Exotic Land Hermit Crab Paradise for Crabs

suebee · Post by **suebee** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:51 pm

I need to get a new camera charger but can not wait to show them. Also if you have good photos we can let Bob check them out to help identify your babies. We took one of Saras crabs with us for him to help identify. She was with us on our road trip..

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:57 pm

Did you say 12 hours to take care of his crabs a day? How many crabs does he have? What is he doing? YIKES!

suebee · Post by **suebee** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:07 pm

I remembered something else that I learned and that I was doing wrong. When ever we rinse a crab (like when we get new ones) we should be using fresh declorinated water. If you use salt then also rinse them with fresh after so the salt doesnt dehydrate the little body. Offering salt water will alow them to add salt water to the shell as needed. That was very new to me and something i wanted to pass on. Bob also taught us to be very careful when holding the crabs not to spill any of the crabs shell water of the crabs shell. I want to pass on all I can remember. Blessings, Sue

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:20 pm

Ditto Suebee,

I have pics of a Brunneus for you Spiral...

Izzy's mom.... Thousands dear thousands...

Mac - You are right he is only one guy and he would be overwhelmed with all the calls but I assure you real live not alleged scientists are aware of the research.

General comment, perhaps he would share more if we were more willing to accept the information. Suebee and Crabola were all exited, arms full of info and tips... and it has dissolved to this...

Heeerrrrsss Pinchy

a bit blurry but you can see the BP coloration, no stitches/ridges BTW

Spiral · Post by **Spiral** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:54 pm

gclnin wrote:Ditto Suebee,

I have pics of a Brunneus for you Spiral...

Izzy's mom.... Thousands dear thousands...

Mac - You are right he is only one guy and he would be overwhelmed with all the calls but I assure you real live not alleged scientists are aware of the research.

General comment, perhaps he would share more if we were more willing to accept the information. Suebee and Crabola were all exited, arms full of info and tips... and it has dissolved to this...

Heeerrrrsss Pinchy

a bit blurry but you can see the BP coloration, no stitches/ridges BTW

Thanks! is his inner antennae a dull red?

SebbyCrab · Post by **SebbyCrab** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 12:03 am

Some of us are social-phobes. We do not call and connect with others we do not know well. I personally am more comfortable conversing in text format for a while before calling anyone. If he doesn't answer emails or respond in that form for me the information is very difficult to obtain.

[I mean I won't even call a pizza place I've not dealt with before] A printed format is much easier for me to absorb and keep interest in. *shrug* If he is only willing to share information with people who have the ability to call him, then the information is kind of blocked to a lot of us.

So I guess until some point in the future when I can overcome my communication issues I shall remain out of the loop of information sharing.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:35 am

Just as you preferred form of communication is print, there are reasons why it may be easier for Bob to communicate by phone. To respond to an email he has to go in, sit down, read, write and send. A phone conversation can be had while doing other things such as feeding crabs, cleaning, walking around, etc. When I had my conversation with Bob about Eva, he was in with the crabs and was telling me what he was seeing... even that was fascinating and now to have seen it in person is just wonderful.

Those Brunneus are beautiful! I really wanted some, and Indos too but I have some work to do on my conditions and a migration to a larger tank before I'm ready

MacandHunter · Post by **MacandHunter** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:40 am

My point remains the same. I would love to at least see Bob around the HCA offering some thoughts and insight straight from the horse's mouth. It's cool that you can share what he says, but it would be more ideal if it came straight from Bob. That way there would be less of a whisper down the lane effect. Overall, does the information and care Bob provides his crabs conflict the information and care we give our crabs here? Bob takes care of his crabs for over 12 hours a day? Bob should be on 60 Minutes, because there are a lot of practical questions I would like to ask him about his life. Well, too personal for me to actually ask. How does he care for hermit crabs for over half of the day?

I hope you see my point. If there are only a couple of people spreading the Bob way, information will be slow to catch on. I guess Bob doesn't have time to create a crab care website, or write a book on his crabbing life. These things don't even need to be highly scientific. I'm not asking for a steak, just a bone! It's too bad that Bob doesn't do any of these things, for time or whatever reasons, because you have to agree that if all of Bob's knowledge, or at least a selection of his knowledge, was all displayed on a webpage, or in a book it would be a lot easier to soak in. If you post tidbits of information you have learned from Bob, that's great! But ultimately they will be scattered around the forums and I feel that won't be organized enough to really shake the boat enough.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 1:07 pm

If people would rather we not share our experiences we will keep them to ourselves, but we are quite happy and willing to share which is why this thread was started to begin with.

But LOL at the thought of Bob on 60 Minutes, that would be a really interesting show

How does he do it? Well, you're right that specifics on his family and finances are indeed personal and I doubt you'd even get answers if he was on TV. But yes, it is a full time business + and because he loves crabs it is worth it to him and somehow he makes it happen. Maybe someday he will write down all of the knowledge that he's amassed and publish it, but for now he's a little too busy. So in the meantime, those who have taken the time to get to know Bob, who he trusts and counts as his friends will have to share what we can. Hopefully that will work for everyone.

