New member..new to Hermit Crabs..and slightly overwhelmed!

[ezstarnes]

Hi everyone! My 9 year old begged for some hermit crabs so my husband and I decided that we would get them for him! I had NO clue everything that went into them. I guess I should have done some research first...so we are learning as we go! Surprisingly...I am really enjoying them and look forward to when I am in his room so I can check them out (several times a day)!!
Currently we have a 10 gal tank with the coconut fiber bedding. We have a hiding spot for them and a couple cholla branches. They LOVE these and we usually find one in them throughout the day! We have 3 that have been oh so creatively named 'Diggy, Sleepy, and Climby'
I have a couple questions. We have fresh water provided for them constantly...but took out the salt water as it just didn't seem like there was enough room. How important is it for them to have it?? We do take them out weekly and let them swim around in the salt water for awhile... Since researching and looking at others tanks I have thought of a few ways to incorporate the pools in permanently if it is a necessity!
They don't seem to be eating... I have offered several fruits and veggies but they don't really seem to care for it. I am worried about them not eating. I recently ordered some food from etsy in hopes that they will eat more! Is there anything y'all would suggest??
Also..is it necessary to add moss?? I've seen a lot of others have it..if so what would you suggest??

Any suggestions for a newbie would also be appreciated!! Thanks so much!!

[GotButterflies]

Hello! Welcome to the HCA!

Care Sheet: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 51&t=92457

Dechlorinated Marine salt water needs to be provided daily, as does the dechlorinated fresh water. Pools should be deep enough for them to fully submerge in and safely be able to get out of. They keep water in their shells, and mix the water to their liking.

Three hermits to a 10 gallon is a little overcrowded. I personally would recommend 1 crab per 5 gallons to prevent any issues.

The substrate that you have should be coconut fiber (also known as eco earth), and would do best if mixed with playsand. I recommend mixing it with dechlorinated marine salt water to make it sandcastle consistency - but some people do use fresh. The minimum depth should be 6" or three times the height of your largest crab.

As far as the moss pit - Most people add those to get their humidity up. Hermit crabs have modified gills and need the humidity to breathe. Humidity should be a minimum of 80, but can be higher. Higher humidity can make mold grow, but that doesn't hurt the crabs. Heat should also be a minimum of 80. I don't let my heat get over 85.

I personally offer a lot of fresh food. Make sure you do organic when possible, as hermits are sensitive to pesticides and fertilizers. Hermit crabs don't eat very much, and they are nocturnal, so they are mainly active and eat at night.

[Hermias_mom]

Hi Ezstarnes! Welcome to the HCA!!!

I have a ten gallon currently too, and it is a bear trying to fit everything into it! Also, there is all of a sudden a lot of stuff to know. Just hang in there!!! There is a lot of great information here on the Forum, and by talking with the other members you can learn a lot. I'm still pretty new to crabbing myself, and I remember how overwhelming and stressful it was at first. But we are all here to help!

Here's a picture/post about of my 10 gallon crabitat. I thought it might give you some ideas on how to fit everything in there. It's not the most gorgeous in the world, but my crabs like it They do a lot of crawling around on everything (including the lid ) and digging and shell-changing. I had the same trouble with water pools too - I ended up going with nested cut-off cottage cheese containers. I could probably find several Ziplock bowls about the same size, but the cottage cheese containers were on hand, and I'm planning to upgrade to a larger habitat soon anyway.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 8&t=114062

Two things you might want to consider - using air stones in the water bowls will help keep your humidity up over 80% RH without drying out your substrate. There's some great posts on here about how to do that if you're interested. My substrate is a 5:1 playsand/Eco-earth mix wetted to sandcastle consistency with marine saltwater (dechlorinated with Prime, using Instant Ocean to make up the saltwater), and I have to spray the substrate with dechlorinated freshwater (I use Prime as a dechlorinator) at least once a week to try and not let it dry out, while keeping my humidity up. Long term, this can cause bacterial blooms, and it's easy to overwet the substrate without realizing it - standing water in the bottom of the substrate is not good for the crabs or for people. But the crabs need moist substrate to help their molting caves hold up (if the caves don't stay intact during a molt, the crabs will most likely die). So in my upcoming 29 gallon tank I plan to use airstones.

Another thing is, crabs love to dig and they love to climb. In the wild, they're known as tree crabs, and they often climb and hang out in trees a lot. They'll walk all night in search of something to eat. So they are used to much more exercise than a ten gallon tank provides, even with all the branches and coral I've put in mine for them to climb on, and even with the 6" of digging space I've provided. I gave them a moss pit, a shell shop, a repti-hammock (supported by my coral forest), and a coco-hut, and lots of branches connecting everything, and they move around a lot, mainly late at night. In my upcoming 29 gallon tank I plan to put in a modified hamster wheel. Many crabbers say their crabs LOVE them, and use them all the time. I think it's the funniest thing ever, watching crabs walk on a hamster wheel!

If you have trouble keeping your temperature up, you might consider using an under tank heater (UTH) made by Ultratherm or Flukers, mounted on the outside back of your tank above the level of your substrate. Those brands of UTH work the best for crabbing for many reasons.

Every post at the link below is super helpful, and represents the forum recommendations. I think this is the same link GotButterflies gave you? Let us know if you have any questions! Best of luck!

