HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi everyone,

I've heard that straws require extra strength salt water and I've also heard that they don't require extra strength.

So I'm just wondering why/ where the info came from that they need extra strength salt water? Why would it even have been proposed?

Any thoughts would be greatly welcomed! I want to start compiling care sheets for each species with pics (I'll post it in the forum) but its more for my own record

I'm a complete addict

That would be something interesting to know were the idea/concept came from. Considering I really can't thing of a lot of places in the wild that concentrated strength salt water would be available. I mean I imagine the salinity of the ocean varies around the world but not to the point that it would be twice the concentration in some areas.

I wonder the same about the Aussie salt water myth. I think it just comes down to the fact that some of us get different results than others. Some people may have success with regular salt water, and others may lose their Straws unless they give extra strength salt water. Or perhaps it's a panic thing. This is something I've been thinking about lately. When compared to PPs, Straws are extremely exotic, and hard to come by/expensive. PPs are everywhere, and fairly cheap. So, Straw deaths are more hard-hitting because there's always the question of when we'll get more and how much they'll cost. (That, and when the population of a species is smaller than others, deaths stand out more. When you lose 1 PP in a crowd of 30, it isn't going to hit as hard as losing 1 Straw out of 3.)

This could also be what's causing the Aussie salt water myth. With the only supplier being shut down at the moment, there's no way those of us in the US will get more if our Aussies die. This makes us want to take the best care of them as possible, thus turning us into paranoid maniacs.

Straws do not require more salinity, they do however require the ability to access salt water very frequently. I don't know of anywhere on earth where the salinity level is 2 or 3 times the normal marine salinity unless they're drinking from dehydrated puddles.

I will admit I mix my salt water a bit strong when I mix it initially, but that is for me, not them. [I've found the standard measure to be just below what is ideal for the marine tank we have, so I add a few tablespoons whenever I mix, and it's translated to the crabs as well.] I keep my salinity between .023 and .024 standard salinity [Per my marine shop guys] is .020-.026

I also found this in our drop menu under mixing salt water:

Under instand Ocean: "I am currently using and 8 TBSP makes a specific gravity of 1.021. I use an additional tablespoon to raise the SG for my C. Perlatus. I also provide Doc Wellfish crystals in the food dish as well".
Conclusion:
If you are offering both a de-chlorinated fresh water dish as well as a de-chlorinated salt water dish, you needn't worry if the mix is too salty. The crabs can adjust their shell water accordingly. If you have C. Perlatus, saltier water is more beneficial as their shell water has been shown to be much higher in salt content than those of other species.

In addition, if the salt water dish is not salty enough, they will need to obtain natural sea salt from other sources such as their diet. One option is to provide a small pile of the Doc Wellfish salt crystals with their food.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pa ... water.html

Sorry, I always drop the 1 on the hygrometer. 1.022 is considered ideal for the marine aquarium. So the person mixing the water to 1.021 was in the ok range, but adding the extra tablespoon did nothing to benefit the straws other than bring the water up to the .022 that's recommended.