HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Ok, so here's a story! As you might know, I teach 5th grade and we have hermits in our room. So today a parent comes in and says she has a problem...

A friend of hers went to Florida and collected some shells. She put them in her bag, flew home with them, and put them on her table. She was horrified when they started moving! She put them in a plastic wal-mart bag and hung them on her porch! For the last week!!! I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, it's been 25 and 30 here over night. The seven that were brought to me are still alive! No food, water, or anything for a week!

I put them in a 2 gal iso I have. I filled it with salt water and made a little beach for them. They started crawling around immediately! Now my question is...what do I do with them? I don't have a salt water set up, or the money to set one up, let alone the space.

I had to take them, I couldn't let the parent walk away with a bag full of mhc's! Knowing they'd die for sure! If you have any suggestions, let me know. I looked mhc's online and I think they're Clibanarius vittatus.

You really don't need corals. You set up is fine. But I'd upgrade it to at least a 10gal with Saltwater Heater and a light if you can.

You can save up for some live rock. That will help.

actually, the setup is a little more complicated than that, limeslide.

first of all, bravo to you for helping out these little ones. i myself have a c. vittatus named Corinth. do your guys look like him?



although i'm very glad that the little ones are in caring hands now, they are not out of the woods yet. first, you mention salt water. what kind of salt did you use to make it, is it marine grade like Oceanic or Instant Ocean? if you use something like API, it just won't work. Also, with marine hermits you have to be very careful when mixing their water because the specific gravity (basically, how salty it is) needs to stay within a certain range to be livable.

to survive these guys are going to need a setup that involves a filtration system, preferably a biological one. I could walk you through setting everything up that you'd need for a marine tank, but even then it would need to cycle before it was ready for any invertabrates. the best chance those hermits have is you getting them to an aquarium shop. explain the situation and ask if they can take them in...another member here was in a similar situation and this worked for her.

marine hermit care is a world apart from LHC care...the species you have is tough, and they're more adapted than most to live outside of the ocean, but in the end they need a complete marine setup.

in the meantime i would advise (if you have one of the marine grade salts) mixing up water very carefully and keeping them in it. you can feed them a shrimp by placing it down in the water,but remove it quickly, before one hour, because deteriorating organic material does all sorts of bad things to your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

good luck! my MHCs (especially little Corinth) are rooting for your guys.

Caroline

I use oceanic. I know it's so different! LHC's are so much easier...thanks for the advice everyone. I'll try an aquarium shop.... I really don't have the space or money to keep them up. I wish I did.

Are you sure they are MHCs??? over a week is a long time for MHC's to live without water! Some of my really tiny PPs don't look like PPs and could easily be mistaken for MHC's...


Here is a picture of one of my micro PPs on a dime
[Link no longer works]

No, they're mhc's. I looked online. They're the striped hermit crab. I know...a week! I'm a mazed.

Hermitcrazy wrote:Are you sure they are MHCs??? over a week is a long time for MHC's to live without water! Some of my really tiny PPs don't look like PPs and could easily be mistaken for MHC's...


Here is a picture of one of my micro PPs on a dime
[Link no longer works]

c. vittatus are one of the most hardy MHC species out there, they have been known to spend a week or more out of water. my guy likes to perch outside the water in the tank from time to time, the species really vary.

any luck on finding a place to take them?

Caroline