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... m.php?f=51

[Hermias_mom]

I just noticed, you asked about food and moss pits. Crabs like a lot of different foods, and everyone's crabs like different things. If you follow the food pyramid by Kilimanjaro (it's in one of the posts at the care link), you should be good. They eat miniscule amounts of anything. Some of my crabs favorites are scrambled eggs (no salt, no butter, etc), crushed eggshells and cuttlebone, coconut oil (it's shelf stable so I leave a little shell of it in there all the time), moss (they eat the moss in the pit), raspberry leaves/canes/bark, crushed dried river shrimp, dried oak and maple leaves/branches (make sure your town doesn't spray for mosquitoes before harvesting these, and you might need to bake or freeze them to prevent bugs/mold), and cooked shrimp/crab with exoskeleton. Variety is key to making sure they get all the nutrients they need.

Moss pits are fun places for crabs to hide, munch, and have a higher humidity for their modified gills. Mine love their moss pit. There's a lot of different containers you can use, and ways you can do them. There's a post about moss too, at the care link.

Have fun!

[daws409]

Looks like they covered most everything. Just wanted to say welcome to HCA! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask

Sent from my HTC6515LVW using Tapatalk

[ezstarnes]

Thank you so much everyone for the wonderful information!! I am looking over the care sheet info right now!! When we bought them I was told I could have 1 crab per gallon of tank...and that they don't like to be alone. Luckily our 3 all get along well!! We will be upgrading near the end of summer most likely to a bigger tank! Thankfully the pet store we frequent sells the salt and fresh water (specific for the hermies) by the gallon so I don't have to worry about trying to figure out how to make it perfect!
We do seem to have a problem keeping the substrate moist enough for them and not too moist. We spray them daily as the crabs seem to LOVE it! The heat is typically 75 or higher..thankfully my son's room is a hot room! We will look into a heater for the winter.
I will have to look into the air stones as I haven't read anything about them yet. I have seen people use bubblers and I wasn't sure about those either.
I have shells on the way...we are gone next week so that will be a fun surprise when we get back! We have talked about getting a net and ladder for them to climb up into. Plus we will work on getting them pools to swim in!! I can't wait to make these changes!!

[Hermias_mom]

Thank you so much everyone for the wonderful information!! I am looking over the care sheet info right now!! When we bought them I was told I could have 1 crab per gallon of tank...and that they don't like to be alone. Luckily our 3 all get along well!! We will be upgrading near the end of summer most likely to a bigger tank! Thankfully the pet store we frequent sells the salt and fresh water (specific for the hermies) by the gallon so I don't have to worry about trying to figure out how to make it perfect!
We do seem to have a problem keeping the substrate moist enough for them and not too moist. We spray them daily as the crabs seem to LOVE it! The heat is typically 75 or higher..thankfully my son's room is a hot room! We will look into a heater for the winter.
I will have to look into the air stones as I haven't read anything about them yet. I have seen people use bubblers and I wasn't sure about those either.
I have shells on the way...we are gone next week so that will be a fun surprise when we get back! We have talked about getting a net and ladder for them to climb up into. Plus we will work on getting them pools to swim in!! I can't wait to make these changes!!

That is awesome that you are excited about your new crabs!!!

A word of warning though - much of what the pet store tells you will probably be wrong. The salespeople mean well, but crabs are collected and sold as "throwaway" pets. If you follow the pet stores' guidelines, most crabs will die within 1-2 years. However, with proper care, these little guys can live 10-20+ years. Most small or medium crabs are estimated to be 10-15 year old or more when they are captured from the wild. It is a shame that an animal who has lived so long should die in such a short time due to inadequate care, but unfortunately most pet stores are more interested in selling more crabs than helping you care for the ones you have. If you look at the Advocacy Forum, you'll see more information about this.

So I wouldn't trust the pet store's "hermit crab" water to have the right type and amount of salt, and most hermit crab marketed foods (pellets, etc) have toxic preservatives and metals in them (see the food and water posts at the care link). Most items marketed specifically for hermit crabs are either ineffective or harmful. When they are not actively harmful or ineffective, they are overpriced. For instance, if you look at the HCA care guide post about water, you will see a comparison of a lot of different brands of salt and/or Saltwater, some marketed for hermit crabs, and some marketed to the saltwater aquarium market. Only salt used for saltwater aquariums is appropriate for hermits - other brands of salt or pre-prepared saltwater lack essential minerals that the hermit crabs need to be healthy. They need something that mimics seawater as closely as possible, and there's a lot of different ions and minerals in seawater. Many folks on here use Instant Ocean. It's not too difficult to mix up - what you do is dechlorinate your tapwater and mix it with the Instant Ocean salt according to the package instructions. For the purple box of Instant Ocean, it works out to 1/8 cup per Liter of water, so it's easy to measure. I mix up enough for a week, and change their water out every other day when I feed them.

Minimum temperature and humidity really should be 80F and 80%RH. If it's colder, crabs aren't as active, and eventually they will try to hibernate and often will die because of the cold. With humidity lower than 80% on a regular basis, their modified gills get damaged, and they slowly suffocate. Purple pinchers are from places like Curacao or the carribbean, so for them to thrive we try to recreate their tropical conditions. Having an accurate temperature and humidity gage and calibrating it regularly is essential. Here's a link to a cheap ($8.00) but accurate dual gage from Walmart. Several of us on here really like this one. https://www.walmart.com/ip/AcuRite-Digi ... r/16888914

If you have a reptile mesh lid, you can cover it up with plastic wrap or press-n-seal to keep in humidity. Then you won't have to spray as often and the humidity in the tank will be more stable.

When you are able, we'd love to see pictures of your crabs, your new shells, and your crabitat! You can post them using the Tapatalk ap.

Have a great trip!

[GotButterflies]

Great heaters: www.reptilebasics.com or www.beanfarm.com
Double Dish Bubblers for the pools: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... r#p1030806
Food Pyramid: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92554

Welcome to the addictive world of crabbing