HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Honestly I think it comes down to there being very little crossover between experienced fishkeepers and hermit crab keepers. Crabbers who got live zoea and wanted to attempt raising them pretty much gave themsleves a crash course in kreisels and water chemistry and they didn't have a background in a...

Those look great!!

So for a standard 48x24 inch tank, it's roughly 1 inch of substrate depth per 50 pound bag of sand. With most tanks the formula isn't this easy!

If you're going with turbo shells, then matching the size they're in now would actually give them the right amount of room because of the difference in shape and volume. The smaller one probably needs at least a 1 inch opening, and the larger one would do great with 1&1/16 or 1&1/8 if you can find t...

Heat lamps get a lot hotter than a good quality UTH will, hot enough to cause immediate burns and catch things on fire. I've registered 400+ degrees surface temps on red lamps before, while Ultratherms max out at around 140 even without using a thermostat. You won't be able to get enough heat inside...

My experience is similar to Joe's, if there's guaranteed no sign by four months I get really worried as well. There is no benefit to digging to check though other than to satisfy that concern. Sometimes I've been able to hold out for a while just for safety's sake, other times I went with my gut and...

Freshly picked millet straight from the plant should be left out to fully dry before packaging, the moisture content can be high enough to cause mold for a while until it's dried out enough. (I used to run sorghum sprays through the dehydrator for 24 hours on low to make the process a bit faster.) I...

If everything is at zero it sounds like your tanks haven't actually had a chance to cycle yet. Cycling involves waste (ammonia) being digested and turned into nitrites, which in turn is digested and turned into relatively harmless nitrates. The bacteria that do this digesting have to have a food sou...

Yes, I'd say these are rugosus as well.

I like coconut huts, a $3 fresh coconut from Walmart nets two huts and enough coconut to freeze for a year. My crabs really like cork bark tubes for hiding and eating, depending on where you buy from they usually aren't too expensive, especially shops that charge by the pound because they're super l...

If the substrate has been moistened to where it holds shape without dripping water (playsand and/or cocofiber, not sand sold for hermit crabs) and the lid has been covered over with plastic of some sort, then humidity should be high enough to be safe. It's not a guarantee, but it will generally hold...

Is the discoloration where the edge of his shell rests when he's either pulled in tight or in a normal resting position? The coloration of their exoskeleton is on the very outside, so they can scrape themselves just enough to where the more inner white part is exposed.

A general location would be good so people know if they're local to you, just in case your area code doesn't match where are!

They're more equatorial, so temp and humidity steady at 80/80% is a good idea - whereas purple pinchers can handle more extremes and swings. They won't have as long of a lifespan in captivity either though there's been no clear understanding as to why that happens with "exotic" species. Lilas were v...

Definately not purple pinchers. My gut instinct is Lila. That you got them randomly and for the same price as PPs would be extremely surprising. It would be more likely that they'd be either Ruggies (but that's a huge crab) or Violas (but the eyes don't quite match), so I do doubt it's either of tho...