HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I was wondering if it's possible to put either fiddler crabs or marine hermit crabs in your hermit crab tank. I have two large pools (about 1/2 gallon each, 10x10x2.5inches) that I use for fresh and salt water. I wonder if they might be able to live well in there, maybe even help clean up while they're at it.

I seriously doubt it. I am getting ready to get fiddlers myself and have been doing lots of research on them. Their tank needs to be half water since they spend alot of time in the water and actually molt underwater, and as far as the marines, I believe they need a natural reef system which can get up into the thousands to set up right. Hope that helps Angela

I don't think it would be impossible to do it with fiddler crabs, as long as they can get out of their pool when they need to. However, they require brackish water, and I like to mix my hermit crabs' saltwater stronger than that. It's probably a good idea to filter the pool as well, but I think you're already doing that, right? I do have a fiddler crab: the only one left out of the five I bought on Aquabid a few months ago. Given that I haven't been able to keep my fiddlers alive and happy, I would not try them again. But I still think they are very cool. I just wish my one remaining fidder ever came out so that I could see him!I seem to recall that a member here did this with some marine hermits. I remember he reported that they actually came out of the water to take the land hermit crab food! But I don't know what his long-term success was.

Hi Moire, I havent gotten mine yet, but I have a 10 gallon set up that has sand on one side sloped down to the water side. I have a filter in the water and the tank right now is working on cycling. Once its cycled Im going to get the fiddlers and try it out. Im pretty excited about it. I got most of my info from someones blog on a different site who has fiddlers. The link is here and has a picture of her tank setup along with her fiddlers. Im really hoping to have the same success with mine that she has had with hers!NarNars Fiddler crab careHer Fiddler crabs

quote:Originally posted by CtryLuv:Hi Moire, I havent gotten mine yet, but I have a 10 gallon set up that has sand on one side sloped down to the water side. I have a filter in the water and the tank right now is working on cycling. Once its cycled Im going to get the fiddlers and try it out. Im pretty excited about it. I got most of my info from someones blog on a different site who has fiddlers. The link is here and has a picture of her tank setup along with her fiddlers. Im really hoping to have the same success with mine that she has had with hers!NarNars Fiddler crab careHer Fiddler crabs I had communicated with her (via the forum on http://www.epicureanhermit.com) about her fiddlers. But I didn't know she had a blog, too -- thanks for the links! I bought my fiddlers on Aquabid. They are an unsusual species (Uca tetragonon is my best guess) and the seller could provide no information on them. I now suspect they were wild-caught, and thus were shipped a long distance before they reached the guy I got them from. So it's possible that they were simply very stressed, or that their requirements are slightly different. My setup sounds a lot like yours -- I have my remaining guy in a 10 gallon tank with sloping gravel, plus a large tupperware "sandbox" with moist sand in it. I started out with all sand, but there was some weird, smelly discoloration happening in the sand, so I had to toss it all. The sandbox is much easier to maintain. I have a large piece of holey limestone in the water too, which provides a lot of hiding places. My filter is a Duetto 100 submersible. I'm using Oceanic to make my brackish water mix, too.