HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi
I'm new to this forum, so please have mercy if this is not the right subforum to start a thread of this kind.
First of all, I have to say this has to be the best hermit crab forum worldwide! (well, at least in my opinion..)

The current situation:
The tank for my Hermits has a size of about 66 gallons
There is already a small group of C. rugosus in this Terrarium. I had them for quite some time now.
They are doing great, after I bought them, they all burrowed down to molt within the first few days and resurfaced a few weeks later.
They are also often changing their shells

Now onto my question:
I was thinking about adding another species to my tank.
I am looking for a species, that is more diurnal than C. rugosus.
Not that I have a problem with not seeing them much during the day, I absolutely love them.
In fact, most of the Animals I keep are nocturnal.
Well, it would be a bit strange to get Terrestrial hermit, if you don't accept they nocturnal life.

Well, as I said, I am looking for another Coenobita species to add to my setup, which I will be able to watch during the day more often.

I have been reading up a lot on the different species, but I just can't decide. Also I wanted to read some personal experiences about the activity levels of the different species.

I hope some of you will be able to help me decide.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the long text..

regards
Manuel

I don't have much personal experience with exotic however I think that almost all species are nocturnal, however it just depends if the day/crab in my tank. I have purple pinchers and sometimes I see them wander during the day, but ive noticed that are spikes in activity for my crabs around 10pm, 3am and 8am that last a couple hours. That's just my crabs though and I believe it's probably different for everyone depending on tank set up and geographic location.


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Hi,

Welcome to the HCA! I agree it's the best!

Straws are my favorite species, friendly with people and other crabs, very active (my guys always make an afternoon walkabout of the tank) but my most active is actually a PP. My Es are also very active during the day. They pretty much like hanging together like a merry band of marauders. They are mores skittish with me than my straws, but get into lots of (what I would think) would be embarrassing situations (sleeping hanging upside down, getting stuck in ornaments, trying to dominate crabs twice their size). They are not regal, dignified straws that almost seem to glide around the tank, Es are ridiculous (although they don't know it) and goofballs. And SUPER CUTE.

Other exotics in my experience (it's been quite some time) I like violas and Indos-they have lower activity levels but don't tend to be super shy - they are just chillin'. However they can act a little dominant over other crabs-these species don't like being pushed around the they'll sometimes push back. Cavi's I never cared for- not much to look at as the mature (brown-they are always brown), hide, hide, hide and did not molt well for me.

It all depends on where you live - not all crab species are available in different locations.

I only own purple pinchers and don't have experience with other species, but as far as I know they're all mostly active at night. My PPs come out and explore during the day but nighttime is when they're out the most.

Thank you very much for your answers!

@purpleperson: Yes, I too think that it also depends on the individual crabs. three of mine are pretty active in the afternoon, the rest i only see at night (most of them at about 2 in the morning (yes, I sometimes watch my animals at night, hahah)

@landlubber: I thought about perlatus too, because I´ve read they are often active during the day. But I read everywhere they don´t do well in captivity and that kinda put me off. It would be absolutely great to have some for sure, I was always fascinated by them when I saw this species for sale! But as I said, I am worried about them dying prematurely.
The Es sound pretty great too, but sadly, I´ve never seen them for sale around here..
Violas and Indos are sometimes available here, but very rarely. (Well, they are always available in an onlineshop in germany, but this exact one doesn´t have a very good reputation...)

@megmaholm: I live in Austria, it is indeed a problem to get terrestrial hermits here! The best place to buy differnet species would be reptile expos ( I hope I used the right term)
But there will only be one more in Austria, because they are banning them (reptile expos) completely...an absolutely stupid decision if you ask me, but I can´t change that..
Also, there is only one online-shop (The one with the bad reputation that I mentioned before) left that has hermits (pretty much every species except spinosus and the lesser known ones) in stock, the other ones don´t have them anymore apparently..
At the expos I always saw Straws, Indos, rugosus and sometimes Violas (Ok, rarely I was able to find Birgus latro, but that one is not really an option for me yet)

I see your thought process. In my experience rugs were not known for longevity either. None of the exotic species have been known for being hardy. I had terrible luck with rugs, but they were also a fav, I loved their looks and all the colors they came in. Considering straw's fragility they've done pretty well for me, although certainly greater losses than PPs.

