Hermit Crabs

[Redneck]

Anyone here keep hermit crabs? Care to share pictures of your crabitat?

 

[Toxoderidae]

I'd like to see some pictures please! Because hermit crabs are some of the hardest animals to keep in captivity (healthily that is)

 

[darkness975]

I'd like to see some pictures please! Because hermit crabs are some of the hardest animals to keep in captivity (healthily that is)

I kept them for years. But they do require specific parameters to keep them healthy for any length of time.
Proper temperature, humidity, fresh and salt water bowls, proper depth and moisture substrate, diet (not just pet smart "crab food in a can"), cuttlebone (like for birds) that they can eat for calcium, etc. etc.

These are all factors that are not overly difficult to achieve (the salt water dish is a pain in the neck) but without them the crabs are as good as dead which is a real tragedy given that every single one that you see in captivity or dying by the hundreds in the petsmart death boxes are wild caught.
The populations in some areas are significantly dwindling due to over-collecting of both the crabs and the shells they require to live in.

Every time I see one of those stupid "crab kits" which includes a way too small and way too ventilated hamster travel case for a habitat it makes me want to take the whole thing and smash it to pieces.

I would never buy another hermit crab again. It is not because I do not want them but because of the trouble they are in in the wild from over-collecting. Unlike with our Tarantulas and such, they are not capable of being bred in captivity due to their reliance upon the sea itself during their early life stages. Unless someone somewhere has figured out a way to do this successfully then I am all for it but I really doubt that this will ever be achieved. A major part of the breeding, in addition to requiring the ocean, is yearly climate factors that simply cannot be replicated in captivity, especially in a place where the atmospheric pressures and such are all different.

 

[Ballys inverts]

Yeah they arnt to hard to keep I've had them for years but the start up cost is quite a bit and they have some special requirements that's about it