HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Now, my mom has never EVER wanted me to get MHC ever since she learned they had to have salt water, because we've had very bad experience with salt water tanks. Well...

My dad is thinking of expanding the pond (AGAIN!!) but he wants to make a 'Tadpole' section, where just a little bit of water trickles down in a small river, not big enough for the fish to get through to so that we can keep getting Tadpoles even when there big enough to kill/eat them.

Well, my mom said that if I saved up enough money, I can FINALLY get a MHC set up. my plan was to convert a 10g over, but while reading up I realized that they needed at least 75 litres of space, which would be at least a 20gallon.

So, before I get one of course I need the money and I really need to do my research. I was wondering if anyone could help me out?
I can't find many good MHC sites out there, does anyone have any suggestions for sites/books? to stay away from OR to look for? Any help would be extremely appreciated, also,..

Whats a minimum tank size? would a 20g be okay? just for a few crabs? say 5?



NOTE:
I would be getting Dwarf Blue Hermit Crabs, if they were still at Big als. I have alot of shells around there size to.
Also, can Fish stay in with Hermit crabs? I've read that they can but I'd want to be sure.

I'm no MHC expert, but I do own some blue leg marine hermits!
They're in my parents 92g setup.
I think they would do fine in a 10g, but a 20g would be much easier for YOU to manage. I don't know much about the equipment and such needed for a salt water setup, but heres a salt water fishtank forum.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/index ... 8490f645e6
You can learn about cycling the tank, and other useful information to help you set up your tank!

I am also not an expert but I know the minimum requirments.

You need

30gallon aquarium with hood
live rock/sand/coral
things to climb on
and all salt water fish are okay with MHC's as far as I know.

In general MHC aren't something you keep all by themselves as a pet, the way we do LHC. They are a part of a reef, which would have live rocks (rocks with algae and other living things on them), probably some corals, snails and maybe a few other things. They are a part of a little ecosystem and probably wouldn't do very well as the main part of a tank by themselves. You want to learn about saltwater reef tanks, not just MHC. That is part of why it is so hard to find a lot of information just about the marine hermies.

And you can also PM Annopia/Caroline from these here forums.

you don't need a 30 gallon or even a 20 to have a healthy marine tank. what i have is a 14 gallon biocube, and its great. the filtration system is built in to those (also for aquapods, nanopods, etc) so the only necessary things are a heater, shells, etc.

and MHC can certainly be kept as pets. i have 10 of them! they live in a tank with lots of live rock and corals, and are so active and fun to watch. i think that 5 of my original 10 are still with me after a year. but the live rock is very important, they love to climb on it and snack on the algae. live rock also makes the intial cycling of the tank much much easier. please feel free to pm if you have any questions.

Caroline