Hermit crabs as pets

[techgirl]

hey there everyone. just a quick question on hermit crabs and keeping them as pets. what are your personal experiences with them? any luck on having them living awhile or do they die quickly? i have a 10 gallon tank and was wondering how many are ok to keep in a tank that size? any special requirements? thank you for your time.

[John Apple]

Hermit crabs make 'good' observational pets.
not something to handle a lot if that is what your after :>poke2<:
Temps around 75-80 is pretty cool for them and a diet of more than just peanut butter[that is all some people feed them]
They need a shallow water dish and plenty of shells for your growing crab, a good humid spot for shedding, sometimes thay will use the same shell but not allways.
Any crab diet commercialy bought is good, even a good cleaned chicken bone will do them well, as will the odd leaf of romaine.
only leave food in overnight and remove it in the morning. :eatpointe
They can be quite entertaining in the evening as long as you have a 'red' light for viewing.
in a ten gallon I would only keep two
Hope this helped

[techgirl]

thanks john for the info. i was looking for a pet that wasn't too hands on since i have a full house to begin with. it's nice to watch these little guys run around at night. my 18 month old daughter gets a kick at watching them run around after they get misted in the morning.

[John Apple]

You are very welcome
They are pretty neet, another thing some people do is decorate their pets, such as gluing eyes on the shells and other such trinkets. Make you you use a vary fast drying glue such as Krazy Glue so fumes do not build up, or the objects get rubbed off.
hell I have even seen some with antennas on them, or horns :dgrin:

There are a lot of other low maintenance pets that you can also look into
such as tarantulas or sand boas. Praying mantids make great conservation pieces with children in the summer
Take care

[putertutor]

The guideline for number of hermit crabs per tank is one crab per two gallons. So if you have a 10 gallon about 5 medium hermit crabs would be good. If you have jumbo crabs then you would probably only want three.

Here is a listing of the basic items you should have for your crabitat http://www.crabbytalk.com/05132005/basic-crab-care/

I agree with John, they're a good "observation" pet. They're tons of fun to watch.

I wouldn't krazy glue or paint shells, especially when a crab is in them. :) Paint tends to chip and I have read some stories of crabs actually getting "glued" inside their shells by paint and glue. Not a good thing.

HTH,

Robin
http://www.crabbytalk.com

[pasam]

Crabs are great. We have three in a ten gallon and not sure if we will get more, becuase between the food dish, the water dishes and thier salt water swimming pool and the extra shells, and things to climb on not sure how many we could add.

"another thing some people do is decorate their pets, such as gluing eyes on the shells and other such trinkets."

I hate this, We always buy the ones in the painted shells. WE put in a regular turbo shell and that night they are out of those itchy, ugly painted shells and into thier natural shells. They are so cute, especially when you catch them running around naked shopping.