Friends!
I'm sure you've heard this before, but you really shouldn't keep only
one hermit crab alone as a pet. The name 'hermit' is misapplied to our
little friends -- they are quite gregarious and like to be around their
own kind. In the wild, they travel in packs of up to 100 crabs,
scavenging the beach for food and shells. The reason they travel in
packs is simple: Where there are more crabs, there are more shells.
Researchers have found by putting one clean, empty shell on the beach,
they can initiate a "cascade" of shells changes: One crab changes in to
the new shell, another changes into his old shell, and another changes
into the other empty shell, and so on. Quite often I find about 20
hermies of my clan all piled on top each other, sleeping. So, please
don't consign your friendly hermie to a life of loneliness. As one
seasoned crabber once remarked, "Two crabs does not a colony make." Go
get him a friend, or better yet, two friends.
Housing
The very first thing your new pets will need is a 'crabitat.' A
crabitat
is where your hermit crabs will spend most of their time, so choose a
home
that is clean and roomy. A 10-gallon glass aquarium can be purchased at
a reasonable price and makes an ideal 'starter home' for your crabs. If
you are unable to purchase an aquarium, there are other options
available, such as plastic critter carriers. Keep in mind how many
crabs you ultimately plan on housing and how you would like their home
to look. It will help you make up your mind when the time comes to
decide on the size of your crabitat. Make sure the cage will hold your
pets, their food and water dishes, extra shells and climbing toys. You
want a cage large enough to hold all these things and still have space
for the crabs to roam if they wish. This means that the small
plastic box that you got from a mall kiosk or boardwalk store is not an
adequate shelter for any hermit crab. One way to give the crabs
room to wander is to leave an area at the back or front of the crabitat
that is completely clear of obstructions. This way the crab has an
"express lane" to run down if s/he needs to get some energy out and
doesn't want to climb. While a plastic critter carrier makes a passable
temporary home or
'hospital cage,' it is not recommended as a permanent home.
The second
most important aspect of the crabitat is the type of
substrate you put on the bottom. After all, your crab
will in all likelihood be sitting on it every day! There are many
different types of substrate available, but not all of them are ideal
for land hermit crabs. You want a substrate that is relatively easy to
clean, attractive and holds up to hermit crabs' tunneling activities.
The best substrates are sand and coconut fiber (also known as Forest
Bedding®, Bed-A-Beast®, and Eco-Earth®.
Sand. There are
also many different
varieties of sand available. The most
expensive ones come in small bags and are labeled as special "hermit
crab sand." Don't be fooled! When it comes to general crab care, "sand
is sand is sand" and it doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as
it is clean. You can get a 50 lb. bag of clean play sand from a
hardware store for the same amount you'd pay for 2 small bags of
"hermit crab sand." (Try to get a bag of play sand which is towards the
middle of the pallet, otherwise, it may be wet or contaminated.) A word
of caution about play sand. Some crab owners have reported problems
with an orange-colored play sand they purchased from Home Depot. The
sand had an oily, diesel-like smell to it. If you open the bag of sand
and notice any "off" smell, throw it out or take it back to the store.
Do not put any strong-smelling sand into your crabitat. One sand that
has been of consistent good quality is "high desert sand." You only
need to concern yourself with special sand if you have a sick crab that
needs calcium. Most sand comes pre-washed and/or sterilized. Sometimes,
however,
individual bags can develop leaks through which moisture, insects, etc.
invade. As a precautionary measure, please take a close look at the
substrate before you put it into your crabitat. Pour some into a bowl
and sift it through your fingers, hold it to a strong light and watch
for insects. Lastly, put your nose to it and take a whiff to check for
a musty smell which would indicate moisture contamination.
Coconut
fiber (Forest Bedding "FB" or Eco-Earth) is another excellent
substrate.
The coconut is processed to be very fine, almost like earth, and
pressed into a dry, hard brick. To prepare FB, you put the brick in a
large bowl or tub and add enough water until the brick absorbs the
water and become soft enough for you to break apart with your hands.
Then you add the moist FB to your crabitat. There are many benefits to
using forest bedding, not the least of which is that it appears to be
one of the very best molting mediums out there. Over time, the FB
compacts a little bit and becomes stable, which allows the crabs to dig
little tunnels all through it. An advantage of the FB over sand is that
FB will not collapse heavily upon a newly-molted crab and damage it. I
have had many beautiful molts in the FB. The moisture in the FB helps
to keep the humidity in the crabitat at a good range, without resorting
to sponges and misting. FB prepared as directed above is adequate, but
if you want to make it
extra special and healthy, you can prepare it using pre-prepared salt
water instead of regular water. First you mix up your salt water
according to the package direction, and then use the salt water to soak
your FB. Hermit crabs love to eat FB and this helps them to get other,
needed minerals in their diet. There is one unique drawback to using FB
and that is that it attracts
fungus gnats. Fungus gnats are teeny black bugs that look like midget
mosquitoes. They are attracted to warm, moist areas and will lay eggs
and start a colony of their own in your crabitat. Fungus gnat larvae
are worm-like with black shiny heads.
Since hermit crabs and fungus gnats are both arthropods, you can
not use any pesticides in your crabitat or it will kill the crabs!
