HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm trying to acquire one or two Strawberries or Blueberries to keep with my PPs. I know this forum advises against online retailers, so other than Craigslist, Petfinder, and the classifieds here, is there any good place to get the aforementioned kinds in central Pennsylvania, somewhat close to Harrisburg? Also, if there is a decent place, what is the average price they may go for around a medium size?

Lephantome92 wrote:I'm trying to acquire one or two Strawberries or Blueberries to keep with my PPs. I know this forum advises against online retailers, so other than Craigslist, Petfinder, and the classifieds here, is there any good place to get the aforementioned kinds in central Pennsylvania, somewhat close to Harrisburg? Also, if there is a decent place, what is the average price they may go for around a medium size?

I personally don't purchase crabs at all. I adopt them and either find forever homes for them after "rehabbing" them and allowing them to molt a couple of times in good conditions or keep them.

What is your experience with crabs?

Straws do not live long in captivity and can be very sensitive to changes in habitat conditions.

It is very, very rare to come across a blueberry in the U.S.

May I ask what your motivations are to have these species rather than PP's or E's which are more readily available in the U.S.?





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Importation of blueberries has stopped since late 2013/4 i believe.... so if you do find some, consider yourself very lucky.


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Basically it can be boiled down to vanity: I want some colorful crabs to go with my PPs, and since you can lead a crab to shells, but can't make them change nicely, that seemed to be the solution. Are there any more hardy, equally colorful lhc to keep an eye out for?

Keep visiting your local pet stores. Exotics can pop up out of nowhere, especially during the summer when the supplies run low and the distributors start looking at more expensive imports from other countries. I have a Ruggie from my local shop - it had been there like four months and no one had realized that it wasn't an E. There had been 6 that came in together and they all might have been Ruggies. Had I been watching I could have had a tankful, since I was in there every week for crickets. After ten years of hoping to come across something other than an E or PP (not the entire time, just half-looking whenever I had to stop in for something else) I had given up. Stupid me.

PPs and Es do have some of the best coloration out there. I've had them range from as red as a straw to as blue as a blueberry, and every shade in between and more. They are also the hardiest species and ones that you generally won't have to stress over so long as you have ample space for them all.

I am confused, y'all said that blueberry crabs are endangered and not avail in the U.S.
but, Live hermit crabs.com has them for pre-order for the summer for $24.95. Is this
legal?

westflorida123 wrote:I am confused, y'all said that blueberry crabs are endangered and not avail in the U.S.
but, Live hermit crabs.com has them for pre-order for the summer for $24.95. Is this
legal?

Please don't buy anything from that website. If I remember correctly, it is a scam. You can use the advanced search function here on the forum - there's several postings about Forum members' experiences with livehermitcrabs.com.

The last time she got "blueberries" they were actually Violas

westflorida123 wrote:I am confused, y'all said that blueberry crabs are endangered and not avail in the U.S.
but, Live hermit crabs.com has them for pre-order for the summer for $24.95. Is this
legal?

AVOID THAT SITE LIKE THE PLAGUE! I placed an order there over a month ago, and have yet to hear anything after 2 emails. I got a phone number after calling the bank, but it didn't work. Now I'm in the hole $100 till the bank clears things up. BE WARNED!