HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Well I guess I will review them. I got 4 straws from them last year, through my local fish shop. The seemed healthy when I got them, although they were small and lacking in color, none being red, mostly candy cane striped and one was mostly all white, they were definitely straws. No idea if the color was because of them being so young or the area they came from or lack of uvb. They all have done well and survived, I picked them up the day they arrived at the LFS since I knew the fish store had no idea what to do with land crabs anyways.

It's been a year, all 4 are live and well, healthy, many molts and have grown quite a bit. All changed shells immediately. I've been very happy with them. I am unsure how far segrest had to ship to my store, I am in NC though. I paid $9.99 each from my LFS. They were ordered as XLG, but they were smalls, segrest at the time only had XLG and small listed.

I've been thinking about ordering some crabs from them too, but I'm worried they won't get here in good condition. you saying that they came in healthy makes me feel a little better about it though, since there's so little reviews of their crabs. maybe someone could start a topic just on them, kind of like the LHC one? there has to be more people ordering from segrest farms.
and as far as shipping, unless they have another building I don't know about it would have been from Florida. (speaking of shipping.. would you mind me asking how they were packed?? I'm super curious how they did it. I've never had any shipped)

I'm not sure how they were packed since they were shipped to my local fish store with whatever else they ordered from them. When I went to pick them up they were in a big insulated box that they handed me and the crabs were already out running around. No one was missing any limbs and they all had natural shells. I could ask the shop who I used to order them hwo they arrived/packed, or you could ask segrest.

I wonder if others who have straws from them also found them lacking color. That was the only thing that concerned me about them when I got them, but they were active and have been very active.

One thing though, since the only store that orders from them in my town was a fish shop, when i asked them to order i aksed for 2, they got 4, and told me when they arrived that there was 4 and they are really hoping I take all 4 because they don't know what they will do with them. So I don't know if its typical of segrest to send extras, probably in case one dies, i'd be prepared to possibly be taking more than you wanted though. If i had asked for 4 and they got 6 i would have been going over how many i wanted to put in my tank.

oh it's not a problem, since you seemed to have an alright experience I'll be ordering soon anyway so maybe I'll see for myself. I just thought they would have left them in the package, seeing they don't really have a place for them at a fish store.

maybe someone who ordered straws from them can see this and say what color theirs was. I would like to know myself.

and I've heard of other companies throwing in an extra crab or two, I have a pretty empty tank so it would actually be a pleasant surprise. but that's good to know.

Are they very small crabs? The younger ones tend to be lighter in coloring. Keep up on good foods and consider providing uvb lighting (some crabbers noticed a difference with it, especially with straws) and as they grow they should darken up.

*I am not speaking from experience, only from what I've seen mentioned here, so someone with Straws may have more or something different to add.

Juveniles are paler in color, ranging from white to pink to pastel orange. Most young crabs have white or cream striping on their joints and legs, which gives them the nickname "candy cane" crabs. These markings will disappear as the crab grows. Rarely full adults are found that are nearly white, or oppositely, black cherry in color.

Diet: Foods that are high in beta carotene and astaxanthin have been noted to help with keeping their coloration strong.

UVB has been noted as being very beneficial to this species. Increased activity levels and better coloration has been noticed by keepers who utilize UVB lighting in their enclosure.

Found here: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 51&t=92450

CallaLily wrote:Are they very small crabs? The younger ones tend to be lighter in coloring. Keep up on good foods and consider providing uvb lighting (some crabbers noticed a difference with it, especially with straws) and as they grow they should darken up.

*I am not speaking from experience, only from what I've seen mentioned here, so someone with Straws may have more or something different to add.
Found here: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 51&t=92450

They aren't small enough for me to think they are that young, but I'm not really sure, I have a smaller straw from LHC that is bright red. These guys are all bigger than him, but they are small, not tiny or micros though. They have had uvb lighting for as long as I've had them, and ive changed the bulb at 6 months, but i am wondering if it's not strong enough. Ive seen them hanging out in the shell shop which part of it does go under the uvb lamp, so maybe they are trying to get closer to it.

I can't imagine it's a dietary problem because I do have a lot of foods mentioned for their coloring and they eat A LOT.

Their color has improved but not nearly to the red of a typical straw. My two from LHC are very nice reds. I'll try and take pictures of them compared to little red who is dark.

In this pic they look like the semi adult coloring (found pic in another thread)
http://img185.imagevenue.com/img.php?im ... _133lo.jpg

I didn't mean to sound like I was saying you weren't already doing these things. I meant it takes time with diet/uvb and comes with growth. It does also come down to the individual crab too.

CallaLily wrote:I didn't mean to sound like I was saying you weren't already doing these things. I meant it takes time with diet/uvb and comes with growth. It does also come down to the individual crab too.

oh no no! I know you didn't mean that! I mean i have racked my brain trying to figure out why they aren't having much improvement. I'm not really sure how long it would take them to gain their colors, I would say they've all molted 3x with me now. If it were just 1 of them i would have thought it was just the crab having different coloration, but 4/4 from that place look like that and i can't figure out why. Unless they had avoided shipping the less red ones out and i happen to get the last end of their stock and it was them.

Unless they are really young and just grew fast something has to be lacking still, unless there's straws from a different area that are just naturally not as red. I have no clue why they are still so light. even as the color is coming in it's coming in orange on the white areas, and red on the joints (previously white with red joints).

i mean i have an E who is darker red than them lol.

has anyone else posted pics of straws from segrest? especially ones from last year?

crabbienewb wrote: oh no no! I know you didn't mean that!

Oh. Good.

Hopefully someone with Straw experience will chime in with more ideas.

I asked on the Segrest website for all of the stores they ship to within 40 miles of my house. It listed 8 independent stores, 27 PetSmarts, and 39 Petcos. How likely is it that the PetSmarts and the Petcos are getting their crabs from Segrest? I did ask at my closest PetSmart (which is not actually on the Segrest list, but it is kinda new-ish) how the crabs were shipped to them, and I was told they came in little plastic bags. I found that disheartening, but I didn't ask any more questions (a good one would have been 'is there moss or anything in the bag with them'), because I was already disgusted after taking a good hard look at their horrible crabitat.

Kleinerhejhog wrote:I asked on the Segrest website for all of the stores they ship to within 40 miles of my house. It listed 8 independent stores, 27 PetSmarts, and 39 Petcos. How likely is it that the PetSmarts and the Petcos are getting their crabs from Segrest? I did ask at my closest PetSmart (which is not actually on the Segrest list, but it is kinda new-ish) how the crabs were shipped to them, and I was told they came in little plastic bags. I found that disheartening, but I didn't ask any more questions (a good one would have been 'is there moss or anything in the bag with them'), because I was already disgusted after taking a good hard look at their horrible crabitat.

PetSmart crabs are shipped in a huge fish bag just like the fish.. But with a small amount of water. This is how Seagrest ships them.

Pretty much all PetSmarts are supplied by Seagrest. They also get their shipments typically on Wednesdays but this will vary sometimes.

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That is good to know, thank you!