Bathing hermit crabs?

[bobo]

In the crab care section under water and bathing, it says to "Rotate the hermit crab so that the mouth of its shell is facing the ceiling, then slowly place the hermit crab on the bottom of the "bath tub", keeping them in that position.
Eventually, your hermit crab should come out of its shell to see what's going on. As it starts walking on the bottom of the "bath tub", its shell water is flushed out. Take your hermit crab out of the bath and place them into the container with a towel to dry for a few minutes before returning them to your main terrarium." Ive never done this, I just dunk the crab in water then put it in the drying station. How long can you actually keep the hermit crab underwater for, wont it drown?

[emmac350]

It shouldn't take more than around a minute or so. If your crab refuses to come out (as I have had two do before), as long as you're sure that their shells have gotten water in them (you can usually see a bubble), they should be okay to move. I had two guys who wanted nothing to do with me or the bath and just pretended nothing happened until I put them back into the tank.

[bobo]

I didnt know that they could hold their breath for so long! wow!

[crabcrazygal]

one of my friends said that she had a hermit crab when she was in year three, and she decided to give it a bath, and put it in the water, and left it there for like 5 minutes, then realised it had died.
in a way i guess it was for the best, because she was keeping it in a icecream container, and fed it weetbix, and had no intentions of changing its living arangments

[CrabbyJo]

Sounds as if the crab had died before she put it in the water.

A crab can be submerged for a couple of minutes, but will try to get out if they are beginning to drown.

When bathing mine (which I've only done for mites and for moving to a tank with other crabs), I'll put them with the shell hole up, and wait till they pop out and right themselves so it flushes the shell water well. With mites, I'd make them do it twice.

Generally, if you offer a pool deep enough for them to submerge, you don't need to bathe them, they'll take care of it themselves.

[crabcrazygal]

hmmm that is a very plausable possibility. when i bathe my crabs, i wait till they are poking there heads out of there shells, then i dunk them in with the hole of the shell facing up.

[HermitOrCrabs]

Its said to be very stressful for hermit crabs. I do every Tuesday, but for just about 1 minute.

[CrabbyJo]

If you provide them with a fresh water pond deep enough for them to submerge in, then you never need to bathe them.