HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Today, I was working and selling crabs to a lovely family who had two kids, one was a teenage boy who was super excited and very kind, and the other was their younger sun who was super kind as well! We provided her with a FMR care sheet (which tbh I've seen worse) and told her that they prefer sand and that she could use a glass tank or a storage tote for them! She seemed to be ok with that and willing to put in the work, she talked about researching more about them, which I told her was a great idea! I then helped her check out and talked to her a bit more, and before she left I got a sticky note, and a pen, and wrote down the hermitcrabassociation on it, and handed it to her and told her this was a great website which would help answer her many questions she was going to have along they way, I also told her that there are some great care sheets here, and that there's an emergency section incase she had any questions! If your seeking this, I'm so glad you are learning more about your new friends, and it was a pleasure to help you! ~ KyMart

Happy for you, her, and the crabs involved!

myllkti wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2023 12:39 am

Happy for you, her, and the crabs involved!

I hope they live long happy lives!

Me too!

myllkti wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2023 10:30 pm

Me too!

Her older son seemed super excited and like he was willing to put in the time/money/research needed to give them a good life! People like this give me hope! Like today this dude came in and told me he had a jumbo at home in his crabitat and was looking to purchase 3 new crabs! I helped him find the biggest ones in the tank, and he was on his way home with them! I hope they make it past PPS and live long happy lives too! This man has his wife call to see if we got our crab shipment in today (which we did) and then he got off work early to come pick them up! He was super excited and I love helping people who know what there doing get new babies to welcome into their crabitats!

It is kind of ironic tho - because the more crabs that are sold in pet stores, the more that are taken from their natural habitat. And a great deal of those do not make it, due to the horrible conditions from the time they are in the wild until they are sold. It's nice to help give those sold a better chance at survival, but it's terrible that so many continue to be taken and die in the process.

curlysister wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 27, 2023 6:24 pm

It is kind of ironic tho - because the more crabs that are sold in pet stores, the more that are taken from their natural habitat. And a great deal of those do not make it, due to the horrible conditions from the time they are in the wild until they are sold. It's nice to help give those sold a better chance at survival, but it's terrible that so many continue to be taken and die in the process.

You act like I control what my store sells, I am actually going to talk to my boss about improving conditions once busy season is over, he doesn't have the time to do anything right now, he is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. The truth is that the people where going to buy the crabs anyways, I just have them a good reference to do their own research and hopefully improve their care, that is me giving them a fighting chance. And your right, it is terrible that they continue to be taken from their natrual habitat, and that so many of them die. These crabs where only at our store for a few hours, they have a fighting chance for sure, and they will be home next week and should have a good crabitat within the month (fingers crossed, the teenage boy seemed like he was ready to do the research and work!), I hope they make it, and I'm glad they got them rather then some parents for their two year old as a throw away pet.

Would it be possible to have them complete their research first before giving them the crab? That will A discourage a decent number of people from even buying the crab in the first place B ensure the crabs have a ready-set-up place to call home and C also encourage more people who wouldve bought to perhaps adopt or to buy captive bred instead. Not sure if your boss would allow that but I would hope so

myllkti wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 29, 2023 3:06 pm

Would it be possible to have them complete their research first before giving them the crab? That will A discourage a decent number of people from even buying the crab in the first place B ensure the crabs have a ready-set-up place to call home and C also encourage more people who would've bought to perhaps adopt or to buy captive bred instead. Not sure if your boss would allow that but I would hope so

I don't think so to be honest, he's a good guy, but he's just uneducated, I have a plan to educate him, that will also help his business (which he will be more likely to listen to, like most people in business would). We get many people in that know stuff about hermit crab, and have an already established crabitat and are there to get some newbies, actually more then you would think. Change is happening soon, if we can educate people on proper cate when we sell them crabs, give them a good temporary start up habit for their crabs (not a 10 gallon tank, but like a tank with substrate that is AT LEAST a few inches, and not gravel, a closed lid to keep in humidity, good food, water conditioner and salt to make salt water, a good care sheet that isn't outdated and actually has good information, some natrual shells that are the size up, and maybe even some moss! This would be a great start, and oh my goodness it would make a world of change! I personally think that if we made these changes, and gave them proper care while with us (except for deep substrate, that would be dangerous due to the amount of crabs in the tank, this would make a world of a change. If we model proper Hermit crab cage, teach them the basics, give them a good start, and good resources, we could significantly reduce the amount of deaths. If they don't want to spend a few extra $ and have healthy crabs from us, they can go down the street and get the ones from the store that drops them knee high into buckets. They have a wayyy smaller cage then us with more crabs with us, and only sell wire cages (we sell wire cages and critter keepers), and the don't even give them gravel, and no extra shells in sight for purchase (not even painted ones)! Our shops conditions right now are less then ideal, but I am confident they are better then what the poor crabs down the street are going through. If we have ours proper care, and sold a good starter set, people would not buy from them if they saw how ours where cared for and where given information by us on how to properly care for hermit crabs. I have a feeling this would give us some good reviews, and returning customers who trust us with crabs because we know stuff about crabs . If we advertised the fact that we have well cared for hermit crabs, I think that crabbers looking for new additions would come out of their way to shop with us, but that could just be me and my marketing background going crazy over the idea of the amount of benefits I can think of to this!

That would help alleviate the suffering of those crabs under your care certainly! However, it does not do anything about the problem Curly brought up

Better some change than none of course but the crabs are still being taken from their natural habitat. Instead of full education how about just a full shopping list? Still someeeewhat does the ABC thing I mentioned earlier. And I'm guessing there's very little chance your boss would be willing to source from Hermit House right? Lol

But anyways glad your shop has someone working towards the wellbeing of these little guys in any capacity!!

myllkti wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:35 pm

That would help alleviate the suffering of those crabs under your care certainly! However, it does not do anything about the problem Curly brought up

Better some change than none of course but the crabs are still being taken from their natural habitat. Instead of full education how about just a full shopping list? Still someeeewhat does the ABC thing I mentioned earlier. And I'm guessing there's very little chance your boss would be willing to source from Hermit House right? Lol

We sell 100 crabs a week, Hermit House couldn't keep up.. : (

myllkti wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:35 pm

But anyways glad your shop has someone working towards the wellbeing of these little guys in any capacity!!

Me too! I try to educate customers as much as possible, and change is coming soon! My sister is on board (she works there too, and is an adult, so that's helpful!

KyMart wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 9:23 pm

We sell 100 crabs a week, Hermit House couldn't keep up.. : (

That is heartbreaking, really. So many crabs taken from the wild, and the death rate prior to getting to the store is tragic.

curlysister wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 9:59 pm

That is heartbreaking, really. So many crabs taken from the wild, and the death rate prior to getting to the store is tragic.

We rarely ever have any die on their way here, maybe a few a month.. It's still sad tho.. We got a little guy in two weeks ago that left his shell, I gave him a quick bath and re shelled him. He came out a few more times, but I didn't give up, I then took him out of the cage and put him in a box with some extra shells, he finally stayed in the shell. After about 15 minutes of staying in I put him back with the others, and he lived! He went home with a new family about a week later, I'm so happy I saved him.