HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I just adopted a pair of hermit crabs on Monday. Their old family had them for a year and a half, but their young daughter quit looking after them. They were kept in a 10 gallon aquarium, they had freshwater and salt water, a heater, coconut fibre substrate, and were fed fruits, veggies, and Fluker's hermit crab pellets.

They actually look pretty good. Their colouring seems good, they have all their limbs, and they seem alert. The small hermit crab (Oliver) is wearing a green turbo shell, and the big guy is wearing a Babylonia shell. I want to order them some turbo shells, but the big guy's buried himself, and I haven't seen him/her since midnight on Monday, so I can't measure the aperture of their shell. I think both of them are purple pinchers, so that Babylonia shell probably doesn't feel that nice on Big Guy.

It was kind of a spur of the moment thing (I rescue unwanted small parrots, so when I saw the hermit crabs for free on Kijiji, I had to get them), so I hurriedly set up my 29g for them while my parents went to pick them up. The 29g has at least 2" of coconut fibre, and I tossed in some dried maple leaves, coconut husks, mahogany pods, vine twists, a couple of rocks, sphagnum, a small chunk of cholla, and a coconut with holes cut in it. I missed it a ton with the Instant Ocean, so the humidity isn't bad. I also attached two heating pads to the back of the tank. There's also a freshwater dish, a saltwater dish (I bought Instant Ocean), and a food dish. I know, it's nowhere near complete, as I still need to buy a bunch of turbo shells, set up some moss pits, platforms, climbing nets, etc. I also have to buy a hydrometer and whatnot. Anyways, it feels pretty "tropical" in the tank, so hopefully the temperature and humidity are at 80°F and 75% humidity.

Oh, I guess I'll actually introduce myself. I'm 21, I live in Ontario, Canada, I have 6 budgies, 2 red-fronted kākāriki, a parrotlet, one glass catfish (my 90g was infected with TB around 10 years ago, and he's the only one who didn't end up dying or being euthanized), 2 chihuahuas, a shih-poo, and 2 (new) hermit crabs. I'm taking online courses to get certificates in Wildlife Rehabilitation and Animal Training and Enrichment. I've already finished courses in avian training and animal minds and emotions. I've spent over $2,000 on the birds so far this month (the kākāriki were emaciated, their muscles were atrophied, they fighting a bad infection etc., so vet bills have been quite expensive), so I'm a bit low on cash (I live at home still, so it's not really an issue). The hermit crabs will be a nice "side project" for me, as they don't require anywhere near the level of care that birds do.

I know that hermit crabs are wild caught, and the whole ordeal is extremely inhumane. As I said, I care for unwanted small parrots, so I'm a bit of a bleeding heart. My youngest budgie, Alice, died on May 29 from massive internal bleeding during a vet exam due to kidney cancer. She would've been 3 this Halloween. I adopted her when she was only 2 or 3 months old. She had severe PTSD from living with an animal hoarder, and she was never particularly healthy. We really miss her.

I've been giving the hermit crabs organic greens (chickweed, Swiss chard, dandelion, broccoli leaves, kohlrabi...), kelp, mash (chia, cashews, pecans, pine nuts, kale powder, quinoa, strawberry powder, Ceylon cinnamon, amaranth...other stuff that I forget), Golden'obles III (parrot pellets), Totally Organic Pellets (parrot pellets), and New Life Spectrum Pellets (fish food).

As for the bird pellets, what do you think? Here's the ingredients for the Golden'obles:
Quinoa, organic brown rice, organic black beans, organic triticale, organic soybeans, organic barley, organic flax seed, organic banana puree, organic mango puree, organic alfalfa, organic rye seed, organic sunflower kernels, organic agave syrup, almonds, dehydrated raspberries, vegetables composed of parsley, cabbage, carrots, spinach & garden peas, rolled oats, white proso millet, organic apples, dehydrated honey, amaranth, sesame seed, spelt, apple cider, beets, chia seed, kamut, fenugreek, organic cranberries, honey, pinto & kidney beans, cinnamon, fennel seed, ginger, star anise seed, bee pollen, Echinacea, cilantro, red clover leaf, basil, oregano, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried lactobacillus fermentum fermentation product, dried enterococcus faecium fermentation product and dried bifidobacterum. No artificial dyes or synthetic vitamins.

Here's the TOPs:
Organic hulled millet, ecologically sustainable alfalfa, Organic barley, ecologically sustainable rice, organic sunflower seed hulled, organic sesame seeds unhulled, organic quinoa whole, organic buckwheat hulled, organic dandelion leaf powder, organic carrot powder, organic spinach leaf powder, organic purple dulse, kelp, organic rose hips powder, organic rose hips crushed, organic orange peel powder, organic lemon peel powder, organic rosemary whole leaf, organic cayenne ground, organic crushed red chili peppers, organic nettle leaf. TOP’s Small Pellets do not contain any fillers, like soy or corn. NO BHA, BHT or ethoxyquin. NO artificial colors, flavors, vitamins, preservatives, or sucrose/sugar. No wheat or any nuts.


