HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Fast is awesome! I'm so glad he's back in a shell.

Sandra and Callalily are exactly right. I'm sorry, but if you wait until he comes up.....well, he won't, he'll die down there. I absolutely recommend the glass cup and reshelling as well. If he's been out of his shell longer than a few hours, he needs to reshell ASAP - without it, I've never seen a ...

I love the sand turtle!

So I have a question about water viability. If I have water in 5 gallon jugs, or in jars waiting to be switched into, how long are they good for? Like does the water start to go bad after a certain amount of time? How long are you talking about? As long as it's not forming algae, I'd consider it fi...

If you're looking at a commercial algae wafter, Shirakura is a great option. Repashy's Shrimp Souffle is really solid as well, and both are ethoxyquin and BHT free. I definitely wouldn't trust those ingredients based on the -meal thing.

Kat yes I'd love to get a data collection/survey project started. After work today I plan to put out a "feeler" post to get some feedback on what infotthe community thinks should be included, how best to collect the info, etc. Great! I'm not super active on the forum these days, so please let me kn...

And I'm all for helping figure it out, I'll have before and after pics of my crabs once they have been basking in UVB for a couple months, I think it might be too early to tell any major color variance or attitude changes. I'll be posting before and after of my straws as well; you can definitely te...

I do agree there is a very high possibility they need UVB, it's the whole reason I made a UVB sundeck. I just think these are 2 separate issues, the aggression and the crabs overall exoskeleton health. I do not agree that providing enough shells, space, hides, or anything of that nature will preven...

There are no papers to support lack of UVB and aggressiveness in E's, where did you see that? And from my time on the forums, E's have been the #1 aggressor for people of all levels of crowding, so I also don't see how that has anything to do with it either. The trend, and you can do the math, is t...

I definitely agree that Es go after fresh molters; that's happened to me once too. I'm not convinced that UVB is the *only* reason they would do that, but I'd think it's something to consider. Whether or not it's linked to aggressive behavior, it's reasonable to consider it and to also consider a co...

I know tensions are running a little high in this thread and considered not posting these additional thoughts, but I think they merit bringing it up. When we talk about long-lived PPs, they are always ones that are fed with commercial food. I just got a PP from a lady that had the same PPs for 17 ye...

I'm going to start this off with saying that I did not read through all the replies yet. I am actually really busy right now what with speed-learning a new language and preparing for weeks of vacation and tank building, so I'll get to it when I can. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm sure that...

flutinkat, alarm bells went off when you said 'pleco' & 'planted tank' in the same sentence. I hope you mean a dwarf variety & mostly plastic plants 'cause plecos love sandy substrate to bury in & they will rip up plants. The big ones can even thrash at them w/ their tails and cut them in two. I le...

I'd like my current tank, but bigger. 250g sounds like enough. :) I'd do a 20g SW nano reef with marine hermits and a planted FW pool with a pleco and some snails or shrimp. I'd like to do a forest area and a beach area, with the forest area further away and the scenery turning into beach as it gets...

The problem with exotics is that they are expensive to keep - your crab budget can quickly balloon into hundreds of dollars to keep them in the conditions they need. I certainly had this experience, and I've seen more than one person (including mods) say the same thing. Not only does shipping cost n...