There is however a solution to this problem. Back in October 2003 I
found and used -- biological warfare! You can view all the
creepy details on the FAQ page. Some people who
have mixed their FB with saltwater have reported fewer fungus gnats.
Combination substrate
is the latest and probably the best idea. It is a
combination of coconut fiber and sand. You prepare the coconut fiber as
you would normally, and put it in the crabitat. Then you add sand and
mix it all together well until it is a nice, diggable consistency.
Generally you want your substrate to be the same consistency as the
sand you'd use to make a sand castle. Not too dry and not too drippy.
There is one universal problem with all good hermit crab substrates.
They are messy. Expect to have sand or forest bedding in your kitchen
and bathroom at one time or another. Hermit crabs are not the most
orderly critters and they do drag sand, FB or what have you into their
food and water dishes. Also they bury shells that they aren't
interested in. So you'll be cleaning out their dishes and shaking
substrate out of shells, no matter what substrate you use! If it's
crab-friendly, chances are it's going to be messy.
WATER: DRINKING AND
BATHING
The
basic rule of thumb for land
hermit crabs’ drinking water is this: Do not give the crab any water
you would not put in a tropical fish tank.
This means that you’ll need to remove the chlorine and other harmful
chemicals from water prior to giving it to your crab. Bottled and
filtered water are also acceptable, but usually more expensive. Plus
there is no way of guaranteeing that during processing (with bottled
water) that the chlorine was adequately removed or (with filtered
water) that the filter you’re using wasn’t clogged or contaminated. I’d
go with the method below, regardless of the type of water you use.
Removing the Bad Stuff:
Chlorine
Chlorine is harmful to land hermit crabs. Repeated exposure to it
causes blisters to form on the crabs' gills, resulting in suffocation
and death. You can remove this harmful chemical by purchasing from your
pet store a general dechlorinator (or tap water conditioner). It’s
relatively inexpensive and usually comes in a dropper-style bottle. You
do not need to buy a large amount of it (in fact, you shouldn't,
because the drops may gradually lose the ability to dechlorinate the
water if stored for a long period of time). Try to get a brand with
instructions on how to mix only ONE GALLON of dechlorinated water,
otherwise you’ll have to do some calculating as to how many drops per
quart, etc. Read the
instructions on the
bottle or packaging. Usually you'll need something like 1 drop per
gallon (if the the
water, it can be served to the crabs in practically any non-metallic,
non-porous container. The two things you need to consider when
selecting water dishes for your crabs are: How much water it will hold;
and how deep the container is. If you have large crabs, you will need a
larger container, obviously. Hermit crabs like to drag themselves
(shell and all) into the water dish and just sit there sometimes. They
may be replenishing their ‘shell water’ or they may be cleaning out
their shells. It’s important you check the water dish daily, and make
sure that it is clean and full of water. To clean the water dish, run
it under the tap and dry it well with a dishcloth. The best water
dishes I have seen are molded plastic or cement reptile-type dishes
that look like rock, sea shells, plastic jar lids and
individual-serving size small Pyrex casserole dishes. NEVER use
anything metal as a water dish. Land hermit crabs are extremely
sensitive to metal.
VERY
IMPORTANT! Be sure
your water dish is not so deep that your smaller crabs will drown in
it. If you have large crabs and small crabs together, put pebbles into
the large crabs’ dish so a stray small crab will
have a way to get out if it stumbles into the large dish. Smaller water
dishes and jar lids don’t need a sponge in them, but a sponge is
critical if you’re using a large clam shell, which may be very deep
toward the middle-back areas. If the water seems deeper than your
smallest crabs, don’t take the risk. Put a sponge into the dish.
Wash Yer Dishes!
You may notice when you refill the crabs' water dishes that there is
sometimes a slimy residue in the bottom of the water dishes. This
‘scum’ is probably the residue from the (traces of) oil that is used in
many commercial crab foods. This oil is used since our hermies
need a bit of it in their diet. However, this does NOT mean to add
extra oil to their crab food or feed them extra oil -- THAT could kill
them! Another culprit could well be the oils from
the natural foods (such as the coconut, etc.) you feed your crabs. The
scum is probably a residue of this oil, combined with food particles
and other items the crabs drag into the dish along with them. It is no
cause for alarm. Just scrub out the scum (do NOT use any chemicals, a
damp paper towel works perfectly).
To bathe or not to bathe?
There is a lot of debate among hermit crab lovers as to whether bathing
land hermit crabs is in fact necessary. When I was growing up it was
taken as gospel and was held that way until maybe three years ago at
the most.
The arguments for and against
bathing can both be made to sound very good. Over the years what
I have owned hermit crabs, however, I have come to stop bathing them
completely. At first this
was because I took into my care several species of exotic hermit crabs
and I was unsure about their care. As time went by and all my crabs
benefited from not being bathed, I decided to abandon the practice. Now
my crabs receive a bath only after coming up from a molt, before being
introduced to the rest, or in special circumstances.
The general rule for bathing is
thus: If you keep the humidity level of the crabitat at the desired
level (above 70% relative) then bathing is actually
stressful to the crabs. This
is not to say that hermit
crabs should never be bathed. What they need is to be able to bathe
themselves when they feel the need. You should provide them with
dishes of 