I'm planning on ordering Hermie's Kitchen sample pack. I'm partially vegan, so the idea of feeding them flesh is a little icky, but I'll feed them it anyways. Thankfully, animal protein only makes up a small part of a hermit crab's wild diet. Oh, and I'm also planning on ordering some captive bred isopods to keep their tanks clean(ish). Since Big Guy is staying buried, I'll just order a bunch of shells and hope they fit. I read they don't like being dug up, and I'd have to be a jerk to harass a prey animal. I work with birds (birds are very nervous prey animals), so they should warm up to me quickly.

Welcome to HCA! Have you read the care sheets yet? I'm assuming you have, but I'll link them here just in case - it's like a firehose worth of info, but totally worth the read. Please ask if (when ) you have questions.

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

I think there's a few concerns with some of your pellets ingredients - I'd recommend cross referencing the ingredients to the unsafe food list (it's in one of the care sheets). Things like rosemary extract (pretty sure) might be a concern, and there may be a few others, maybe cinnamon? I don't have a lot of time to post, but wanted to say hi to you.

As far as protein goes, there are vegetarian / vegan folks on here that share your thoughts about feeding the crabs animal protein, but it really is required for their health. If you look at the food pyramid by Kilimanjaro (another care sheet posting), you can see that protein actually should be a staple of their diet, and as large a variety as you can afford is recommended. Kilimanjaro's post goes into great detail on what nutrients are needed by crabs and why, and in what quantity, and tells what foods can provide those nutrients. So that posting and the safe foods list are a good thing to keep close at hand when trying to source crab food.

Crabs need a lot of protein and calcium because they are constantly molting and shedding/growing their exoskeleton. Even with consumption of the old exoskeleton after a molt, they do lose some nutrients, and have to replenish/build up before the next molt. They are naturally cannibalistic, and will eat each other if they come across another crab mid-molt, or if they are over-crowded in the tank, or if they are missing nutrients commonly found in animal protein or needed for their exoskeleton. A few ways to decrease this tendency are to have at least 6" substrate or three times the depth of your largest crab [moistened to sandcastle consistency with marine saltwater (Instant Ocean that you're using is an excellent product, by the way ) ], feed a variety of protein and calcium, and don't over crowd the tank (5 gal per crab is the recommended minimum for small/medium cabds

A common substrate that works well for most folks is 5:1 playsand (like from the hardware store)/coco-fiber (like Eco-Earth, the finely ground stuff, not the course stuff). Crabs can go 1-2 years without having a proper molt, but not much longer than that - after that the excess molting hormone catches up with them, and if they don't molt, they'll die. If the substrate's not right, crabs will surface molt, which is dangerous for them when other crabs are around (see Molting topics for more info). So the fact that you're getting your new 29G tank set up very soon is awesome! If the substrate and tank conditions are right (80F / 80% Relative Humidity is the minimums recommended), you can expect your crabs to go down for a molt very soon and stay down for 1-4+ months, depending on the age/size of the crab.

Here's a link for a great combo temp and humidity gage. I assume they have Walmart in Canada? (I'm woefully uneducated about that) Lots of crabbers use this one and love it.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/AcuRite-Digi ... 3=&veh=sem

LadyJinglyJones is an active forum member from Canada, although I'm sure there are others I just don't know as well. She, and others in Canada, could probably help you out sourcing stuff if needed.

A good way to get temperatures up (heat lamps tend to zap the humidity and can crack glass if you're not careful with your setup) is to use an undertank heater (UTH) mounted on the SIDE of the tank ABOVE the level of the substrate. beanfarm or reptilebasics.com sell Ultratherm brand UTHs. These are very reliable heaters that can be insulated for increased heat into the tank (if you insulate other brands than Ultratherm or Flukers, they may cause a fire), and usually do a great job getting tank temperatures up. More details on the Heating and LIghting posts in the care sheets, and there's lots of forum discussion threads about this topic.

Are you using a dechlorinator in your water? Most of us use a product like Prime or similar, in both the fresh and marine saltwater.

Oh, and you might check out the Chit Chat forum. A lot of folks on here are animal lovers that care for a wide variety of animals, and there are some pretty interesting topics on there. Feel free to open a new one if you like. Lots of folks on here share your love for a wide variety of animals.

Sounds like you've got a great start with your setup and your crabs and have done tons of research! That is so awesome!!! Welcome to crabbing!!!

I think I read most of that care sheet, but I'll read the rest now. I was wondering about some of those ingredients, and cross referenced a lot of the ingredients. I've eaten those pellets before, and you can't taste the herbs at all. From what I've read, those herbs and spices aren't necessarily toxic, but rather the smell deters them?

Although I'm not exactly excited about feeding them animal protein, I definitely wouldn't deprive them of it. My parents both eat meat (I do too, once a week), so I can give them bits of that. I'm also planning on buying them a fish skin bone (it's a dog bone thingy made from salmon skin or whatever). I'm also going to be feeding them some feathers and poop from the aviary. Oh, and I'll have to check out Kilimanjaro's post! I love in depth discussions on diet and nutrition.

