HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Truly great page! Thanks for all this! The Gordon Ramsay of Hermit Crab Keeping.

Would it be best to stop using my food I have? And use other foods (I got a list of good foods that I can get ahold of: Bananas, Cantaloupe, Bloodworms, Strawberry, Pineapple, Grapes, Apples) alternating?

What are you using now? Most commercial foods pale in comparison to natural foods when it comes to getting the crabs a full nutritious diet, and some may be dangerous, but some are safe and can still be fed in rotation with other items. With hermits it's always a better idea to offer a variety as they're programmed to not want to eat the same thing for several days in a row - nature's way of making sure they get all the nutrients they need.

Right now i'm using Jurrasi Diet, I did have pellets before but I think my E had a little trouble eating those so I had moved to the Jurassi Diet I use now.

iNyan wrote:Right now i'm using Jurrasi Diet, I did have pellets before but I think my E had a little trouble eating those so I had moved to the Jurassi Diet I use now.

If it is this ---> http://www.petco.com/product/10660/Jura ... Redirect=1 Than you should now that it contains copper sulfate, which is VERY bad for hermit crabs! You should NEVER feed them anything containing copper sulfate or ethoxyquin, so please get a different food that doesn't contain those ingrediants. I would reccomend this brand (don't worry the ingrediant list on the site is wrong because they are now starting to make their food all natural from what I understand.) ---> http://www.petco.com/product/13658/HBH- ... =LookAhead You could even start feeding your crabs an all natural diet if you like.

Some copper is needed for their diet. Their blood is copper based, just like how ours is iron based. Too much iron will kill a human but getting none will kill us as well, and the same holds true for crabs. What we don't know is how much they require to stay healthy, how much they get from other sources like marine replacement mix, and how much the commercial foods contain.

Jurassi is one of those iffy foods. Some will feed it and have no problems, and other's won't give it to their crabs because of the ingredients. It's going to end up being your call what you want to do.

wodesorel wrote:Some copper is needed for their diet. Their blood is copper based, just like how ours is iron based. Too much iron will kill a human but getting none will kill us as well, and the same holds true for crabs. What we don't know is how much they require to stay healthy, how much they get from other sources like marine replacement mix, and how much the commercial foods contain.

Jurassi is one of those iffy foods. Some will feed it and have no problems, and other's won't give it to their crabs because of the ingredients. It's going to end up being your call what you want to do.

Ok, I didn't know that they needed some copper. Thanks Wode! I myself would probably still stay away from that food, though. Does that mean copper sulfate is ok for them? I thought it was a total no-no.

To be safe I think everyone recommends to stay away from it.

wodesorel wrote:To be safe I think everyone recommends to stay away from it.

That's what I thought. Thanks Wode!

What category does spaghnum moss fall under?

Probably veggies.

About copper sulfate:

In the sulfate form it is added as an antifungal, not a nutritional supplement. Sulfate is digested too fast for it to really be okay. It will spike their levels once they eat it. Who knows how much is really in the food, but the safety range is very small. When people eat, our livers filter out toxins before they get to the rest of the body. These guys don't exactly have blood vessels to direct blood before gets to the whole body. Usually that works out for them, but when the substance is toxic to the blood itself
..

Don't forget that copper in a hermit's blood serves the same purpose as iron in ours. They do need small amounts in order to function properly, but then the question because how much is needed, and when is it too much? (In human children,one of the leading causes of death by poisoning is Iron Poisoning from eating too many chewable vitamins.) It's also hard to monitor what they're getting from foods alone.

Im not arguing that they don't need some but this recent trend in saying copper sulfate is okay scares me. How much they need has not fully been established, but literature for crustaceans does exist, and its not very much before it becomes toxic. (See World Aquaculture Society Crustacean Nutrition). As long as your not feeding foods all sourced from a copper deficient land belt it really will be okay. Meat, especially production animals are fed very balanced diets and thus almost all meat is a decent source of copper for hermits.

Most commercial hermit crab food has enough copper in it for maintenance of hermit crabs without the additional sulfate.

Copper from food sources is chelated, meaning it is attached to an organic molecule and is highly usable by the body. A sulfate copper, not so much. It will dissociate into ions in the blood and likely not be used properly or excreted well. Im not sure what their heavy metal toxicity prevention is, but its a lot less than ours. We use our liver and bile to excrete the excess copper. I doubt they have a very good way of dealing with it considering it is so toxic to them. (Side note iron is very toxic to us because we have no good way of getting rid of extra. Our bodies only try to prevent absorption when in high levels.)

I would say hermit crab foods with chelated/protinated copper would be okay, if everything else checks out.