Hi, new to this site.

Shawn · Post by **Shawn** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 7:42 am

Hi, I'm Shawn. I've been crabbing since 2007. I currently have 10 PPs in a 38gal tank. 6 are small~mediums, 2 are smalls, and 2 are what I consider tiny-small.Here's my story: I got started when my middle child decided she wanted to buy a hermit crab, "just like her cousin". She was about 15 at the time. My wife, kids and I were in one of those small gift shops in Plymouth, Massachusetts that have the large bird cage full of painted shells. She bought the typical little wire cage with 2 crabs, a sponge, a booklet and some powdered food for hermit crabs. We were told the same non-sense that every person hears when buying crabs, and believed it. My daughter brought hers home and put them in a little 2.5gal plastic fish tank with some dry sand, etc. A week later we were in that same shop and my son (8) decided he wanted one too, so we bought him the same deal. He put his in the 2.5gal fish tank since my daughter had replaced it with a 10gal glass tank. Both times we were in the shop I kept noticing 2 very large crabs that most kids wouldn't want, and of course, I felt bad for them. Not having my own tank, I decided to put them in the 10gal tank with my daughter's crabs. I named them Thing 1 and Thing 2. One of the two jumbos died within a week trying to surface molt, which I had no idea what that was, not really knowing anything about LHC care. As soon as this happened I went on craigslist and found a 30gal tank and screen cover for my remaining crab. This is when I found some LHC websites and did a lot of Googling on the subject. I bought four more crabs, all smalls, and started to create the best conditions I could. Sadly, my remaining jumbo died of a combination of ignorant LHC keeping on my part and PPS. I became determined to provide the remaining crabs the best environment I could by giving them an EcoEarth substrate, 6"x6" FW and SW bowls, lots of things to climb and a much better diet.Within a couple of months I adopted 7 small crabs from a caring woman who could no longer care for hers. They came with the 38gal I currently have, which had a small UTH and some more climbing items. Those 7 crabs were much less skittish around people than mine were and rarely hid when we were in the room. When winter came, my son's bedroom was too cold for the crabs without an external heat source so they went into my tank. Over time we've had the occasional crab death, some were true PPS cases fresh from the pet store, some were likely cannibalism (since they disappeared completely except for their turbo shells) and some I could only attribute to poor care on my part for lack of any evidence otherwise.Anyway, I'm planning on upgrading to a 75gal or larger tank this spring (and build in large FW and SW pools) and intend to order some other species of LHC as well. If I can manage to get a large enough tank with a good temp/humidity gradient from end to end I'll try for some Straws, Purpurius' and some Violascens. If I can't manage a true beach atmosphere in at least half of the tank I'll refrain from buying the Straws and other exotics. Probably just some Es and Ruggies, We'll see.Anyway, if you got this far, thanks for reading. Sorry for being long-winded. I'm a talker!

jgfceit · Post by **jgfceit** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 10:28 am

Welcome!

Shawn · Post by **Shawn** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:22 pm

Thanks, will check it out.

Tongue Flicker · Post by **Tongue Flicker** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:38 am

Hey shawn welcome aboard!

Susie · Post by **Susie** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:04 pm

Hello and welcome. I haven't been at it as long, but like you I knew nothing at first. I was told to use a small tank with gravel covering the bottom, and that the food had to be placed on one half of the wet sponge or they couldn't eat it. That was worse than just the wet sponge. I didn't have Hermia long when I found this site, thank goodness. Now I have a 50gal aquarium with EcoEarth substrate and large, natural clam shells for the waters. I have only added 2 more crabs at this time, but plan on getting more in the future.

Shawn · Post by **Shawn** » Sat Feb 08, 2014 1:13 pm

Thank you to all. Susie, it seems that only people who know nothing about LHC are allowed to sell them. Hopefully, someday, things will change and those who sell LHC will actually know how to take care of them, and how to provide proper care info for them to their buyers.

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Sat May 24, 2014 12:27 am

hi everybody! i am also new here, i just stumbled upon this site last night. i have two pps, i have had them for two months and read thousands of articles daily about them, think about them every day, all day, give them extra stuff, i give them homecooked meals, will put in a spider plant this weekend, and carved them a coco hut out of cocnut we gave them!