Sorry for my late answer...

Really?
Because here in europe, only straws are said to be extremely hard to keep, every other species (except purpureus maybe, but even these are not considered impossible..) is pretty much considered "doable if you know what you are doing". At least to my knowledge.

Well, I´m still not sure which species to add to the tank.
So... you would recommend Straws or Es?

Sorry if my sentences are not always easy to understand, but I´m not a native speaker..

I'm just relaying my experience, which other crabbers may not have had. There are so many things that could do into why that might be. Straws need higher, stable temps and humidity, a good quality salt water mixed at the right salinity (super important for straws). Not really so hard-the rest is just how hardy the specific crab or species is and how comfortable the crabber is dealing with any issues that arise. Some of the differences may have to do with what crabs are going through during the harvesting/shipping/distribution process-some species may go through more to get to certain areas of the globe than others? Don't really know, that's just what I can think of that might account for that.

Your English is very good! I wish I knew other languages, but I'm not very good at learning languages.

I would always vote for straws IF you can provide what's needed and feel comfortable with having them. Straws are hands-down my favorite species, personally.

Thank you again for your help.

I think I will get straws, I've always wanted them but never had the guts to buy some..
I'm not a beginner in terms of exotic animal care, so it should be no problem to maintain the right temperature and humidity pretty well.

I'll have to look for bigger water dishes now. My current ones are big enough for my rugosus to submerge, but I have never seen straws as small as my ruggies, hahah.

I have few more questions about straw-care:

Do they really need additional UVB lighting?

What do you exactly mean by perfect salinity and good salt? I always used salt for marine aquaria and mixed 33 grams salt per 1 liter water (filtered by a reverse osmosis filter).
Just like you would do for a reef aquarium containing SPS and other coral.
I know this works good with other Coenobita species, but is this also good enough for straws?

Do they really need the same temperatures night and day? I'm asking, because I've read opposing things about it.
I currently maintain these temperatures in my hermit crab terrarium:
28°C (82.4°F) at day and 23°C (75.2°F) at night. There are also cooler and hotter places in the tank.
Should I change the temperatures?

I'll open a thread with pictures of my current setup, so someone can tell me what I should change in general.

Manuel_P wrote:
Do they really need additional UVB lighting?

Not in my opinion. I have read that theory also but I never really bought it based on my experience. Not convinced they can sufficiently process UVB through an exoskeleton.

Manuel_P wrote:What do you exactly mean by perfect salinity and good salt? I always used salt for marine aquaria and mixed 33 grams salt per 1 liter water (filtered by a reverse osmosis filter).
Just like you would do for a reef aquarium containing SPS and other coral.
I know this works good with other Coenobita species, but is this also good enough for straws?

Using the salt mixes for marine/coral set ups should be just fine (I'm guessing we would be using different brands) and I have a feeling you are good with numbers. I am not, and the math it takes to figure out the conversion makes my head hurt. All the major brands here in the US mix up like this:

1 gallon of water to ½ cup of salt mix
½ gallon (which is 2 quarts) of water to ¼ cup salt mix
1 Pint (which is 2 cups) of water to 1 Tablespoon (which is 3 teaspoons) salt mix
1 cup of water to ½ Tablespoon (which is 1 and ½ teaspoon) of salt mix

If you are super concerned about the salinity you can buy a hydrometer or a refractor to measure it like many fish hobbiest do.

Manuel_P wrote:Do they really need the same temperatures night and day? I'm asking, because I've read opposing things about it.
I currently maintain these temperatures in my hermit crab terrarium:
28°C (82.4°F) at day and 23°C (75.2°F) at night. There are also cooler and hotter places in the tank.
Should I change the temperatures?

That is just what my tank is for my four straws-I do the same thing. I say you are fine there.

I think you will do great with straws and that you will fall in love so quickly! PPS losses can be greater-so keep that in mind during that period.

Thank you very much again.

Great, the salinity should be the same then!

Yea, it's the losses I'm afraid of. Only after their first successful molt will I be able to fully enjoy them.