Calling all Marine Hermie Owners...I need advice

[kuplakrabs]

I got a call tonight from a friend who heard I had hermit crabs and wanted to know if I wanted a few more because a friend of his brought them to him as a gift from Florida and he really didn't want to keep them. (sorry for the run on sentence) When he arrived at my house, they were in a wire cage with some wet sand on the bottom. Much to my surprise the poor things are marine hermies. I know there are quite a few members with marine hermies here and was hoping to pick your brains on how to set something up temporarily until I can get enough research together about how to care for them. Believe me, any advice is welcome ***update***I've had a few shell changes already and I am fairly certain I have identified them as Clibanarius Vittatus. The guy who brought them to me told me they were found by the gulf. Vittatus is indigenous to the Gulf of Mexico.

[Guest]

Hello, I have some marine hermits in my saltwater tank. First I just wanted to say thank you for being so kind hearted and taking the little guys in and trying to help them.First off they need to be in saltwater. The type of saltwater you will need is for saltwater tanks, which you can buy at petsmart...petco. You should have the salinity of the water around 1.021 - 1.023. They have tools to help with this called a hydrometer. You would get your water treated for removing the chlorine....add the salt per the instructions and then check it with the hydrometer. If you feel this is too much for you right now...you could go to a live fish store in your neighborhood who sells saltwater fish..they all mostly sell already mixed saltwater. As far as what they eat they really are scavengers. Any kind of marine fish foods they would enjoy. Some will also eat some of the algae in the tank.I would also suggest if you are gonna keep them to buy those little fish bowls with filtration...I think one is called azoo or something as such. They sell them at petco. That would be a cute way to make them a home. They will need extra shells just like any hermit crabs to change into as they grow. Also, they won't fight each other to get the shell their tank mate is in! There is a good website that will give you more insight into these little guys. Liveaquaria.com. They would be under the title of invertabrae and then click under crabs. I hope this helps. Please if you have anymore questions that I haven't thought to answer here for you, just give a hollar and I will help.Have a good day and the best of luck to you and your new lucky marine hermies.

[kuplakrabs]

Thanks Debisme,I couldn't just let them die in a wire cage and they really are pretty cute and fun to watch.Fortunately, I already have all of the things you suggested for my land hermits I went today and bought a submersible heater & a temperature gauge. I already have test kits so I just need to hopefully be able to cycle a tank for them. I have been reading until my eyes hurt LOL. There isn't much to read on the hermies themselves, but I have been reading about the nitrogen cycle. I guess if I can get this mini saltwater tank set up it shouldn't matter too much what lives in it...right? I have a ten gallon tank that is going to be their new home, but I am concerned about what to do with them while this tank cycles. Do I just keep changing the water or is that doing more harm than good? These hermies come onto the beach down in Florida (Gulf of Mexico), so I have customized the tank to allow them to get out of the water if they so desire. I have a medium sized piece of lava rock that they can climb on and hide under. I am going to use sand, gravel and mini shells as the substrate (unless I can find some aragonite around here). I just hope I can get all of this done and not have the poor things die in the interim. Any suggestions are more than welcome and appreciated. I'm in the process now of making a log sheet so I can record the readings that I take from my test kits. I'll post pics if this ever does work out for me. Thank you so much for your help. I really do feel like I'm in way over my head. For the sake of the hermies, I hope not.

[GSnicklegrove]

If you change the water while it is cycling, you prolong the process indefinitely. It is best to set-up your ten gallon tank, cycle it with the shrimp, and keep the marine hermits somewhere else in a temporary home, where you can change the water completely every day to avoid the cycling, which happen within the first 24-48 hours. You will need to offer a little food, but be careful, and keep it to very very little for now.Gertie

[kuplakrabs]

Thanks Gertie. The little guys are currently in a plastic tote with their sw (plan on keeping them there until the tank is done cycling). I have it on a slant with some sand so they can get out of the water if they choose to do so. I have been doing a daily change of about 80%, so I guess I will completely change the water until the cycle in the 10g is complete. I'm a bit concerned about the temp of the water in the tote. It's only room temp (which in our house is usually around 72 (bad, I know LOL) Right now I have an incandescent red heat bulb shining on the water, but it still seems cool to me. I just bought a thermometer today, so I will be able to monitor the temp and find out just how cool it is. About food-do you think a pinch of algae wafer should suffice? Or should I sprinkle in a flake or two of the seaweed I have?

[GSnicklegrove]

You should feed a variety of foods, to be nutritionaly colplete. Just like land crabs, narine crabs are omnivores. You can feed some pieces of algea wafer, then rotate with some frozen shrimp (you can buy little boxes of frozen fish food varieties at Petco, encased in punch packs that contain brine shrimp, blood worms, and algea, they would probably love that one. I get one of those for $3.99, at my Petco, that lasts for months on end.) A little seaweed, maybe try a little romaine for fun. I don't know what species you have, nor what they would like particularly, so I would experiment with a range of little foods).They need lots of hiding places too, and water temp should be around 75-82 degrees, according to a google search. There are alot of marine crab infomational sites out there. Gertie