HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey y'all,time to introduce myself!
Let's just call me... Time for the sake of ease.

I own 24 crabs in total. 7 Coenobita Perlatus, 2 C.Lila, 3 C.Rugosus, 2 C.Violascens and 10 unknown C.Spec. I keep them all in one crabitat which is about 768 liters or ~200 gallons. They have 54 liter/~14 gallon pools for both fresh and saltwater and 30cm/12inch deep substrate! I've kept them in that enclosure for nearly a year now without any problems and I already have plans for their next one!

Some might have seen my pictures on Reddit as I am fairly active in the Hermitcrab group.
I've been told I should share my pictures with this forum as they'd be greatly appreciated, so here we go!
I am very sorry about any formatting errors and I am open for any tips! And obviously I just hope it works out the way I plan it to.

Alright, let's see if this works!
Let's start off with one of my biggest Perlatus/Strawberries that I also kept the longest, 3 years in total now. He went through a rough time crabitat wise but I hope he is as happy as he could be today!


My Lilas have been sold as Purpureus, I'd say that was simply down to the reseller not knowing the difference. Or maybe it has been misidentified several times? Anyway, here he is as the king of the skull!



(Oh yeah, the preview looks like it's working as intended!)

Here are two of the unidentified Coenobita Species, would love some input on what they actually are!



And I obviously can't talk about my crabitat without posting pictures of that as well, so here we go.


For those wondering, yes they are real plants. Yes I am aware of the risks. But I have kept them with plants for nearly a year now and hadn't had any problems at all. They have a varying diet so they probably won't even bother eating from the plants. They love hiding under them and are much more confident in the crabitat since I added them as they know they have easy cover.

That should be it for my first post here and I hope I did things right and you can enjoy it!

Greetings, Time.

Wow! So impressive, everythings so beautiful, crabs included! You must have a lot of experience in building tanks, no? Do you have any more pics of deeper in the tank, or close ups of what all you've put into it?

I love that the 2 unidentified crabs are in shells that match them, how'd you make that happen?

Sent from my cp3705AS using Tapatalk

Maddamay32 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 10, 2020 8:23 am

Wow! So impressive, everythings so beautiful, crabs included! You must have a lot of experience in building tanks, no? Do you have any more pics of deeper in the tank, or close ups of what all you've put into it?

I love that the 2 unidentified crabs are in shells that match them, how'd you make that happen?

Sent from my cp3705AS using Tapatalk

That was actually the first enclosure that I built them, I made them a custom background in their old enclosure

But let's not lie here, that is not a good looking enclosure in hindsight lol.
Trying to get the pictures somewhat in order here:








For a quick rundown on the plants:
I have ficus pumila, ficus pumila bellus, asplenium crispy, tillandsias, nephrolepsis in the aquarium, syngonium, philodendron, chamaedora and lots of moss. I've also had a spiderplant in there that was thriving so much that I had to take it out, now my grandma enjoys it lol.

The two unspecified really chose their shells well, didn't they?

Wow, that's huge! Is the space in the middle (under the layer of shells) all substrate for digging? With the pools at each side?
Do you ever see them swimming?
Sorry for all the questions, just curious!

Everything and every crab is absolutely beautiful! Wow! Amazing

Wow!

I don't know how to reply to each one yet (maybe I can't?) so: Thank you very much! Yes, the space in the middle is all substrate (30+cm/12+inches) of cocofiber/ecoearth/sand mix topped off with eco earth because it looks nicer, there is a mesh with clayballs underneath all that as drainagein case I overwater (the whole box is lined with pool liner so it is waterproof). I've seen some of them swim, others just dip their legs in there to fill up. The Lila is underwater on a regular basis, usually swimming around for 10-15 minutes. They're at the saltwater a lot more often than at the freshwater, but thanks to the duckweed I can usually tell which crab went swimming as it sticks to the shell lol.

Nearly 10/10 Any blueberry listing that claims to be a blueberry is either going to be a Lila, or a Viola, primarly lilas as they are super similar although they have a few differences ( with being more purple on average too. ) True blueberries are banned from export entirely and are considered national treasures, such as how the bald eagle is in the US. For 10 years now they've basically been impossible to get from Japan, similar to how Aussies are practically only exclusive to Australia.

Yeah that's what I learned as well, so Spizam and I figured that they were probably Lilas. I don't mind as they are still nicely purple lol. They were super pale when I got them, now that the first has molted he is getting nice and purple. Can't wait for the other to be done (2 months underground now).

Already wrote the reseller as well that they are probably selling Lila and not Purpureus as those are, as you said, banned from export. Haven't received an answer yet...

Thanks for the answers! Very cool!

Wow!! This is definitely something to strive for!! I’m hoping that the next place I live has room for such a big & beautiful Crabitat!! My 3 Hermies are currently in a 10 gallon tank, but if all goes well & we get out of this extra small house, I would totally love to have something bigger with more crabs one day!!!

Beautiful!!!!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since you asked about whether or not they swim, here's the Lila talking a swim as I mentioned above.
Edit: don't mind the diatom algae, since I am not using a protein skimmer (yet) nutrients build up and well, algae blooms...

Oooo, that's so cute!!

Beautiful setup, i absolutely love how it was constructed.
I had a massive feeling when seeing the images that you were from the EU, as plywood (or wooden) builds seem to be increadibly popular over there!

Beautiful tank and gorgeous crabbies!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Wow. What a gorgeous setup! I'm seriously blown away. Are those water pools 5 gallon tanks?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk