Classromm hermits.

Hermit crab undoubtedly make great pets, and great educational tools.
In a properly set up environment, the children can watch them climb around, bathe in the pools, and see their colors change after every molt. The main things you need to worry about with classroom hermits is the temperature. I'm sure everyone remembers the frigid classrooms that they had to sit in for hours, freezing. The hermit crabs have to live in there 24/7! It's very important that you keep the tank warm enough. Multiple under tank heatsers, or an undertank heater, combined with a light will give you the nextra heat needed to keep the crabs comfortable. You don't want to everheat your tank either. So if you have a 10 gallon tank, then a 10 gallon and a 5 gallon under tank heater would work, or a 20 gallon heater mounted on the side. Mounting a heater with above the recommended wattage under a tank can cook your molters.
I am currently in the process of setting up a 10 gallon hermit crab tank for my biology class(That I am in, not that I teach) with 3 Purple pinchers, and i have an under tank heater, and a light.

55 gallon tank time!

I just recently set up a 55 gallon hermit crab tank, and plan on getting jumbos! It has half eco earth and half sand. The eco earth is a cool jungle theme and all 17 of my crabs are now in there.
Ava has unfortunately passed on. I didn't find anything, not even a shell!
One the bright side, all my babies are having a party in the tat. :)

Lifeless crab, don't assume death!

Its unfortunate that hermit crabs pull surface molts, but unfortunately some do, for no reason. you can ahve the perfect set up, and find a crab lifeless. I know this is going to sound odd, but it's important you smell the crab. If there is an unstakable horrible odor of rotten fish, your hermie has passed on. If you smell nothing, or smll a slight chemical smell, your hermit crab is pulling a surface molt in you.
Examine the 'body' again. Can you see the black eyes on your hermit crab, or does that area look 'empty'. If there are no eyeballs there, then that is not a body, it is an exoskeleton! The crab is probably white and pulled far back into the shell, hardening. Never remove the exoskeleton. Once the hermits mouthpeices have hardened enough, they will eat the exoskeleton to regain enough calcium and other nutrients to finish hardening all the way.
If you do see the eyeballs and smell nothing, or a faint chemical odor, then just wait. Moving the crab to an isolation tank is just to stessful in my opinion, and can raise the chance of death. What I do for a surface molter is cut off the bottom of a 2 leiter plastic soda bottle, and push it down into the substrate over top of your molter. This way hermie can not burrow and reach the molter, or get to the vunerable crab. Once the hermie has finished eating the exo and is fully hardened, and moving around, you can remove the bottle and let the crab back into the main tank.

Sponges, do you really need them?

Many petstores will tell you that hermit crabs need sponges to drink from, but there are no sponges in the wild! I'll admit, sponges do contain chitin, which is beneficial to their exoskeleton, if your hermits like eating the sponge. They can be used as a way for smaller hermits to get out of the water pools, but they must be cleaned often. To clean them, remove them from the crabitat, squeeze them out, and let them dry competly, then microwave them for a few second to kill any bacteria. If you microwave them while they are wet, they will shrink! Also, if you choose to use a sponge in your water pools, clean out daily and make sure it is an all natural sea sponge, not a fake, colorful spong.. I personaly think its to much trouble! Putting a rock in there works just as well for the smaller crabs! They are not needed for hermits to drink from, and they are a breeding ground for harmful bacteria!

Hermit Crab Patch order arrived!

I ordered some shells from the hermit crab patch and they all got here today! They also gave me a free sample of organic worm castings! Great service, shipping was $8.55, not to much. Got here in 4 days.
I will definitely be getting shells from them in the future, they have a great selection of shell ranging from micro to jumbo!
Welches has already taken up residence in the larger striped turbo.

Molting 101

I've talked about molting quite a bit in my first 2 posts, so I figured I should go into detail about what it is. Molting is when a hermit crab sheds their exo skeleton, and grow. There are really, only 2 ways a crab can molt. I call them the good, and bad way.
The good way is when a hermit crab is able to burrow under the substrate, into a secluded, dark cave and molt. Molting can take anywhere from 2-3 weeks for micros and teeny's, or over 3 months for jumbos. It is very important you do not dug up, or disturb a molter in any way shape or form. The only time you should dig up a molter is in an emergency. If you find mold, dig up the molter and put him or her in, either an isolation tank(Ding a little cave, put them in it, and put a lil bit of moss or something else to cover the opening.) or in the main tank after the deep clean to rid the tank of mold. If theirs a flood(Water pool leaking or water bowl being spilled), you need to get your molter out of there, molters that get saturated don't usualy live.
Now, onto the second way to molt, the bad way.
This is a surface molt. If your tank is set up correctly, this may rarley happen, and usualy with a newer crab. This is when the hermit crab molts, without burrowing under the substrate. If you do not have diggable substrate for your crabs, the may try and molt on the surface as a last attempt. If you have a crab surface molt, don't move them. Many crabbers move them into a dark isolation tank, but this, in my opinion, is just adding stress to one of the most stressful things a crab will go through. Instead of moving it, take a water bottle and cut it in half, midway down. Place the bottle ontop of the surface molter, so no other crabs can get to that hermit crab. Sometimes crabs will cannibilize frshly molted crabs. Sometimes a crab will be laying limp and you may think it is dead. Do not throw the crab away. This may be the beggining of a surface molt. Only dispose of a crab if it smells like fish, its a very strong smell, hard to miss. A surface molter may smell like chemicals, this is what a molt smells like.
After a hermit crab molter, they eat their ex skeleton, this provides calcium and helps the hermit crab's new exo skeleton can harden. If a hermit crab is showing pre-molt symptoms(Digging more than normal, eating, drinking more, sometimes changing into a smaller shell) then feeding a lot of calcium(Such as egg shells, honey, or cuttlebone) to help them with their molt.
I hope this helps clear up any questions about molting!

