Small blue legged hermit crabs can survive outside of water and in freshwater

[clownfishmama]

So my blue legged hermit crab was still crawling around when he was outside wow! He fell into my freshwater tank and was STILL crawling! Took him out immediately, but it makes me wonder can they live outside of water and can they also live in freshwater?

 

[KrisReef]

I left a gorilla crab in a bucket for a month, in the garage where temps were going towards freezing most of the nights. He was still moving (barely) when I found him, oops. He ate a few corals so lets call it Karma.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

it makes me wonder can they live outside of water and can they also live in freshwater?

For a very, very brief time, yes - just like humans don't immediately die when submerged underwater, hermits and most other sea creatures don't immediately die when pulled out of water or put into freshwater; they will, like submerged humans, die if they're kept there though.

That said, while they can't survive permanently on land or in freshwater, they can survive in moderately low salinity brackish water indefinitely (it does cause stress, but not a quickly fatal amount).