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