~HermitCrabCrazy

Hermit crabs--What it really takes.

Hermit crabs.
Seems like an easy pet, small kritter keeper, or aquarium. Some gravel, food, water, shells. Simple right?

Wrong.

Hermit crabs are complex creatures, that require hot, humid environments.
Heres what you really need to keep hermit crabs happy, and healthy. First, you need a tank! 5 gallon tanks can only be used with micro, or teeny sized hermit crabs. Here is a link to a sizing chart, print it out to see what size your hermit crabs are!
http://lennon.csufresno.edu/~esperance31/HermitCrabSizingChartV2.doc
A 10 gallon tank should really be the minimum size to keep hermit in.
You need a way to heat your tank as well. Hermit crabs like it to be at least 75F, but thats the minimum, 80F is ideal. If it's summer and you live in a hot area, you may not need heater at first, but come winter, you most likely will. Under tank heaters are a good source of heat.
It is best to mount them on the side of the tank, instead of the bottom. This is so it can heat the air easier, and if a hermit crab is molting they won't get 'cooked' by the under tank heater.
You also need to look into some sort of lid for your tank that will hold in humidity. Glass or plextglass lids work well, aquarium hoods that do not have large holes also work well. Now it's time to look into substrate. There are 2 substrates that work best for hermit crabs. Coconut fiber, and playsand. Calcisand is no good for your hermit crabs, you can't get it to sand castle sconsistancy and it smells when wet. You can get coconut fiber in compact bricks. To prevent mold you can soak it in dechlorinated saltwater, instead of de-chlorinated freshwater. Make sure you buy something that is 100% coconut fiber. Anything else can give your hermit crab bacterial infections, which can kill. Two brands that I know are 100% coconutfiber are Eco Earth, and Bed-a-beast. When soaked in water coconut fiber, it expands into a dirt like substance that hermit crabs can burrow in.
Playsand works well. Adding dechlorinated saltwater instead of freshwater can prevent mold. Make sure not to over saturate your substrate. With the coconut fiber, it gives you instructions about the proper ammount of water to add, but with sand you kinda have to eyeball it. You want the sand to be 'sandcastle consistancy'. Your substrate needs to be at least twice the height of your largest crab, so they can burrow.
Now, onto water. Water is vital to a hermit crab, they need to drink it, store it in their shells, they use saltwater to help with molting, so it is very important you provide your hermit crabs with the correct kinds of water. Hermit crabs, every species, need fresh and saltwater. You can not use strait tap water as freshwater for your hermit crabs. Tap water contains chlorine, and other chemicals that can burn a hermit crabs gills.(They have modified gills that breathe humid air) so it is important you purchase a water conditioner, to remove these chemicals from your tap water, and make it safe for the hermit crabs. Saltwater is also very important, because it helps with the initial split of the exo skeleton, which starts the molt. Aquarium saltis not the correct kind. Products marked as aquarium salt are marketed for freshwater aquariums, beacuse salt is sometimes used to treat things such as fungus and ich. The salt you need to use is marine salt. Some brands are Oceanic, Instand Ocean, or Red Sea.
Now onto food. Many crabbers have experianced molt problems or deformities when feeding comercial hermit crab foods with preservatives in them. In my opinion, is it best to feed an all natural diet. Here is an extreamily good article about hermit crab nutrition.
http://hermitcrabcentral.piczo.com/?g=35085274&cr=3
Lastly, shells and friends!
Painted shells are bad. Paint chips off of them, and since hermit crabs are scavengers, they will sometimes eat the paint chips. The real problem lies in how the hermit crabs end up in these painted shells. Hermit crabs are forced out of their native shells, and into painted shells, this is very stressful to the crab. If a crab is forced into a painted shell before the inside of the shell is dried, then they can literally become glued inside of the shell. Don't belive me?
http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=66&keywords=stuck+painted+shell
Friends! Hermit crabs live in large colonies in the wild, of hundreads or more! This is why it is important to have at least 2 hermit crabs in your tank. The more the better! If you have multiple species it is important to have at least 2 of each species you have.
I hope this helps any aspiring crabbers set up their tats!

~HermitCrabCrazy