Hermit crab questions

[hornet]

Well thanks to all this recent crab talk i have became interested in land hermit crabs. So anyone know good caresheets? Also where in bris can i get strawberry crabs?

 

[lilmissrazz]

crab street journal is good for info

 

[hornet]

yea i have just been searching but it seems the care sheets are missing

 

[kelly]

I had three hermit crabs, then one went feral and killed the other two

http://www.crazycrabs.com/main.html

 

[hornet]

woot for mad crab

 

[Inkslinger]

Kids have had and we found if we decorated the shells with brite color they would change to those instead of the plain ones

 

[kelly]

It's name was Superman and it was HUGE, like 3 times bigger than the others, so I guess that wasn't a wise idea...

 

[hornet]

i'm going to be going with a natural looking mangrove setup if possible, if not suitable for hermit crabs might get fiddler crabs or just change to a natural setup that will suit them..

 

[The-Guy]

I prefer sea hermit crabs, they are evil. They just grab fish while theyre swimming and next second they are gone. nyum nyum nyum ynum

 

[bylo]

Have you tried this link , i am not a member but will soon be http://hermitcrabassociation.com/

 

[hornet]

already with them

 

[bylo]

then you will find several care sheets , as the lady on the site pointed out to me

 

[hornet]

main thing i'm after are enclosure pics or just a care sheet with a focus in housing

 

[bunnykin]

they are pretty easy to keep the only hickups we've had are 1. if you get a large in with smalls (no matter what people selling them say) they will not be mates they will either fight, keep them away from the food or away from the housing ( only a problem if their arent loads of houses) ....2. you should leave the salt bath water in ( i was told to take them out to bathe them, alas this didnt work for long ) ..... other than that they are pretty cool oh and one of ours kept comming out of its shell and no matter how many hundreds of various shells i bought it didnt want anyothers just kept going back to its old ( too small) shell like it didnt want to give it up i even seardhed for one that was exactly the same but a bit bigger and used my finger to 'export' the smell of the other didnt work but this problem started from the first few moments before i even got him home so may have been some 'bigger' problem..... oh yeah thats one hassle , if you think its hard finding a reptile vet try finding a crustation doc

 

[PhilK]

Mate, I stumbled across this site this morning.. http://www.hermit-crabs.com/index.html
Lady really loves her hermit crabs... Really loves them.
Heaps and heaps of info if you scroll right the way down you can navigate to certain parts of her site. Real helpful.
I also wouldn't mind some hermit crabs.. wonder if they'd bunk well with my land crabs I'm getting..?

EDIT: if you want to see enclosures, Google image search "crabitat" (hahaha) there are alot of enclosures to look at

 

[Viridae]

Heat 22-26 Celcius optimum, I use an under tank heater. Substrate = damp washed beach sand. They need both a salt water source and a fresh water source - they will drink from both as they feel like and bath in both as they feel like. Humidity 50-60% - I spray them don every day and keep the substrate over the heater damp to keep the humidity up. They like somewhere to hide (a half coconut shell with a door makes a good cave) and something to climb - I use driftwood for both of them, I made a little cave with a piece of mangrove and a piece of driftwood and they climb it, sit on top of it and hide underneath it. They eat a commercial hermit crab food - it lasts a long time and is relatively inexpensive. They also like all kids of vegies and particularly fruit - some people say theirs like popcorn and peanut butter. Havent tried mine on popcorn, and they just walked through the peanut butter - they love apples and grapes though - I have seen up to 3 out of the 4 I have sharing a side of a slice of apple each, and when I gave them half grapes they hollowed the skin out pretty rapidly.

12 hours a day or so of light, 12 of dark - some people use moon bulbs and found them to be pretty active at night. Mine are pretty active early to mid evening.

Finally this is where I have mine - its a 30cm*30cm aquastart 320 with fine fishtank gravel as a substrate (I will soon be changing to sand to give them something that digs and stays dug - doesn't just collapse around them.

Edit: Strawberries are not available in Australia, as much as I would love one.

Edit 2: Don't use a heat bulb or anything like that, it dries out the atmosphere too much, a UTH is the optimum - make sure it is thermostatted.

 

[hornet]

dont think they will go well with desert crabs, totally different environment, desert crabs live in dry river beds, hermit crabs live in mangroves and rainforests near the ocean.

 

[DiamondAsh]

Edit: Strawberries are not available in Australia, as much as I would love one.

Aren't Strawberries the really large red ones ?? I'm sure I've seen them in Pet shops around the area. :|

 

[Viridae]

Aren't Strawberries the really large red ones ?? I'm sure I've seen them in Pet shops around the area. :|

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenobita_perlatus

Oh there you go - you might have. I do remember reading that they can't be sold in australia, but maybe that has changed. I'm pretty sure they would be very popular if they were availiable, but give me a yell if you do find them for sale - I'm looking to get a bigger aquarium for these gusy to give them more room to run around and more things to climb, so I might grab a strawberry if they can be kept.

 

[DiamondAsh]

That's them mate. They are sold in the shops down here. Bunerong has had them, I saw one in a Passion for Pet's store this arvo and I'm sure they are in others.