A less desirable part of pet ownership involves cleaning up hermit crab poop and pee (waste.) If you decide to get hermit crabs, you’ll need to remove fecal matter and urine from their tanks.
Hermit crabs produce black or brown poop inside their shells. Then, they use their rearmost legs to flick this solid, long, and thin waste onto the substrate. Urine is expelled from behind the antenna.
Also, hermit crabs practice coprophagy, which involves eating their feces and that of other animals.
Hermit Crab Poop Information
Hermit crabs must excrete their waste to stay healthy. So, constipated hermit crabs will be in distress.
Hermit crabs detect food using their antennae. Using their claws (chelipeds), they spoon food into their mouths. Then, small mouthparts grind this up, and the mashed food is passed to the gut.
Within 1-2 days, any processed food is released as droppings. Hermit crabs poop regularly without your realizing it, as it’s a private activity for them.
Do Hermit Crabs Poop in Their Shell?
Hermit crabs pass feces within their shells. They have an anus, known as the telson, at the base of their anatomy. As you’d expect, this is where fecal matter exits the gut.
Hermit crabs remain in their shell while pooping because they feel vulnerable. They can’t flee, so they maintain a constant state of high alert.
Hermit crabs know that leaving their shells to poop puts their lives in grave danger.
A hermit crab that isn’t protected by a shell would be plucked from the sand by a passing seagull. Even in captivity, a dominant hermit crab may steal its shell while it sits unoccupied.
As a result, hermit crabs eliminate within the shell. The hermit crab squirms around to move the fecal matter to the top of the shell. This sounds unsanitary, but hermit crabs are particular about cleanliness.
This is why the fecal matter is expelled from the shell. Hermit crabs use their short, rearmost legs to flick waste out of their shell every day or two.
Then, hermit crabs bathe in saltwater to clean their shells.
What Does Hermit Crab Poop Look Like?
Healthy hermit crab poop will be black or dark brown, about 10-15 mm long, and sausage-shaped. It’ll usually be long and curl to the right.
Hermit crab poop often features white flecks. In some cases, the waste will be pure white. This usually results from eating cuttlebone, which isn’t a concern.
The poop of hermit crabs varies. Some will leave smaller droppings that are more spherical, while others may leave a larger deposit, especially after recovery from constipation.
Hermit crab poop is flicked out of the shell, which may account for varying shapes and sizes. Your hermit crab may not be able to access all waste in one movement.
Some waste may also have been washed out in its saltwater bath.
Does Hermit Crab Poop Smell Bad?
Hermit crab waste doesn’t have any discernable scent, so it shouldn’t be related to excrement if you notice a strong smell coming from a hermit crab tank.
If it does, this suggests that spot cleaning has lapsed for too long. Hermit crab poop may not smell to the human nose, but it’ll attract mold and bacteria.
In theory, this isn’t bad, as a hermit crab aquarium can become a thriving ecosystem. Hermit crabs eat insects, which, in turn, eat other smaller insects. Unfortunately, not all visitors to the enclosure are equal.
As per the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, more insects in a habitat increase the likelihood of parasites. If parasites are uncontrolled, they become the dominant species.
If you can smell poop, something is amiss. Equally concerning is the attraction of flies to fecal matter, as a fly infestation can be a real nuisance. The flies will lay eggs that produce larvae.
Do Hermit Crabs Poop a Lot?
Hermit crabs eat daily and have small stomachs. How often do hermit crabs poop? At least once – and often multiple times – per day.
They won’t go to the toilet in public, so they may pass waste while climbing, playing, or sleeping.
Cast a cursory eye over the substrate each morning while your pets sleep. You should find droppings, which suggest that the bowels of hermit crabs are functioning normally.
You may find that the quantity of waste produced by your hermit crabs fluctuates, which is diet-related. As per Animal Behavior, hermit crabs rarely eat the same thing twice in 24 hours.
Of course, different foods have varying effects on the digestive process of hermit crabs. For example, large quantities of fresh fruit will result in more waste due to the amount of soluble fiber.
Do Hermit Crabs Eat Their Own Poop?
Hermit crabs eat their own waste and that of tankmates, which is known as coprophagy. If you keep marine hermit crabs, they’ll eat fish feces. As omnivorous scavengers, hermit crabs aren’t fussy about what they consume.