I know the substrate isn't great, since it doesn't have that magical 5:1 sand and coconut fibre, so I'll pick up some tomorrow. Maybe Canadian Tire will have some suitable playsand. I also thought I might not've put enough substrate in, so I'll fix that. Darn, Big Guy's buried in it, so how am I going to mix in the play sand? Anyways, I definitely don't trust invertebrates not to munch on each other during a moult, so I'll get things fixed up...somehow.

Oh, and thanks for the link to the temperature/humidity gauge. And yes, we do have Walmarts in Canada :p.

Unfortunately, despite having two UTH on the side of the terrarium, I don't think it's warm enough (I'll definitely need to pick up that gauge).

As for water, we're on well water. To take things a step further, I only use R/O water made from said well water. Woah, did that sound snippy? Well, I hope that doesn't sound snippy. I'd never use municipal water for non-humans, so no need to worry about that.

The nutrition requirements in terms of moulting are very similar to the requirements for breeding and moulting birds, so it should be pretty easy. Oh, quick question: Can I scrape dried up worms off the patio to feed them? The patio doesn't have any chemicals on it.

Oh, right! Thanks for the reply! I guess I was misinformed about the whole protein thing.

Teddscau wrote:I think I read most of that care sheet, but I'll read the rest now. I was wondering about some of those ingredients, and cross referenced a lot of the ingredients. I've eaten those pellets before, and you can't taste the herbs at all. From what I've read, those herbs and spices aren't necessarily toxic, but rather the smell deters them?

Although I'm not exactly excited about feeding them animal protein, I definitely wouldn't deprive them of it. My parents both eat meat (I do too, once a week), so I can give them bits of that. I'm also planning on buying them a fish skin bone (it's a dog bone thingy made from salmon skin or whatever). I'm also going to be feeding them some feathers and poop from the aviary. Oh, and I'll have to check out Kilimanjaro's post! I love in depth discussions on diet and nutrition.

I know the substrate isn't great, since it doesn't have that magical 5:1 sand and coconut fibre, so I'll pick up some tomorrow. Maybe Canadian Tire will have some suitable playsand. I also thought I might not've put enough substrate in, so I'll fix that. Darn, Big Guy's buried in it, so how am I going to mix in the play sand? Anyways, I definitely don't trust invertebrates not to munch on each other during a moult, so I'll get things fixed up...somehow.

Oh, and thanks for the link to the temperature/humidity gauge. And yes, we do have Walmarts in Canada :p.

Unfortunately, despite having two UTH on the side of the terrarium, I don't think it's warm enough (I'll definitely need to pick up that gauge).

As for water, we're on well water. To take things a step further, I only use R/O water made from said well water. Woah, did that sound snippy? Well, I hope that doesn't sound snippy. I'd never use municipal water for non-humans, so no need to worry about that.

The nutrition requirements in terms of moulting are very similar to the requirements for breeding and moulting birds, so it should be pretty easy. Oh, quick question: Can I scrape dried up worms off the patio to feed them? The patio doesn't have any chemicals on it.

Oh, right! Thanks for the reply! I guess I was misinformed about the whole protein thing.

Hi Welcome! A couple thoughts:
1. You definitely need more substrate. You can add about 1" every 24 hours without disturbing the crab who is down as long as you don't mix or press down. In a couple of days, that will work itself out.
2. You might consider bug protein (crickets, worms, or even krill (bug-esque?)) in lieu of chicken or beef. The worms on the patio should be OK if you don't use any time of fertilizer or chemicals anywhere in your garden or yard. And if you have close nighbors, that goes for them too.
Welcome to the forum!

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Well, I just gave them some scrambled eggs with eggshell, salmon oil, chia, oats, red clover, sprouted wheat flour, powdered grain grass, and a splash of Instant Ocean water. I also threw in some bee pollen, chickweed, nasturtium flower, Swiss chard, dandelion leaf, kohlrabi, and broccoli leaf.

There might be some fertilizer still lingering, so I guess I won't give them the worms. I'll leave them for Mom's gross chihuahua to eat. I will, however, get some freshly killed deer flies to eat. I hate those things so much.

Oh, and thanks for the sand tip, C_fiesta. Fudge, unfortunately my hunch was right and it isn't 80° in the tank. It's only 74° or so. Wait, more substrate will help since it will retain the heat. Either way, we're going to get it to 80° in there.

My Dad's not too keen on me buying a giant bag of sand for the terrarium, so I'll have to figure out something else. Ah, all purpose sand. Apparently that's a thing. I'll have to check Home Depot and whatnot.

Heeheehee. I just finished preparing a new shell for the kids! I found a turbo shell laying in the side yard (just go with it), washed it, filed it, then I carved a nice sparkly band of mother of pearl along its side with a dremel! In case you're wondering, I've never used a dremel before. Next time, I'm going to carve stars into a turbo shell!