Happyhermiehome wrote:Hi! That is a lovely set up. I too am a huge fan of the natural look and try to keep my tank as natural looking as I can jus because I love the visual appeal.
Yeah the marine crab story is very sad indeed! My fam and I travel to the beach about once a year and we always catch lil crabbies, look at them for a moment or two, take some pics and them leave them be. I've always tried to stress the importance of leaving nature the way u found it and instill a great respect for animal life in my kids. I've always told them well we can't keep them because how would you feel if a giant came and ripped the roof off of your home and snatched u up and put u behind glass. Even if they had the best intentions you would not be happy taken from your home. It'd be like being abducted by aliens and taken to another planet. And they seem to understand this. Even with my land hermie pals I never want to take one straight from the beach and I did not know they were wild caught when I started. My first one was a rescue from a family member. I'm sorry I hope I'm not offending you, not my intention in anyway
I want to be friends with everyone
just want to pass on my experiences
Welcome to HCA!
I am new here too and this place has been a tremendous help to me! It's an invaluable source of information! And everyone has been so nice!
Well, the thing about the marine crabs needed to be said, and you said it respectfully. In regards to the OP, I'd imagine that being new to the whole aquatic invertebrate thing, they thought of the marine hermit crabs as nothing more than aquatic bugs. Most people assume invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and reptiles run on nothing more than instinct, are incapable of experiencing emotions, don't form social attachments, and are basically plants that can move around. Especially hermit crabs. However, science and anecdotal evidence shows that hermit crabs (and other crustaceans, along with fishes, reptiles, and amphibians) experience pain, form friendships, have personalities, are highly aware of the world around them, are curious, experience feelings such as happiness and depression, easily suffer from psychological problems, and are far more intelligent than we could ever imagine.
However, due to societal stigma and the way these animals are treated by industries and are, as a whole, not protected by law from abuse or exploitation, most assume these creatures are unthinking robots. However, this is due to speciesism and an anthropocentric view of the world. We protect mammals because we can relate to them. We don't relate to birds as well as mammals, so they don't receive the same protections, despite the fact that many species are far more intelligent and capable of suffering than dogs, even. The cold blooded animals are out of luck when it comes to legal protection. They don't use facial expressions to show emotion, nor do they use their (non-existent) ears to indicate how they're feeling. Humans take this to mean that they're unintelligent or are incapable of experiencing emotions or communicating. In reality, cold blooded animals use subtle body language, inaudible vocalisations, pheromones, changes in electric field, and colour displays outside of the visible colour spectrum to communicate. The scientific community is well aware of the widespread physical and psychological atrocities being committed against fish, lobsters, etc., but until public attitudes changes, billions of cold blooded animals will continue to suffer unimaginable abuse. Boiling a crab alive is no different from tossing a gerbil in a pot of boiling water.
What's important is that we learn all this stuff and try to spread this information, so that hopefully one day society can force governments and companies to enact widespread change. It wasn't until the mid-twentieth century that vets started using painkillers and knocking animals out before surgery. For hundreds of years, animals were seen as nothing more than automatons. The yelping of a dog was akin to the screeching of gears.
Anyways, good luck with the land crabs
So it IS tough to decide what to do! Today I went to Petco to get cuttlebone and saw a hermie in a basketball shell 
I wanted so much to bring him/her home...