HCA: Hermit Crab Association

heck-o,

as I promised, here are some pictures of my "crabitats" and land hermits crabs.

My first two crabitats were too small and I decide to have bigger ones. Two glass terrarium that fitts in my living room. Build up around my computer place, where I am sitting the most of my time.

The bigger one is round about 114 gallons, the smaller one is round about 76 gallons. Both were connected with a self made acrylic tunnel. My hermits can walk through this tunnel from the "Beach" tank to the "Wood" tank.
Both tanks got real and fake plants, cork cave, cork back wall with cork plattform at it. A daylight lamp for the plants and a ceramic radiator (?) for heating. The radiator is managed by a temperature control. A salt water dish and a water dish.
Depth of fill is 3,9 -5,9 inch.


Here they are (March 2009):

The bigger one. One part is with sand, one part with a coconut soil mix. On the right side you see the tunnel.



The acrylic connecting tunnel:


(sorry got no older picture of the 76 gallon "wood" tank.)


Because of my biggest violascens we decide to make a bigger salt water pool instead of that water dish. This pool is like a 'real' salt water aquarium. A small (nano) one. But with all things a big one got.
Size: 5 gallons. Including a special saltwater light, heater and streaming pump. (Flow pump?)
At the moment there are living a snail and two marine hermit crabs in it. It's got "live rocks" and seaweed. Some amphipoda, little tube worms and two little coral anemones.
Water temperature is 78.8 degrees. Salt water density 1024. (Sorry I am not sure if the translation of these biological and chemical things are correct!)


Now the tanks look like this:

the "Beach" with salt water pool. My hermits are using it sometimes, but not that much I thought. But they hatch there eggs into it.


the "Wood". At the right side you see some of my hermits sitting on one of the plattform at the cork back wall.



Front side of the salt water pool.


Side face - at the right side you can see the streaming pump.


a look from above:





The breedings are now living in a small tank. Which is build up like the big ones. It's my "dollhouse"
Size: 25 gallons



a view inside. It was new at this time.

Since March 2009 I take care of land hermit crabs.

At the moment I got 17 adult hermits:

3 compressus (Ecuadorian)
3 rugosus (Reggies)
3 clypeatus (Purple pincher)
3 purpureus (Blueberry / Okinawa)
3 violascens (Violas)
1 (lonely) brevimanus (Indonesian)

And probably round about 15 violascens breedings

I have lost 14 hermits since I take care of them
Because I made the mistake to buy too many hermits. I think, they don't have had enough space to dig for molting. And some of them are dying because of post purchase stress.



I got tons of hermit picture, I can't show them all. But here are some of my cuties.

First of all the babies mother (probably): Mrs. Zoidberg

Close up


Mrs. Z


Milhouse (the Dad) and Mrs Zoidberg (the Mom)


Krusty the second viola female



my latest and smallest hermit, Motte (female)


the lovely red one reggie, Schussel (female)... and I hope to get larvae of her next time!


the ghostly white blueberry, Lilly (female)


another blueberry, (should be) Nermal (unknown)


my darker purple pincher , Baal (female)


the colorfull purple pincher, Balduin (male)


a purple pincher, Mephi (male)


the lonely indonesian female, Luise (edit: not it is my Louis (†) )


one of the reggie boys, must be Fry


the darker reggie boy, Bender

last but not least, the breedings.

My collage. All 15 breedings. Pictures taken in April 2012.
I don't like to take them up, for taking pictures. But I try to document their grows. All of them are sitting on a 5 x 5 quad paper at this stage. To show how small they are.




The access to our german bulletin board is not working, if you are not a member. So I took all "baby" picture and put them into an folder on my picture-book. I have tried to upload them sorted by stage of development. From leaving the water and climb to land, till today. Last picture was taken some days ago.

Picture of the viol breedings


Some more old and new things can be found in my picture-book: Pictures of my land hermit crabs



And again, excuse my grammar and spelling

Amazing crabitat and beautiful crabs! And those little guys!!


Welcome to the HCA! I look forward to more of your pics/posts.

Very nice!! I have my tank in my "office" right in front of where I work too, it's fun to watch them all day

I also used to live in Germany near Lahr since my Dad was in the Canadian Army

You should tell us about how hot you keep your tanks or anything that might be different then what we've been doing in North America. This is a great place for information sharing!

oh no, the links are not working. I can't see my pictures... Do I have to change them, or can you see all of them?

Your tanks are wonderful! The connecting tunnel is a nice idea. It looks like the water is only on the beach portion so I realize they have to go back and forth to drink. Do you find that they travel back and forth a lot otherwise, or do you find that some tend to want to stay more in the wood portion and others prefer the beach portion? If that is true I wondered if that was species specific.

Your crabs are beautiful and the babies are so cute!

I can see all the links except for the 2 at the end of the first post.

I can see them all

kuza wrote:I can see them all

I can only see the first ones of the tanks. The rest come up as a black box with a "-" in a white circle.

Your tanks are amazing! My hermits and I are jealous. Like Wode, I can only see the tank pics, no crab pics.

hm strange, I have changed the link to the complete folder and after that I only see black boxes with a stop sign in.

Edit says: now I have changed the links, all should work now, Sorry!


thank you for compliments !


to your questions: *uuu it is not easy to explain it all in english*

In all crabitats are the same environment data.

Temperature
Daytime (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) = min 26°- max 28°C ( 78.8° F - 82.4° F)
Nighttime ( 9 p.m to 9 a.m.) = min 21° - max 22°C (69.8° F - 71.6° F)

Light
Salt water pool from 8 a.m till 9 p.m. With 1 hour break.
Other daylight lamps are on from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Humidity
Day: between 70% and 82% (> because of the salt water pool)
Night: up to 87%
Depends on the temperature in my livingroom.


Unfortunately there is no general species specific. Changes from time to time. But some little facts are:

All of them drink salt water from the pool.

my purple pincher don't take a bath in the salt water. The are going to the beach and water, but do not enter the salt water. They prefer the "Wood" for hanging around and for digging, hiding and molting.
my ecuadorian love the "Beach". The take a bath in the pool. Digging, hiding and molting in the sand.
my reggies and blueberry sometime going to the "Beach". Take a bath. But the return mostely back to the "Wood".
my indonesian prefers the "Wood" too. She walked into the water, but took no bath.
my violas love the water, as the ecuadorian do. The using the Beach, but returns back to the "Wood" normally.

In breedings times the are all active and I see a lot of them explore the Beach and the water. In the other times I see none of them near the "Beach".

In nightimes all exploring the Beach. Because they can find their food



@kuza, so you are knowing our weather in Germany. Most of the time cold and rainy



a last amazing picture. One of my favorites:



You see Mrs. Zoidberg, my biggest Hermit, and Mommy of the breedings. In her 4,3 inch shell.
I put two of the first shells of the breedings on land in front of her. (They are empty). To see the difference between the shell sizes.


Good Night

These tank pics are amazing! Did you make the tanks yourself? I love the connecting tube. I've often wondered if thats possible.

I can only see the tank pics, looking forward to the crabby pics.

So wonderful to have you in our forum!!!!!

I have changed all links. All should work now. Please try to refresh the thread.

Thank you. The tube is self made. The terrariums with the tube hole was done by a terrarium specialist. I do no know the english word. A man who only build glas terrarium and aquarium


now I really have to go to bed.

byeee

Seriously, it's beautiful! I can hear my crabs getting jealous from here! I really can't stop looking. The baby violas are amazing. Your white blueberry is breathtaking!