When they have saltwater, a hermit crab’s sense of smell is enhanced, which no doubt plays a part in the consumption of fecal matter. While their waste smells neutral to us, it may smell like food to hermit crabs.
No harm is caused by hermit crabs consuming feces, as they’ll benefit from a second serving of essential vitamins and minerals. The only exception is if one of your hermit crabs has recently deceased.
Hermit crabs can die for a range of reasons, including toxicity. If a hermit crab ate something poisonous and expired, it may have gone to the toilet during the process. This increases the risk of another hermit crab consuming the toxins on a secondary level.
If you find a dead hermit crab in your tank, clean out the entire aquarium.
How to Clean Up Hermit Crab Poop
Hermit crabs are clean animals, so they’ll only tolerate so much poop in their enclosure. Spot cleaning is essential; you’ll also need to thoroughly clean the habitat.
Spot cleaning involves putting on rubber gloves and grabbing a bag. Pick out any waste that you see and throw it away. Never leave this lying around, waiting for your hermit crabs to eat it. Excrement left too long will attract germs, bacteria, and flies.
Don’t forget to check the bathing water because hermit crabs use this to clean poop off their shells. This could leave waste floating in the water. Change the water at least once a day.
Every three months, conduct a full deep clean of the habitat. This involves cleaning the walls thoroughly and replacing the substrate. Wash any dishes, toys, and decorations in boiled water.
Hermit Crab Pee Information
Hermit crab urine takes a slightly different form to excrement but is more common.
As hermit crabs have small bodies, they can only retain so much water. Hermit crabs hydrate several times a day, which is achieved through the following:
- Scooping water from a dish into the mouth.
- Submerging in a pool to bathe, swallowing water in the process.
- Drinking water that’s stored in the shell to keep the gills moist.
The urine of hermit crabs is rarely wasted; it may be recycled in shell water and drank later.
How Do Hermit Crabs Pee?
Hermit crabs don’t urinate from the anus. Instead, antennal glands close to the eyes are used to pee. You may never see this happen because hermit crabs can urinate without leaving their shells.
Hermit crabs aren’t fussy about where they urinate; they may pee on substate, against walls, or into a litter tray. Some hermit crabs urinate in their shells, although this is uncommon.
Hermit crabs frequently recycle urine into the water; the urine will be safe to reuse and drink as long as they haven’t consumed chlorine or heavy metals. All the same, it’s necessary to change their water regularly.
Hermit crabs may pee on you during handling due to fear stimulus, so wear gloves or wash your hands thoroughly after handling hermit crabs.
Do Hermit Crabs Pee a Lot?
Hermit crabs urinate regularly, but they do so in such small amounts that it’s virtually invisible to the naked eye. You could watch a hermit crab for hours and never realize it has gone to the toilet.
Hermit crabs are territorial and gravitate to assigned areas, which suggests they use urine to mark territory. The scent may be neutral to the human nose but is detected by fellow hermit crabs.
Sometimes, leaking shell water can be mistaken for hermit crab urine. If you see running water, this is almost certainly not urine. As discussed, hermit crabs are incapable of generating such power.
Ensure your hermit crab is not drying out through water loss.
Does Hermit Crab Pee Smell Bad?
Hermit crab urine should have a neutral scent. Hermit crabs release ammonia gas when urinating, but not enough to create a distinctive smell.
If your hermit crab aquarium smells of urine, you’re likely not cleaning enough. The substrate of the habitat may play a part, as play sand absorbs urine smells.
Check the water pools of hermit crabs; if they haven’t been changed for a day or two, they may become pungent. The water will stagnate, with the smell of urinary waste coming to the fore.
How to Clean Up Hermit Crab Pee
As with poop, you’ll need to spot-clean the enclosure of hermit crabs daily. Unlike feces, you can’t pick up pee. So, you’ll need to employ a slightly different approach.
Wait for your hermit crabs to wake up to avoid disturbing them. Take a spoon and stir around the substrate to prevent pools of urine from congealing in one place. Consider pouring filtered water on the substrate because hermit crabs will appreciate the moisture.
Raking the substrate with a fork will also be beneficial. Periodically wipe down walls and decorations, too. Hermit crabs release urine all over their habitat, whether by accident or design.
Hermit crabs pee and poop, so always clean the habitat of hermit crabs regularly.
