I went to the shore with my family and fell in love with a few hermit crabs (my son HAD to have one, too). First night there I bought a tiny tank and 2 little guys. The 4th day, before we left I came across a HUGE jumbo I had to have. So I bought the large screened tank, another tiny hermie, and the jumbo crab thinking "how hard could 4 little hermit crabs be to take care of?" ... little did I know. So I took my new pets and went home.
Well, when I got home I was in for a surprise... the large $2 shell I bought for "Big Papa" to move into if he wanted had ANOTHER jumbo crab in it. He was pulled into it so far that you could only see the tip of his claw if you looked really far in... so our hermie family became 5, 1 tiny (Sparks), 2 mediums (flame and fiona) and 2 jumbos (Surprise and Big Papa).
Well, being the crazy person I am (a slight perfectionist) I started to read everything online (including this site and others) about how to take care of hermits right. I had NO idea how far off from reality I was in taking care of them. In the screened cage I had for them they would have died a slow painful death and broke my heart.
I immediately went to the pet store and bought a 10g tank, sand, coconut fiber blocks, wood to make a cave (jumbos were too big for the little caves the pet store sold), water dish, water conditioners, salt water stuff, food dish, wood to climb on, gauges and a couple books on hermits.
After getting the tank setup at home I realized "this is NOT going to work with 2 jumbos", so I went back out and tried to find something bigger. I was going to put them in 2 different tanks (2 10g, 1 for jumbos, 1 for the small one) but I thought they may like to be all together, and one tank is easier to take care of than 2. I looked into the 20 long, but it was smaller in square inches than the exo-terra 18x18x18, and the 30 long was only slightly bigger than the exo-terra and more money, so I got the exo-terra.
I also bought a bi-light with sun-glo and night-glo bulbs, lots of plants, cuddlebone, more wood to build with, and the exo-terra waterfall.
I built the tank the coconut fiber subtrate, a "tree" in the right corner, with a wood cave and a tree branch ladder to get to the second level (which is covered in the "trees" leaves and makes shade. The water fall is in the left corner with plants behind it so they can't get back there, and lots of cubbie holes and walking space, even for the jumbos. It looked great
Well, Right before I got the tank finished and set up, "surprise" burried himself and so did fiona. So i moved the 3 others to their new home. A few days later surprise came up (from the looks of things he just destressed) and I waited a bit and moved him into the new tank. He seemed to immediately like it. He ate, drank, climbed, and then went to sleep on the second floor in the tree. I still am waiting on Fiona in the old tank, she looks to be molting though, I can see her on the bottom of the tank. I hope she is ok.
So far the temp and humidity are a nice constant 80/80, and I think, since the are climbing all around at night and each has a little cubbie they like to sleep in, the hermies seem to like it. Been giving them lots of "salad" stuff and fruit, and bits of dried shrimp, which they seem to really like.
I am new to all this, only been over a week, but I hope I can do right by my little guys. Had I known before hand what was entailed in hermit crabs I probably would not have bought them, but now that I have I will make every effort to make them a nice life. To tell the truth I am glad I had no idea how hard they would be, because I would have not had the chance to own these adorable like crabs.
Well, that's my LONG and not so exciting story of my new family. If you got this far, thanks for reading. And thank you all for the wonderful help these boards have provided me in my first week as a new hermommy
Kind of worried about him, but I will wait a while before I worry too much. Little flame burried himself for a couple days, too, and just came up this morning. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves though.... Big Papa spent a few hours yesterday sitting in the waterfall splashing water on himself