Helpful Hermit Crab Basics

See the August 19, 2009 entry “Unusual Pets: Hermit Crabs” for an introduction to these fascinating pets.

Hermit crabs are fun pets to care for in your home. They used to be reserved as souvenirs from seaside vacations, but now you can buy them in most pet shops. They make wonderful starter pets for kids. They are a great alternative to the more traditional gerbils or hamsters and they have a much longer lifespan than goldfish. Contrary to what you might expect, it is possible to play with them and they do have little personalities of their own. Do you think hermit crabs may make a great pet for you? Here are some helpful hints to get you started.

Before you get your crab, you need to get the basic equipment and supplies in place. First, your crab will need an aquarium for its house. Forget those teeny, tiny cages you see at the shops by the beach; hermit crabs really need a ten-gallon aquarium to be comfortable. If you are getting more than one crab, obviously you will need a bigger aquarium. A pet shop will tell you the best size to get, depending on the number of crabs you will be housing. Make sure the aquarium has a snug fitting lid so your little friends do not make a run for it! Place a reptile heating-pad under the tank to keep your crabs feeling nice and tropical.

You will need something to cover the floor of the tank, as well. Three to four inches of sand works best, but you can also use crushed coral or reptile fibre bedding. If you use something other than sand, it is still a good idea to cover a portion of the floor with sand, so the crabs will have somewhere comfortable to go when they moult.

Now that you have the house and the flooring taken care of, you will need to get two shallow water dishes and a food dish. Shallow seashells can be used if you have access to them. In one water dish, you should keep fresh water and in the other, keep salt water, made with a marine aquarium salt solution. The dishes need to be shallow enough that the crabs can crawl into and out of them. A natural sea sponge is a nice addition to the fresh water dish. Your crab will love to pinch it and it will help keep the humidity levels up in the aquarium.

The last thing you will need to fancy up your hermit crab home is some decorative wood pieces so your crab can climb on them. Coral and pieces of clean coconut shell also make great additions. Your crab will love playing with them.

You will need to get some commercial hermit crab food so your crab will have something to eat. You can supplement that food with small pieces of fruit, meat, cereal or fish. Additionally, make sure your crab gets crushed eggshells or oyster shells to boost its calcium level; it is important to keep its fragile skeleton strong. Cuttlebone, which is kept in the bird area of most pet stores can also be used for this purpose.

To care for your crab, clean its water and food dishes daily and spot clean the tank when necessary. You will want to provide plenty of extra shells, in increasingly larger sizes, so your crab can change homes as it grows. Shells with wide openings are best. When your crab moults, remove the skin it has shed as soon as possible as it will begin to decay and could contaminate items within the tank.

Optional, but useful accessories to get are a tank thermometer and humidity-measuring tool. Your hermit crab will be most comfortable when you keep the temperature around 72°F - 80°F and you keep the humidity level between 70% and 80%.

With these helpful hints, you are now ready to get your hermit crab. One more fun part remains to be done…you get to pick a name for your new pet.

Until next time,

Teia

Unusual Pets: Hermit Crabs

Hermit crabs are not related in any way to the marine crabs you see crawling across the beaches of the world. Hermit crabs belong to the super family Paguroidea. They are called Hermit crabs because they like to occupy abandoned seashells. They do this to protect their delicate abdomen from predators. There are nearly 500 species of Hermit crabs in the world and most of them live in water. Wild Hermit crabs traditionally live in large colonies of 100 or more occupants.

When a Hermit crab outgrows its current shell, it abandons the shell and moves into a larger one. While it is searching for a larger shell, a Hermit crab is easy prey for predators. Hermit crabs with well fitting shells grow faster than ones that have tight fitting shells. Ones with tight shells cannot withdraw into the shell as easily or quickly as those with well fitting shells, so they are more vulnerable to predators which flip over the shell and attack the Hermit crab's soft abdomen. Because the availability of abandoned shells depends on the population of gastropods in the area, there is frequently a shortage of shells. This usually leads to Hermit crabs fighting with each other for shells. Very rarely do Hermit crabs voluntarily trade shells with each other. When a Hermit crab selects a new shell, it is usually at least one-third larger than their current shell.

Hermit crabs have a tough exoskeleton which covers most of their body, except for their soft abdomen. Therefore, to grow, the Hermit crab has to shed its exoskeleton and grow another one. This process is known as molting. During the molting process, which lasts approximately two weeks, the Hermit crab buries itself in gravel and becomes inactive. Small Hermit crabs molt about once a month and larger ones about once every eighteen months.

Hermit crabs are now being kept as exotic pets because as well as being interesting, they require the least amount of maintenance of all the exotic pets. They seldom grow bigger than a large peach, so they can be kept in a normal aquarium. In the last number of years, many species of Hermit crabs have become part of the marine aquarium trade. Blue legged Hermit crabs, Zebra Hermit crabs, red reef Hermit crabs, common Hermit crabs and red tip Hermit crabs are some of the types which are kept as pets. The most desirable Hermit crab for a pet is the red reef Hermit crab or as it is sometimes called, the scarlet Hermit crab. It is very strikingly coloured, with a bright red body and yellow eye stalks.

Aquatic Hermit crabs live in salt water with salinity ranging from 1.023 to 1.025. The water temperature should be between 75 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 degrees Fahrenheit for species that come from tropical waters, and cooler for ones that come from temperate waters. The gravel bed of the aquarium where they are housed should be fairly deep, full of algae and it should be covered with many different sized and shaped seashells. If Hermit crabs have a large number of shells to choose from, they will change shells frequently. This is very interesting to watch. Other activities such as climbing and digging are also interesting to watch.