Spiral · Post by **Spiral** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:10 pm

suebee wrote:I need to get a new camera charger but can not wait to show them. Also if you have good photos we can let Bob check them out to help identify your babies. We took one of Saras crabs with us for him to help identify. She was with us on our road trip..

i did email him with photos before, he never replied

previously i just assumed them to be purpureus ( as identified by mokulele, who said that they looked weird ). Now, some of the brown guys have either started gaining blue, or are becoming a lighter tan shade of brown.

(note: these are old pics)

curious_kitty · Post by **curious_kitty** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:26 pm

ok, so i've stayed up late last night to read this thread, and i woke up late this morning, still reading this thread to see if anyone got back on Mac's question... sooo is the crab care sheet on this HCA mostly in line with how Bob cares for his crabs? I'm in a process of building a large tank for my hermies, and i gotta go get some sand today, and other stuff, but Id rather make it a one trip- if Bob's care sheet on hermies are slightly different. i did make some changes on adding more sand and little EE, and will be adding crushed oyster powder into the substrate.SOOOo... how about general temperature? i don't let temp drop at night, but should I do that? please share with us!

what makes HCA awesome is many members' openness and willingness to share any information or their experiences to guide many of us newbies take better care of our crabs, and we would all appreciate you for bringing this wealth of knowledge Bob shared with you two.
Perhaps, a caresheet info on some of the common exotics not well known(if different than one on HCA)- indos/violas/ruggies/strawberries, any tidbits on issues a crabber might face with exotics(substrate is good one, what about temperature? should species not be mixed for better well being?)
Some of us has been a bit frustrated by this lack of information, or mere trickle of things here and there but not the whole story: please??? *on my knees now*

many of us both veteran/amateur crabbers would benefit from anything that you guys' learned, experienced, seen from Bob and his facility, it would perhaps help us understand and justify his much higher cost for his crabs. I know i personally haven't ordered his crabs because there is no clear difference in his crabs or LHC crabs(who arrives just as healthy). I am hoping that maybe one is able to justify his high costs on his crabs, hopefully through you two who has visited his site, and would elaborate on his set-up and his crab care further. I think neither LHC nor HCV would be interested in how Bob has his set-up as they have very different business model and customers.

OMG Brunies are adorable!!

Post by **wodesorel** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:09 pm

My hubby just walked past as I was looking at your photos and asked what I was doing. I told him we were wondering what species the crab was. He pops up with "I know what is it! ...... It's a hermit crab!" Sigh.....

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:13 pm

Okay, I'm Brand-Spanking-New to all of this but this thread has me SO CONFUSED!

I just don't get any of this secrecy. This guy has "Thousands and Thousands" of crabs. And he "Cares" so much about them. And he "Researches" them and takes care of them for "12 hours a day" but you can't show pictures of his facility? or Crabs for fear of "Kids breaking in and messing around" or other people "Stealing his secrets"?

Why is it a secret how to PROPERLY care for crabs?
(And how would kids know where it was based on pictures of the inside?)

I just don't understand the POINT of all of his work.

Keep the info coming, but maybe don't mention all the secrets that you can't tell us about or show pics of. I think that's where this gets so confusing.

I'd like to hear more about the care... I don't care at all about the new species, I'm just trying to keep my 4 year olds crabs alive, and I think that is where most of the traffic on this site comes from.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 4:13 pm

As I have said before, how he cares for the crabs in his facility would simply not apply to the average pet keeper using a tank. If you are keeping thousands of crabs yourself then by all means, get to know Bob and find out the best way to do it.

Everyone agrees on the basics, heat, humidity, deep substrate, salt water, fresh water and a healthy variety of foods. The type of substrate is one thing that Bob would suggest doing differently if you are using a large percentage of coir in the mix. I doubt if Bob has even read the caresheets here and compared them with his own so I don't even know if there are differences, there may well be depending on the species. Doesn't mean that either one is right or wrong.

IzzysMom there is no secrecy. If you would like to post pictures of your home or property on the Internet then feel free, I wouldn't do it with mine, and I won't do it with Bob's.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 4:23 pm

curious_kitty wrote: ok, so i've stayed up late last night to read this thread, and i woke up late this morning, still reading this thread to see if anyone got back on Mac's question... sooo is the crab care sheet on this HCA mostly in line with how Bob cares for his crabs? I'm in a process of building a large tank for my hermies, and i gotta go get some sand today, and other stuff, but Id rather make it a one trip- if Bob's care sheet on hermies are slightly different. i did make some changes on adding more sand and little EE, and will be adding crushed oyster powder into the substrate.SOOOo... how about general temperature? i don't let temp drop at night, but should I do that? please share with us!

I forgot to mention this, yes I would suggest a temperature drop at night. That is what happens in their natural environment, temps go up during the day and down at night. Sounds like you are on the right track with the substrate, and as I mentioned above I have not compared the caresheets here with one of Bob's caresheets, but the basics of crab care are the same, heat, humidity etc...