HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Our E's arrived right on time this morning & I couldn't be more pleased! They came out of their packaging just as friendly and outgoing as if they had lived in my tank for years. They've been zooming around the tank all day making friends (I hope) with the resident PP's. My son named them Shipwreck ...

I think you're on the right track to just take out everything that can be removed. Maybe try to peek underneath to see if you can tell where your buried crab is? You're definitely going to need a second person to help with the actual move though - damp substrate is heavy! Good luck!

Thanks! I actually had the shells up on one of the built in shelves initially, but the crabs never showed much interest in them when they were there. Having the shells on the ground is a nuisance, but when I moved the moss pit up to the same shelf, there were crabs in it constantly and a few shell c...

One more day to go - waiting is so hard!!! I talked to Tammy yesterday & she was awesome. She offered me a choice on male/female & said they will be labeled so that we won't have to figure it out on our own. She says that many of the females have eggs right now & warned that their E's tend to be pre...

Thanks! Yep, the plants are all fake, although I keep the moss pit (top shelf) full of java moss that I remove every few weeks from my aquariums. The crabs love to pick at it, although I suspect they are just eating the little bits of algae (and occasional red cherry shrimp that didn't get off in ti...

While awaiting my two new Ecuadorians, I took advantage of the rest of the gang being above ground to do a nice thorough surface cleaning & add some fresh substrate. I thought I'd post a few pics before they trash it. The tank is a 50 gallon tall with about 10 inches of EcoEarth/sand mix. It has a c...

I went to the Hermit Crab Patch website a few days ago to order some food & saw their notice that this will be their last year selling live crabs. I drug my husband over to the computer & said "see, it's now or never!". He rolled his eyes, but agreed with me that yes, we'd better order 2 E's since w...

Wow- busy summer! Take those last 3 days before school starts and just chill if you can. Ps. I thought I read "leave for India", not Indiana & thought "man, he really gets around"! Lol!

I had two nerites that lived quite happily in a heavily planted tank for over 3 years. They never showed any signs of being interested in live plant matter, but I would sometimes see them munching on dead leaves or the zucchini I put in the tank for my gold nugget pleco. I must warn you though that ...

PM me when you're ready for plants. I can send you some lace java fern, java moss, and even some rotala cuttings if you'd like. It kills me to throw plants away, but I don't have anyone local to share prunings with.

You may want to consider painting the back wall of your new tank black. It looks much nicer than any other background I've ever tried. I agree with java fern & java moss as being two great low light/low maintenance plants. You might also consider some crypts as well for some variety. My crypts do mu...

Bad idea: Set them loose in your neighbor's back yard!!

I've been using it in my tank for about 6 months now. Like you said, I hated to throw it away every time I thin out one of my fish tanks. Not sure if anyone is eating it, but I haven't had any problems - lots of successful molts.

You might be better off to look elsewhere. I placed an order on December 6th, sent them 2 e-mails during January asking why I hadn't received my order yet, then it finally arrived yesterday out of the blue. Thank goodness my shell situation wasn't urgent, but I'm incredibly disappointed that they ne...