HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey all, recently a friend offered to give me some mealworms to start up a colony of my own at home, as I am planning on getting a leopard gecko in the spring and I figured I'd give the worms a few months to get established before then, and the crabs would love them as a little snack.

I have seen so much conflicting info online on how to set it up and keep them healthy so I thought I'd post here and see what some of you do.

From what I understand at this point, I will have a critter keeper with a couple inches of oatmeal on the bottom, and an egg crate for a hide. Does this seem appropriate? And how many will this set up hold?
I have also read that some people moisten the oatmeal and others give juicy fruits for moisture. What do you recommend?

Sorry for all the questions I'm just not sure who else to ask. when giving them to the crabs do you just put them in the food dish, in a separate bowl, or just in the tank? Thanks!!


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The set up sounds fine, I've bred mealworms in similar conditions as your set up . I never had to moisten the oatmeal that the mealworms were on, they did fine without it, for water I would just give them a carrot to munch on. They're very durable little things so you don't need to worry to much on cage set up. When I feed them to my crabs I usually pinch the head and just drop it in the food bowl for them, I've found this ways easier than feeding them live ones.

My mealies are in a 6qt Sterilite container. For ventilation I have small holes drilled around the top edge. This proved to not be enough for me so I ended up also cutting out an opening on the lid and gluing down some screening.

Their substrate is mostly oats with some whole wheat thrown in, sometimes barley, sometimes bran flakes, or whatever healthier-type cereal I may have on hand. I give them bits of carrot, potato, apple, greens, orange, etc too. (be careful not to over do those or you may end up with mold or bugs).

I used to keep beetles, worms, and pupae separate but I found I ended up with WAY too many so now I just house them all together. This of course depends on the number you need and how they do for you. I have a spare container to make cleaning easier.

Keep old fresh foods cleaned up (though honestly mine eat through what I give pretty quickly). It's easy to see when it's time for a full clean as there'll be much more mealie poo than cereals. I just prepare the spare container and sift through the old one, moving over all the pupae, worms, and beetles. I hang onto the old container for a while to catch any tiny babies that I may have missed with the first sifting once they've gotten a bit bigger.

Good luck! They really are quite easy to raise.

Edit to add: When I feed live to the crabs I just put them in a dish with smooth sides that are high enough the mealies can't crawl out, yet not too high for the crabs to get in and out. I find the little plastic side dishes from KFC (I really don't eat out as much as this sounds ) work quite well. My crabs love them live! Dried too but live even better.

Calla I use those same containers for water in my iso tank.

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I use wheat bran from the bulk food store - it's the same stuff as the Flukers bedding but it's $1.50 for the same amount as one of their $13 tubs. I tried oatmeal but the grain mites got so out of control (dripping off the container) that I switched to straight bran. It's worked great and no more coated containers! I have a metal strainer that I use for pet purposes that is great for straining out the poop, but it will miss the tiny babies.

I would not recommend the eggcrate - the worms will eat it and I personally never liked the thought of that then being passed along to whatever is eating the worms. Mine go to amphibians and arachnids so I'm a little paranoid about what is in their gut.

For water/food mine get carrots. Apples if I run out, but I find they mold and slimey fast. Like Calla, the worms eat so much you'll likely not have to clean out old food if you watch how much you're putting in.

I started with whatever pupae I had from their purchased meals and it's been a few months now and I ended up with about a thousand worms without even trying. I'm separating them out to keep the mess and smell down, and to try and stagger their sizes since right now I have nothing but big worms that are pupating and nothing behind that to feed.

Oh! And keep in mind that the eggs are going to be in with that poop, so you're not going to want to change anything until things start rolling along!

It's gone so well that I'm trying superworms now.

Edited to add: I've been giving my crabs fresh pupae since there are so many I don't really need anymore. My leos will only eat the worms so the pupae are worthless. I gave them a bowl of around a hundred the other night, and no worries about them crawling away.

Thank you everyone for your responses!! I really appreciate it.

Wodesorel, I see your point on the egg crate, but what do you use as a hide, and is it even really necessary?


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No hide. The worms stay buried and the beetles are fine so long as there is enough surface area so they aren't standing on each other.

Forgot to mention I don't use any lids. The cats can't get in that room and the beetles can't fly so there is no need. I finally found a use for all those KKs I got with adoptions.

I have them now! I decided to go with oatmeal as its all I had available, but if it doesn't work out I will change it. I got just over 200 of them. So far so good!

I read that you shouldn't put the food directly on the sub. Thoughts on this?


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If it's wet food it can get moldy if they don't eat it fast enough. I only have trouble with apples.

Oh alright. The article I read said any food, but since I wasn't planning on feeding apples anyways I doubt it will be much of an issue. Thanks again!


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