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Cohabitation? Hermit crabs + Taiwan Yellow Land crab
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 12:11 pm
by Cyanicc
Hello! New member here, but experienced hermit crab owner.
I work at a small family owned pet store, and we have a Taiwan yellow land crab. She’s been here for about 5 months, and I’ve come to fall in love with her extremely sassy personality.
Now, I’m setting up a 4x2x18 75gal enclosure for my hermit crabs (4, currently housed in a 37 bowfront tank). Would I be able to keep the Taiwan land crab in the tank with the hermit crabs? The freshwater pool is approximately 1.5 gallons.
I’ve seen many different opinions on cohabbing different species of crabs together, but they’re all of similar sizes and there should be plenty of room for everyone to have their spaces.
Let me know your thoughts!
Re: Cohabitation? Hermit crabs + Taiwan Yellow Land crab
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:26 pm
by wodesorel
I see two possible issues after googling a bit on on this species.
Molting. There's some posts saying Taiwanese crabs do dig, which can cause issues with hermits who are stuck in one place for a few weeks while they molt. I'm not seeing anything on how the Taiwan crabs molt with a quick search, but if it's on land or in water or even in an open burrow, they'll be sitting ducks for the hermits for at least a few hours. Just something to consider. All crabs are opportunistic when it comes to an easy meal, usually they're armored enough that it acts as a deterrent and molting is the only time they end up at risk.
The saltwater. What I'm seeing is saying the Taiwan crabs are fully freshwater and don't occur near the coast. They may not have the ability to distinguish between the two types of pools, and non-ocean dwelling animals don't have the kidney (or equivalent) function to filter out excess sodium and other salts.
Re: Cohabitation? Hermit crabs + Taiwan Yellow Land crab
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 4:00 pm
by Cyanicc
wodesorel wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:26 pm
I see two possible issues after googling a bit on on this species.
Molting. There's some posts saying Taiwanese crabs do dig, which can cause issues with hermits who are stuck in one place for a few weeks while they molt. I'm not seeing anything on how the Taiwan crabs molt with a quick search, but if it's on land or in water or even in an open burrow, they'll be sitting ducks for the hermits for at least a few hours. Just something to consider. All crabs are opportunistic when it comes to an easy meal, usually they're armored enough that it acts as a deterrent and molting is the only time they end up at risk.
The saltwater. What I'm seeing is saying the Taiwan crabs are fully freshwater and don't occur near the coast. They may not have the ability to distinguish between the two types of pools, and non-ocean dwelling animals don't have the kidney (or equivalent) function to filter out excess sodium and other salts.
Ohh that’s true, I didn’t even consider molting. Hmm…
Re: Cohabitation? Hermit crabs + Taiwan Yellow Land crab
Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2023 2:13 pm
by hermitcrablover2
Cyanicc wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 4:00 pm
Ohh that’s true, I didn’t even consider molting. Hmm…
Maybe you could make some sort of barrier in the tank, with the taiwan crab one side and the hermies on the other? it probably wouldnt be too hard to make a barrier out of mesh or smnthg if u wanted to, youd just have to make sure it went all the way down in the substrate