Hermit crabs should be fed daily. Their food dishes should be fairly low and flat so that the Hermit crab can easily climb in and out of the dish. Some species of Hermit crabs are herbivorous and some are omnivorous. When you buy your Hermit crab(s) make sure that the seller tells you what kind you have purchased so that when you buy commercial food, you get the kind designed for the crabs you have. You can also add fresh vegetables and fruit to you crab's diet, however, you must ensure that you never leave this fresh produce in your tank for more than 24 hours as it will begin to decay and will contaminate the water, endangering your pet. Should you choose a land Hermit crab, in addition to its daily food, it needs to be sprinkled with lukewarm water for several minutes. The gravel in your tank should be removed and your tank should be washed about once every month or two. While removing the gravel look at it carefully to ensure uneaten commercial food is removed before it becomes toxic from decay. When removing the water, ensure that you save at least half of it for refilling the tank. This ensures that your crab(s) are not stressed by a drastic change in the water. (Note, do not use soap to wash your tank as the residue left behind could be fatal to your crab(s). Use either plain water or water with a few drops of white vinegar in it to wash your tank. If using a water-vinegar wash water, be sure to rinse the tank thoroughly with plain water and dry it out before putting water back into the tank. If the old water looks “grubby” pour it back into the tank through a paper coffee filter to remove the solids).

You can train your Hermit crab(s) to climb onto your hand by holding your open hand, palm up, in front of your pet. If you keep your hand motionless, in a few minutes, your Hermit crab will climb on. It may pinch your palm, but it will usually let go if you stir the water near it with your other hand. If your pet is a land Hermit crab, run your hand with the crab on it, under lukewarm water and it will immediately let go.

Until next time,

Teia

Saltwater Aquariums

Before I get into the discussion of salt water aquariums, I have to warn you. Salt water aquariums are not for the novice fish owner. Even seasoned fresh water aquarium owners have experienced a great deal of trouble trying to maintain salt water tanks. It is very difficult to regulate these tanks and it takes a lot of effort and patience just to get the tanks fit for fish. One Aquarium shop owner my mom and dad dealt with regularly, when they had aquariums, told them that it is quite common to take a year to get the tank properly stabilized so that you can safely keep marine fish in it. Anyone that tells you that keeping saltwater tanks is as easy as keeping fresh water tanks either is lying or has never owned a salt water tank. One further point I would like to cover is the cost associated with maintaining saltwater tanks. The tanks themselves are about the same price as freshwater tanks. Everything else is much more expensive. The fish themselves can cost anywhere from ten dollars to thousands of dollars each. Now that you know that salt water tanks are a lot of work and expensive, I will go over the type of fish you should start out with.

Did you ever wonder why those beautiful fish tanks that you see in the movies look so much better than your freshwater tank?

The answer lies in the fish! Saltwater or marine aquariums are made to house tropical fish that you find around reefs in the ocean. These fish come in shapes, sizes and colors that make a dramatic impact. Most freshwater fish simply cannot compete with these natural beauties.

If you want these same gorgeous fish in your living room, you can set up and maintain a saltwater tank to house them. Once your tank is stable, you are ready to buy your first marine fish. The key is to choose hardy fish that will last. Saltwater fish are much more fragile and more expensive than their freshwater counterparts.

Some hardy fish you may want to consider for a saltwater tank include damsels, mollies and clown fish.

Damsels are probably the most hardy fish and should certainly be considered for a new tank as well as for beginners to marine aquarium ownership. These fish are fairly inexpensive, are not finicky eaters and can withstand poor water conditions better than any other marine fish. Although they are not the most colorful of fish, they are certainly your best bet until you become experienced and have a stable tank. The only caveat is that some can be aggressive so you should limit yourself to two per tank.

Mollies, the same fish that you use in freshwater tanks, can be acclimated to salt water tanks and are quite hardy. These fish are very inexpensive and a great way to start off your marine tank. If you buy mollies in the pet store from a freshwater tank, acclimate them by dripping salt water into the bag over a period of eight hours or so - removing excess water when the bag gets too full and slowly increasing the salinity.

While damsels and mollies may not be the most beautiful fish, the clown fish is certainly a colorful and interesting fish for your tank. These fish are fairly hardy but a bit more difficult to acclimate to a tank so you may not want to use them as starter fish. Clown fish are territorial but will only be aggressive with other clowns and are good for a community tank. Although clowns do like to live around a sea anemone, they will do fine without one which is good for the beginner since the anemone is fairly difficult to keep.

While starting off your tank with these three types of fish can be fun and exciting, you will eventually want to move on to other fish. Other fish you may want to try include hawk fish, grammas, dotty backs, wrasses and basslets. The fish that are more difficult to keep and should probably be avoided include seahorses, butterfly fish, blue ribbon eels, stonefish, and mandarin fish. Join a fish club that has members with marine tanks and learn from seasoned marine aquarium owners. Once you learn the requirements of marine tanks, you will love the colors and shapes of your new marine fish. Good luck with your new hobby.

Until next time,

Teia

PS You can also restrict your marine tank to different types of coral if you so desire. Make sure to discuss the types of coral and their care with your aquarium shop personnel or with marine fish club members.