HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My crabby clan really likes snails. I mean really. I toss in the occasional garden snail I find, and none of them last more than a week. They are abundant in the spot my dad hunts for worms, which is also the spot I hunt for pill bugs. We have a sweet deal, I put any big worms I find in his worm bin and he grabs any slimy-crawly noms he finds for my crabbies. Win-win.

So I figured if I was going to make a habit of it I should start a captive breeding program. It will be safer for the hermits, and an interesting side project for me. I'm building a terrarium into the glass top coffee table my fiance bought for me, but I hadn't decided on what to put in it yet. I've seen people do them for tortoises, but I don't know a thing about keeping turtles, and I also don't like the idea of keeping an animal like that in such a high traffic spot in the house. (Plus tortoises are kinda expensive.) So I was gonna just do lowlight plants, but a terrarium for garden snails sounds so much more fun! And much easier to maintain.

So I hit the interwebs for some research. Apparently a lot of people eat the little guys. (Yuck!) But its also supposed to be a fun project for kids to keep as pets.

Supposedly they thrive in temperatures between 55 and 75 Fahrenheit; that's easy because I thrive in that too.

They don't have eyes, but they do like lots of dark hiding places. Most activity occurs after dusk, as they are nocturnal. Just like hermit crabs.

Snails are vegetarians. They like a lot of the same things our hermits do, especially if its starting to get rotten. No citrus! A calcium source is a great idea for strong shells; cuttle bone is a good option.

They are all hermaphrodites, meaning that they possess both male and female reproductive parts. Any two snails can make more snails! That makes things easy as far as breeding goes.

So research done, I crawled around in the worm bed for like three hours in the early morning. I found one snail. Grrr. So I googled it and they come out after the rain. Luckily, it rained that evening. I found like a dozen more in the span of twenty minutes.

They need a few inches of soil, but different websites gave different recommendations on substrate. I decided on EcoEarth, mainly because I know it's clean and I had some laying around the house from my tank build. They're currently in a critter keeper tank, temporary until I finish my terrarium. I put in some oak branches, leaf litter, and moss (also crabitat extras), and a heavy stoneware dish for food. Apparently they can drown fairly easily, so I've just been keeping their food moist and lightly spritzing their leaves with the hermit's spray bottle.

So far, they really like clover leaves and flowers. They also seem to like carrot and strawberry tops. They're slowly munching holes in their leaf litter too. It seems like they're going to be pretty easy to feed. Mostly they get leftovers from the crabs.

I found eggs yesterday, little white things in the moss. Hopefully I'll have little baby ones soon! I'll update if they hatch.

If anyone wants to try this too, we can share ideas and tips. It should be a great nutrition source for the crabs, and a fun little project to boot. The beautiful part is that if I get too many or change my mind about the coffee table terrarium, I can always turn them loose in the worm bed again. I thought someone might like to try along with me, since the supplies are probably already in a crabber's house to begin with. I know some of you farm isopods, so maybe this isn't too much of a stretch.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think we are only supposed to give our crabs food grade snails?

I don't remember where I read this but I think it is because snails can carry bacteria or parasites that are harmful to the crabs.

@Wodesorel or @Crabinksi or another long term crabber may know.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... ls#p950164

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... lit=Snails

Thought of that. Did the research.

"Food grade" is recommended because of pesticides. No risk of that where I get them.

BrisHermies wrote:http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... ls#p950164

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... lit=Snails

Thought of that. Did the research.

"Food grade" is recommended because of pesticides. No risk of that where I get them.

They can carry lungworm from rodent feces. This can even cause meningitis in humans and is one reason why African land snails are banned from the U.S.

While most of the known cases haven't been in the U.S. scientists believe that it is spreading and are wanting further studies to be done.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiost ... antonensis

Which are dangerous to rats, and humans if an infected snail is eaten. I don't think it poses the same risk to hermit crabs. Plenty of people raise garden snails as pets, and I've found posts from several members that feed them to the crabs. I'm going to keep them for my terrarium anyway. Maybe I'll reconsider them as a food for the crabs, but I see no real evidence that they're harmful.

Yes, I'd worry more about what wild caught snails' parasites would do to you than to the crabs. (A few google searches produce frightening results). If you're really into the thought of breeding them, consider ordering a captive bred starter colony from a biological supply company to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease.

FWIW, here's our snail experience, maybe there will be something useful for you here:

We kept five tiny garden snails my son and husband found in the back yard for several months. When they started dying, I convinced my son to return the remaining three to the yard. I suspect they were missing something in their diet or environment that they needed. A friend speculated it was because I periodically sterilized their sub (by heating in the oven); I was paranoid of pests! The first snail the boys picked up was actually a tiny wolf snail, which is a carnivore, so double check your snails! We discovered this the hard way when, after refusing all food for five days, he voraciously ate the first garden snail we added to the tank! Currently we have several bladder snails along with minnows all caught in the backyard canal. We started with one snail a year ago, so all the rest were born in the tank. I'm concerned about them, however, because their shells look fragile. This is also what I noticed with the garden snails. It seems they are not getting enough calcium, although with both kinds of snails we always had cuttlebone, eggshells, etc. available. Our hermit crabs pounce on that stuff, but the snails don't seem to. Good luck!


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If you're looking for ways to balance aquatic snails' diet and calcium, this group might be a good start. http://applesnail.net/forum3/index.php? ... eeb4153040

I'm sure there are terrestrial snail forums, too, if you want to look for more information.