HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Back in May of 2016, my family came back from a beach vacation with two hermit crabs and I immediately joined this forum. We started with a 20 gallon reptile tank (which was completely wrong), then moved to a 29 gallon aquarium and added two more hermies, which we figured would allow each crab to have company while others were molting. Thanks to all the great knowledge shared here, we've been planning a new, larger habitat for them. Last night we moved everyone into their new 65 gallon home. I'll follow up with details on the build later. But I wanted to go ahead and share a few pics with you guys:

Here's a shot of the whole tank:



Ignore the readings. Things were not stable at the point I took this shot. Here are some closer looks:







All plants in the tank are currently plastic, with the exception of the moss patch seen in the back of this shot:

That last crab pic is cute!

You have a beautiful tank! I love really natural looking tanks.

Cute crabs, too!

Nice looking tank and great shots! What were they taken with, they look so crisp?


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Thanks everyone! Natural was the goal. All four crabs are Caribbean purple pinchers and the goal was to try to set up a habitat not unlike the environment from which they came. Of course, things did have to be adjusted to what was available in the pet supply universe.

All of our crabs looked dull, had broken tips and even missing appendages when we first got them. But they've all gone through one or two molts since we got them and are looking sooooo much healthier and colorful now! We think they're getting cuter by the day. Though that may be more us than them...

aussieJJDude wrote:Nice looking tank and great shots! What were they taken with, they look so crisp?

Thanks! I took the photos with a Nikon D5100 with a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens.

BTW, I may have posted this thread in the wrong forum. If so, feel free to move it.

Flandry wrote: Thanks! I took the photos with a Nikon D5100 with a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens.

BTW, I may have posted this thread in the wrong forum. If so, feel free to move it.

Nice, certainly can tell that your using some nice equipment.

Consider it moved

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Nice! Looks great!

Beautiful!!


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Your hermies are too cute.

Thanks! Now that they've had a chance to settle in, here are some more pics of them wandering about:









And here's a shot of three of them sleeping together:

Those pictures are great!

What camera you use? My pics never come out this good.

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Thanks! I'm using an older SLR camera with a reasonably fast lens attached (specifically a Nikon D5100 with a Sigma DC 18-50mm EX Macro F2.8 lens).

That said, I think the best ways to improve crabitat shots are to make sure the glass is really clean and to avoid lighting that causes reflections on the tank's glass. Never use a flash! For those shots, I wiped down the inside of the tank with a microfiber cloth so that both sides were clean (it helps a lot that we just set this tank up! ). I then took the pics in the late afternoon with the lights in the room off so that most of the available light was coming out of the tank from light on top of the lid.

Decent light, dirty glass:


The last shot of the three crabs sleeping in my post earlier was actually the most difficult because they were on the back side of the tank and I couldn't line up straight with the tank's glass. Also, it was taken earlier in the day when light was coming in through the french doors in the room. To mitigate this, I held up a piece of black foamcore board I had laying around to block as much outside light as I could. Still, you can see where a bit of glare is hazing the image slightly.

They beautiful pics. Maybe I should get a real camera instead of just using my cheap Samsung.

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Glad you like them! One of the biggest things you can get from a camera with a good lens is control of the Depth of Field. Notice in the last pic how the crab is in focus, but the background is blurred out? Depth of Field helps isolate the subject, which can give the photo more pop.