HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi all,

I live in the South Eastern area of Melbourne, Australia. I'm planning to get some hermit crabs in September (birthday present!) and just have a few questions and wanted to say hi.

I already have a tank organised, it is 61cm x 40cm x 40cm (or 2ft x 1ft 4in x 1ft 4in, which makes it a little wider and higher then a standard 2ft aquarium tank) with a glass lid.

I'm strongly leaning towards getting a thermostat to control the under-tank heater. Melbourne weather can vary a lot from day to day, particularly in the summer months where you can have a 35C (95F) day followed by a 22C (72F) day.

What would be the minimum/preferred number of crabs to get initially? I know they are social and am thinking of getting either three or four to start with.

Anybody recommend good pet store/supply stores in my area?

With substrate, I've seem some doco saying to keep it fairly shallow, and some that say it must be at least twice as deep as your tallest crab. Recommendations?

As far as substrate goes, is the fine grained aquarium sand you can get suitable or is something a little courser preferred? I've also seen stuff which I think is made out of the stringy bark like stuff in coconuts that looks like it could be a good addition as a top layer of the substrate, or a backing mat on the back of the tank.

Now for the really esoteric: Tank thermometers and hygrometers that can feedback readings to a computer. Yes, I'm a computer geek - develop software for a living - and was thinking it would be really cool to setup a web-cam on my tank to take pictures and upload to web-site on a 15 minute interval or some such. Thought it would be cool to be able to supply temperature and humidity info as well (plus I could get the computer to SMS me if things get out of acceptable ranges). Anybody got experience with this?

That's about it for now. The basic schedule is to get the tank at the start of September (got to build a stand for it in the meantime), and start getting it set up, then get the crabs in late September as I'll be away for a couple of weeks over the school holidays.

Thanks and great web-site!

Evan

I'm in the USA, so I'll try to answer some of your questions:

-substrate: actually, gravel isn't recommended at all. playsand is a good substrate, when you wet it to sand castle consistency so the crabs can tunnel. FB (forest bedding) or EE (eco earth) are semi-mulch/composte like (don't really know how to descrbie it) and are sold in expandable bricks. the substrate needs to be at least 1.5 times as tall as your tallest crab.

-you'll need both temperature and humidity gauges in your tank to make sure both stay between 75 and 80.

-the number of crabs to start with depends on how big these crabs are. Obviously, if you get only jumbos, you can only fit 4 or so. But if you get all tiny or micros, you could fit 15 or 20. I would get at least 3 crabs to start with, however, since they are social. different size crabs require more space, look under the "sizing crabs" link and you'll see how much each needs. I have a 20L tank and currently have 1 large, 1 medium, 2 small, and 2 tiny, although I could fit more in.

hope this helps!

Caroline

I'd love to watch your crabby web cam!!

BeckyAndKristinsMa wrote:I'd love to watch your crabby web cam!!

Me too, Me too!

I'm very curious about Australian Crazy Crabs since we can't get those in the U.S. And the temp and humidity info would be neat to have as well!

As far as pet stores in your area, maybe other Australian members on this board could give some recommendations. Sounds like you are doing your homework ahead of time!

Welcome to the HCA and good luck with your crabs!

Hi and Welcome!!

If an Austrailain member doesn't come along to help you with things that us US crabbers can't answer maybe you can PM Troppo or Aussie Crabber and ask them. Those are the two I can think of off the top of my head... Troppo is our member of the month of June (still up)... she is very nice and has been very helpful to me at times I was having some crab issues.

I want to watch your cam too when you get it set up!!!! I will be really interested to hear all the details once you get everything set up. I am thinking about getting some sort of thermostate for my tank for this winter. My husband likes to turn the heat way down at night so I think I am going to get a large Under Tank Heater (UTH) for my tank this winter. My old one is stuck to my smaller tank, I just recently upgraded and once stuck on you can't get them off without damaging them.

Sand and coco fiber are both good substrates... half and half as you suggested you might do is a great idea. Just make sure it is 100% coconut fiber. I'm not sure what your aquarium sand is... play sand is a favorite around this site because it is cheep and user friendly. Most people do not like the product called Calci Sand on it's own though mixed with other sand or coco fiber it seems to do fine... gravel isn't good because they can't dig in it ,so if you want some gravel in your tank... some people use it around water and food dishes... it's real important to have sand or a coco fiber substrate also so they can dig to molt and destress. And so to answer your other question... your substrate needs to be deep enough to fully cover your largest hermie and then some... so the 1.5 - 2 inches taller than your largest hermit is a good measure... count on your substrate being at least 2 - 3 inches deep. You can also do what a lot of people do and have one end of the tank substrate deeper and slope it down if you want.

I would say the minimum number of crabs to get to start would be two of course 3 or 4 is better. Go to the right>>> under Crab Care FAQ and find Sizing Hermies and that will help you determine how many crabs you can have for your size of tank.


As for heat and humidity... the numbers you see are ranges... a
"Recommended Ranges:

Temperature: 72 - 84 degrees Fahrenheit
Relative humidity: 74 - 82%

Stagnant or still air is not good! We like to stay within +/- 2% of the stated ranges. Additionally, it is good to have more than one micro climate within the tank too. This will help individual crabs better meet their personal preferences for these environmental factors. They like to have a change, and sometimes prefer a cooler/warmer, moister/less humid space to meet their needs. They live in a "closed" environment in captivity. That means we have to provide the differences for them since they can't leave!"
This was taken from the coenobita research website and to read the rest of the article click the link below.

http://www.coenobita.org/modules.php?na ... age&pid=16[/b]