way out of his shell.

I left town for a couple of days and came home to him naked in the salt water pool; I thought he was dead, but he moved when I opened the tank. He climbed on the coral in the pool, so I gently moved him, the coral, and his shell to the shell changing area. He reshelled quickly and went back down by the pool. Back in the pool he went and within a few minutes he was naked again. I started preparing ISO and when I returned to the tank he was still naked and one of my ruggies was checking him out. I gently scooped him up on a clam shell with his shell and put him in ISO. Within minutes he was back in his shell. Crazy crab.

I’ve read a lot of posts on naked Indos and none of them sounded very good. My temp and humidity in my main tank is 78-80. I’ve read some posts that Indos prefer cooler temps, so I’ve got the ISO around 73 with the humidity at 78 ISO. I put some mango, organic honey, and coconut in with him and he was on the food dish eating (I hardly ever see him eat). I’m hoping he’s going to molt, but I don’t know, while he was naked I looked for a molt sac, but didn’t see any. I’m going to keep the tank on the cooler side to see if he improves. I’m also thinking that I might get some forest bedding for him.

Ethoxyquin is an antioxidant used as a preservative in many popular hermit crab and fish foods. It’s believed that Ethoxyquin leads to deformities in hermit crabs during the molting process. Essentially, Ethoxyquin blocks the good vitamins and minerals from entering the hermit crab’s system. The long term effects of this are really unknown.

This is one of my tiny PPs post molt. I suspect his discoloration, deformed eyes, and missing big pincher are a result of Ethoxyquin. While my crabs have had very little Ethoxyquin while in my care, I suspect that all the food that they received after being harvested and housed in the pet store contained Ethoxyquin. From my discussions with other crabbers, EQ’s effects can last for up to two years. I have had many successful molts, so the only thing that I can assume is that the preservative has more of a negative affect on tiny crabs. Other than his obvious physical deformation, he’s doing fine.

So what can we do to prevent this? Well, stop feeding crabs foods that contain Ethoxyquin. This preservative may be listed on the label, but since there is no regulation on pet food labels, many times it’s not. Popular foods like FMR, T-Rex Crab Island, and most fish flakes all contain EQ.

Start feeding your crabs fresh foods. If you look in the diet category of this site you can find a lot of alternatives to packaged hermit crab food. If you must feed packaged foods, consider Jurassi Diet or Hikari brand, neither contain Ethoxyquin.

As I mentioned, most hermit crab foods do not list Ethoxyquin on their labels. So don’t think that just because it’s not listed you’re food is Ethoxyquin free. Instead of buying commercial crab food, try this recipe to make your own hermit crab food. When in doubt, call the manufacturer or post a question on the Hermit Crab Association.

Please read the comments below to see more information on Ethoxyquin.