Hermit Crabs!
Saturday, July 24, 2010 by Amy
Alert! Boring post about hermit crabs ahead! Alert!
The hermit crabs made it to Colorado okay. Except three trips through the x-ray at the airport can't be a good thing :) But no signs of radioactivity yet LOL! After the Dallas checkpoint I opened the backpack to check on the little critters and the lid had come off and the crabbies were all over my backpack. Good thing I checked!
We had to use a 10 gallon aquarium. I'd like to get a bigger one, but certainly not before we move, and I can't justify the expense right now. Unless one comes up on freecycle. They have a nice little habitat (or "crabitat" as hermit crab people call it!)
For the substrate, I got some Eco Earth (which is compressed coconut fiber). It comes in bricks. I found out the hard way that one brick expands A LOT and we had about 7 inches of substrate in the tank. I'll have Rudi saw the blocks into thirds in the future. So, I had to take most of it out :) Then I got play sand at Lowe's ($3.50 for 50 lbs!). I wet the sand with Instant Ocean (as recommended by hermit crab freaks, absolutely NOT table salt!) until it was the consistency of sand castle sand and mixed it 5:1 with the Eco Earth (5 parts sand to 1 part Eco Earth but that's a rough estimate, it's not like I measured it!) deep enough for the crabs to burrow (about 3-4 inches). I got a hygrometer to make sure it was at 80% humidity like they need. I installed a climbing background, gave them a stick to climb on, a half log, and a fake plant thingy.
I used a gallon jug of drinking water to make the salt water I used to wet the sand and Eco Earth, from which I fill the spray bottle to mist their cage and fill their salt water dish. Apparently hermit crabs cannot survive long without salt water (in addition to fresh water). After I put the salt water dish in the cage, all three crabs came running. The little crab sat in it so long I thought it had drowned. I pulled it out and it ran right back, soaking for many minutes. Anyway, apparently, hermit crabs need salt water to molt, and a place deep enough to bury themselves for weeks while it happens. So those are two of the most important things, salt water and a deep enough substrate. If a crab doesn't have the suitable habitat to molt, they produce a hormone to hold off molting, but eventually they will OD on that hormone and die. I think that the little crab may be getting ready to molt, judging by his lack of activity, the way he jumped into the salt water, and how he keeps burying himself. Or he's getting ready to die. One of the two I'm pretty sure ;)
I wasn't going to say anything, but I also got Balanced Basics Food Mix, Blossom Burst, and 3 Berry Granola, lest I be considered a freak, but then I remembered that I don't care. Apparently commercial food is really bad for them.
So, essentially I discovered that hermit crabs need:
1. A wet substrate at least twice as deep as the largest crab is big.
2. Humidity of 80%.
3. Salt water and fresh water available.
4. Non-commercial food.
They don't ask for much, do they?
Oh, one more thing. I discovered that we likely have two different crab species. It looks like we have two Purple Pinchers, and an Ecuadorian. The one we have has a distinct greenish-blue coloration, we we're fairly sure that's what it is. We'll know for sure once it's big pincher grows back! Actually, I know it's an Ecuadorian now. The eye shape is completely different from the Purple Pincher. It's such an active crab! I wonder when it sleeps! I guess this one has never heard that hermit crabs are supposed to be nocturnal.
The hermit crabs made it to Colorado okay. Except three trips through the x-ray at the airport can't be a good thing :) But no signs of radioactivity yet LOL! After the Dallas checkpoint I opened the backpack to check on the little critters and the lid had come off and the crabbies were all over my backpack. Good thing I checked!
We had to use a 10 gallon aquarium. I'd like to get a bigger one, but certainly not before we move, and I can't justify the expense right now. Unless one comes up on freecycle. They have a nice little habitat (or "crabitat" as hermit crab people call it!)
For the substrate, I got some Eco Earth (which is compressed coconut fiber). It comes in bricks. I found out the hard way that one brick expands A LOT and we had about 7 inches of substrate in the tank. I'll have Rudi saw the blocks into thirds in the future. So, I had to take most of it out :) Then I got play sand at Lowe's ($3.50 for 50 lbs!). I wet the sand with Instant Ocean (as recommended by hermit crab freaks, absolutely NOT table salt!) until it was the consistency of sand castle sand and mixed it 5:1 with the Eco Earth (5 parts sand to 1 part Eco Earth but that's a rough estimate, it's not like I measured it!) deep enough for the crabs to burrow (about 3-4 inches). I got a hygrometer to make sure it was at 80% humidity like they need. I installed a climbing background, gave them a stick to climb on, a half log, and a fake plant thingy.
I used a gallon jug of drinking water to make the salt water I used to wet the sand and Eco Earth, from which I fill the spray bottle to mist their cage and fill their salt water dish. Apparently hermit crabs cannot survive long without salt water (in addition to fresh water). After I put the salt water dish in the cage, all three crabs came running. The little crab sat in it so long I thought it had drowned. I pulled it out and it ran right back, soaking for many minutes. Anyway, apparently, hermit crabs need salt water to molt, and a place deep enough to bury themselves for weeks while it happens. So those are two of the most important things, salt water and a deep enough substrate. If a crab doesn't have the suitable habitat to molt, they produce a hormone to hold off molting, but eventually they will OD on that hormone and die. I think that the little crab may be getting ready to molt, judging by his lack of activity, the way he jumped into the salt water, and how he keeps burying himself. Or he's getting ready to die. One of the two I'm pretty sure ;)
I wasn't going to say anything, but I also got Balanced Basics Food Mix, Blossom Burst, and 3 Berry Granola, lest I be considered a freak, but then I remembered that I don't care. Apparently commercial food is really bad for them.
So, essentially I discovered that hermit crabs need:
1. A wet substrate at least twice as deep as the largest crab is big.
2. Humidity of 80%.
3. Salt water and fresh water available.
4. Non-commercial food.
They don't ask for much, do they?
Oh, one more thing. I discovered that we likely have two different crab species. It looks like we have two Purple Pinchers, and an Ecuadorian. The one we have has a distinct greenish-blue coloration, we we're fairly sure that's what it is. We'll know for sure once it's big pincher grows back! Actually, I know it's an Ecuadorian now. The eye shape is completely different from the Purple Pincher. It's such an active crab! I wonder when it sleeps! I guess this one has never heard that hermit crabs are supposed to be nocturnal.
