HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Wow, that's a strong recommendation! About the smell, that's only in the bottle, yes? In other words, once the drops are in the water, there's no noticeable smell? Monitoring our water use, it looks like I really only need to make 1 gallon/week (1/2 gal each of fresh and saltwater). How do you ensur...

When I run out of the Top Fin water conditioner we use on our fish tank, I'm switching over to a complete remover. I've read the water FAQ and picked out four that I can get either locally or cheaply on Amazon, do crabbers have a preferred brand? The four are: Seachem Prime (priciest, and reviews co...

Thanks, that's why I wanted to pass the word, because this particular bag brand is mostly turbos and trochus if anyone is looking! The trochus shells all appeared to have broken openings and most of them looked too small or shallow for our crabs. My son thinks they look like little mountains and wan...

Thanks, KellyCrabbieLove. Right now I'm sitting at my computer in the dark and I can hear one of them knocking about. But of course when I turn on a dim light on the other side of the room for a peek, all commotion ceases! The first two days we had them, they were frequently out and about, that's wh...

@wodesorel, this is fantastic, thank you so much! A crustacean compost pile on a micro level, brilliant. For dinner tonight we had ramen with kale, tomato and hard boiled eggs, with watermelon for dessert; the hermit crabs are having the same (minus the noodles)! And I'm freezing the rest of the she...

Newbie here, on advice of the forum I checked out my Joann's and Michael's and made out like a bandit! Using 40% and 50% off coupons, I bought three bags for a grand total of $8. Wanted to share because the bags from Joann's had a TON of green turbos, and the bag from Michael's had a high proportion...

Re: the crabs being darling... the first night I was kind of creeped out, they looked like giant ants crawling around with their antennae waving! Hermit crabs were not my choice for pets, but dangit, I'm getting attached to the little guys already. They're kind of cute. ;) Speaking of which, new pic...

So the freeze dried strawberries I set out on the counter earlier started to rehydrate and now instead of a nice crispy treat they are chewy, lol. Perils of living in Central Florida, even in winter with the heat on the humidity in the house is 60%!

Okay, my questions are getting specific so I'm moving over from the new owners forum. :) On reviewing the safe food list, I'm tickled pink that hermit crabs can eat things that we normally keep in the house. I've done a few forum searches so I'm trying to ask questions I couldn't find specific answe...

@Crabinski, thanks for your help! I had a nice long reply written and the server ate it, so here's a (slightly) shorter version... UTH: The back of the tank is 20" wide. Should I splurge on an ultratherm 6x17 (what's the wattage?), or get a 6x11 (7 watts) and use it in conjunction with the mini (4 w...

Thank you both so much! I'll be checking out the links right away. Both crabs were active when we picked them up this evening. At home we threw together our 5.5 gallon tank with damp paper towels, a hide and stick, food and both kinds of water for them to hang out while we mixed up substrate in the ...

KellyCrabbieLove gave me some good info over in the Emergency forum, but since I'm now off topic I'm moving my discussion over here. Since we lost the hermie my son's science teacher sent home, we decided to try again. We're adopting my girlfriend's two, below is what I posted about them before. Wha...

KellyCrabbieLove, so much good info, thank you! I was talking with a girlfriend today, her kids have lost interest in her two hermit crabs and she offered them to us along with the tank. She says they're "hardy" which is to say that out of the original batch of six, these two have stayed alive for t...

AutumnHermie, he's definitely dead, Dad confirmed the fishy smell. I'm usually not squeamish but after the effort I put in all week I couldn't bring myself to sniff. I was so excited when he seemed to revive for the oats and honey! Thanks for following up. KellyCrabbieLove, it's frustrating that som...

All Living Things brand was the "hermit crab starter kit" that contained "cypress bedding sample". I remember specifically reading on various websites not to use cedar , but I didn't see anything about cypress either way. I checked when Dad brought home the kit. BTW I forgot to say thank you, everyo...