HCA: Hermit Crab Association

This is probably not the right category to be posting this question in, but it seemed like the closest fit.

I need some advice about adopting some new crabs. I put this link in the adoption forum in case someone else nearby was interested, but now I am thinking of taking these crabs myself.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/for/4984555667.html

In case you don't want to/can't open the link, it is a guy on craigslist selling 8 crabs and the tank they are in. His set up is...not suitable for hermit crabs is the most polite thing I can think of to say about it. The price is pretty outrageous. I keep telling myself that this is definitely something I do not want, but then I can't stop thinking about the poor crabs and the environment that they are forced to live in and that makes me want to go get them.

Right now I have a 70 gallon crabitat with 7 medium crabs and 6 smalls. I have 3 more small molters in a 10 gallon ISO. When they finish their molts they will move into the 70 gallon with the others, bringing me up to 16 crabs. If I were to get the craigslist crabs I would ISO them in that tank, but they would eventually have to move into the 70 with the others, bringing me up to 24 crabs (assuming all survive, which seems unlikely considering the place they have been living).

Is that a very bad idea? It seems like too many crabs to me, but my soft heart is making me waver on this.

This is something I would be doing, if I could afford it. They're all really tiny crabs and there are going to be some unavoidable losses over the years. I don't think you're going to end up overcrowded, especially if they're all Purple Pinchers.

It if helps to justify the cost (or to talk him down) figure
$8 per fancy crab from a pet shop - $48
10 gallon tank = $10
Lighted hood (I'm guessing) = $13
Sponges = $10
Gravel = $5
Total = $86

That's what he paid, and that is what he's asking. You could always try to barter down by explaining that everything is now used and it doesn't retain it's value...

I can't really afford it either, especially once you figure in gas for a two hour road trip and the heaters I am going to have to buy for the new ISO. But if I ate nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and potatoes for the next few weeks it might be possible. I guess I'm going to email him and see if he will come down on the price.

All of mine are PPs, by the way, and his look like PPs in the picture.

Try for just the crabs, explain you have a huge set-up. Ask if he'd be willing to sell the enclosure and supplies separately since reptile owners are often interested in that sort of thing but wouldn't want the hermits. All you can do is ask. Don't put yourself out though! if you can't do it, you can't do it.

Well, I did it. I offered him half of what he was asking and he agreed. I drove up this afternoon and picked them up. The crabitat was just as bad as it looked, and it stank as well. My car smells like moldy water now. It took me more than two hours to take them out, clean it, set it up properly, and put them back in, but now it's finished and they are in their new (temporary) home. I got a big surprise when I started taking them out of the tank, though....there are not eight crabs. There are thirteen crabs. Three mediums, three smalls, and seven of the teeniest crabs I have ever seen. I now have SO MANY crabs. I am going to have to make an addition to my 70 gallon soon. I will certainly be asking for help here.

I understand what you mean, I would buy them if I were richer.

Oh my gosh!!! How could anyone not know they had double the crabs!? I was showing that tank to a friend who runs a pet shop, and she couldn't get over how it was set up either. We both thought he was trying to do something tidal like for fiddlers.

I'm glad you got them.

I'm glad you got them too!

I'm glad I got them, too! Now I just need to make sure I have enough room for all of them in the big tank. I am plotting extensions right now.

Those weird sponge mountains were hollow, and there were lots of little caves in the sides. There were several crabs inside the hollow part and a bunch of teenies in the caves. Despite the lack of substrate and the barrenness of the tank, it was surprisingly hard to see how many crabs there were in there. It wasn't until I got them home and started taking them out and counting...and recounting....that I realized how many there were. Fortunately, all but two of them are pretty small so I have time to think about how to make space for them.

So far they are doing well in their over-crowded ISO, but they are the scaredest crabs I have ever seen. Any movement near the tank doesn't make them jump in their shell, it makes them flat out run for shelter. I think the lack of hiding places, plus the fact that the guy had two young children who probably handled them (the tank was in their bedroom), must have made them extra-shy. There have been several shell swaps (one poor guy was in a shell so small he couldn't cover his eyes), and they eat constantly. No matter what time of day or night I look at the tank, someone is eating. Oddly, no one has burrowed yet. Perhaps when they get their fill of food they will start digging. I just hope they weren't in that tank for so long that they can't recover.