Post
by DragonsFly » Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:27 pm
Okay; the important thing is that if you have new crabs and a new set-up, you need to make sure that you are taking proper care of them so that they do not also die. First of all, you should be aware that if you DO take proper care of them, they could live for 30 to 40 YEARS and grow to be the size of baseballs. You need to plan ahead for their growth; but don't worry, if you did not realize they would live that long, and if you do get tired of them at some point, you can post them for adoption right here on the board and find an excellent home for them.
While you are keeping them, several things are essential:
1) Tank or Terrarium: I'm not sure what you mean by "cage," but they must have a place to live that will allow you to keep their environment at the proper temperature and humidity for their species. A wire or plastic cage with lots of slots or openings is no good; you need some kind of tank (like a glass aquarium). You will need a lid of some sort, to keep heat and humidity in. You will need to allow for air flow, to keep stale air from settling at the bottom of the tank; they need fresh air to come in and that stale air to be moved OUT, regularly. A small fan (like a laptop fan) in the tank, pulling some fresh air in and pushing the stale air out, can be good, or you can install a humidifier to push fresh, humidified air into the tank, which (if you have it pumping in near the bottom) will encourage the stale air to be pumped out. Until you can rig something like that up, you can just take the lid off and fan the tank vigorously a few times a day for air exchange, but you will lose some heat and a good bit of humidity that way, so you will need to make sure you have good ways to replace both of these after each fanning session.
2) Temperature and Humidity: For PP's, which are the most common kind of hermit crab sold in the U.S., you need the temperature to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. It can drop to about 75 degrees at night, but should not go any lower than that, and should not get above about 85 degrees during the day. Either too hot or too cold can cause illness and eventually death. Ways to heat the tank include heat lamps and UTH's (under-tank heaters). If you use a UTH, for hermit crabs you do not put it UNDER the tank, you put it on the side or back. Putting it above the level of the substrate (sand) is probably best, so you don't have to worry about excessive drying of the substrate, or about potential cracking of the glass when you re-moisten the substrate.
Humidity needs to be around 80% relative humidity; it can vary a LITTLE on either side of that, but if it is too low OR too high, they will suffocate. Ways to help keep humidity include keeping substrate moist (and initially moistening it with some salt water), having moss pits or natural sea sponges in the tank, and having a humidifier in the tank and/or air bubblers in the water sources.
You must have both temperature and humidity gauges that you can trust to give you reliable readings. Because these two factors are so critical for hermit crab health, you need to calibrate your humidity gauge (you can find instructions for how to do that here on the board), and it is a good idea to double check your thermometer with another thermometer, to make sure it is reading correctly, as well.
3) Crabs need substrate that is safe and appropriate for them, deep enough for them, and moist enough for them. Regular play sand is the cheapest substrate, you can get it at any Home Depot or Lowe's or other hardware store like that, for 3 or 4 dollars for a great big bag (50 pounds). The calci-sand sold in pet stores is not good for hermit crabs, plus it is ridiculously more expensive. Make sure your sand is at least twice as deep as your biggest crab (3 times is even better). The sand also needs to be damp enough to hold its shape, like you could build a sand castle with it. If you stick your finger down into the sand, the hole your finger leaves should just stay there (but there should be NO water pooling at the bottom of the hole). When you first moisten the sand, it is a good idea to use some sea water (mixed up at less of a concentration than you would give them for their regular sea water); then after that, you should moisten with fresh water (so that salt levels in the sand do not build up too high).
Keeping the sand properly deep and moist both helps maintain humidity in the tank, and also allows for the crabs to tunnel down under the sand to molt, which is an essential process for them to live and grow.
4) Water sources: Crabs need both fresh water and sea water (marine salt water), in deep enough dishes that they can submerge their shells, but with some kind of way to climb OUT of the dishes (because they can drown if under water too long). Both sources of water must be dechlorinated (because chlorine will cause their gills to blister and eventually kill them). You can buy filtered or distilled water, or you can use a dechlorinator from the fish section of your pet store. For the marine salt water, you need to buy a mix like "Instant Ocean" or "Oceanic," from the marine fish section of the pet store.
5) Food: Some of the "hermit crab food" stuff sold in pet stores is actually harmful to the crabs. FMR brand is generally considered safe, but they need more than that to really be healthy. They need fresh fruits and vegetables and protein sources. You can look in the "food and water" forum here on the board for lots of ideas of good stuff to feed them, and for lists of things that are not safe for them to eat.
It can seem really overwhelming when you are just getting started, especially since a lot of what the pet store people tell you is mistaken or just plain wrong. If anything is confusing or unclear, just post a question, any time. There are lots of really helpful people here, many of whom have been keeping crabs for many years. Best wishes!
--{}: Dragons Fly Farm --{}:
Resident PP's:"Major Tom" & "Billie Jean"
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
― G.K. Chesterton
I really loved her too. One day she was in the glass and I went up to it, at eye level with her, and put my finger up to the glass and she walked over and put her antennas up to my finger and then she started to try to like climb the glass with her legs and it was so cute. I loved her, I always had her back since she was weaker than the other guys since she lost her leg and all. 
