HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Lately, my youngest brother has shown high interest in getting a reptile of his own, because he only has two of his own fish currently. My older younger brother got his leopard gecko a few days ago, and that struck some interest in my brother. He thought about getting a tortoise, but that isn’t working out for what we have available right now. We both would like to get a pet that we already know how to care for, and that won’t put a giant dent in our pocketbook.

Yep, we highly considered hermit crabs. I wouldn’t really be posting this here if it were something else.
I know very well how to care for hermit crabs, but I am no official expert. I can advise what to feed them, and how to setup the habitat, so that’s not going to be very hard, it’s quite easy for me, and exciting for him.
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Habitat

Thought we’d go the route of a twenty gallon, probably going to a high because that offers more climbing room.
I like that type of tank, but I can’t decide if we should go with a twenty, or a twenty-nine.

Substrate

Thinking about PlaySand, because that’s a lot cheaper, and it’s a new thing for me to have a sand only tank.
Then you can make the most of your pet sand when you have a digger.

Crabs

He wants to do Ecuadorians, he thinks they are cuter than Caribbean.
I am not sure how that will work in this size of a tank, I thought that they needed larger tanks, because they can be aggressive.
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Since we have most of the wood decorations, and other things like that, we won’t have to buy a ton of those. Just a few extra specials that he wants, we can get those for the tank.
I want him to be happy, and have his very own tank, because if a problem arises, I know how to take care of it, and we have these forums to help.

Shopping List
• 20 Gallon
• PlaySand
• Water Bowls
• Food Bowl
• Decorations
• Moss & Shell Containers
• Ultratherm UTH

We really shouldn’t exceed the maximum price of $150 if we shop courteously.
We don’t want to overdo it, because we have so much from my stash of supplies. Let’s see how it goes, and hope it turns out!

Probably would look into getting it this summer.
I told him if he passed all his final tests, he could tell our parents that it’s a good time to earn that responsibility.

Equadorians need a minimum 40 gallons because they dig a lot and in smaller tanks it's more than likely they will dig up molters. Also they are highly cannibalistic. They will eat any molter they manage to find.

Edit to include: I however did keep 2 in a 29 for about a year with no problem.

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NLindsey921 wrote:Equadorians need a minimum 40 gallons because they dig a lot and in smaller tanks it's more than likely they will dig up molters. Also they are highly cannibalistic. They will eat any molter they manage to find.

Edit to include: I however did keep 2 in a 29 for about a year with no problem.

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Okay, thanks!

I think you could probably do a pair of small females in a 20 and have them be okay for a long time. People have in the past without issue.

You also may find that the crabs available to you will determine what you keep, species tend to fluctuate at times... but I think they both as cute as eachother.

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I've had E's for a couple of years. They're not all "highly cannibalistic".

Any land hermit crab of any species will try to eat an actively molting crab if they come across it because the scent attracts them and the molter smells like a snack to them.

As long as adequate space and a varied diet are provided E's should be fine.

We have had a few members whose E's didn't work out for them but IIRC Wode rehomed hers due to aggression and they were well behaved in their new tank. *shrug*



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The person who took them admitted later they seemed to be causing problems for her as well, but I never got the chance to follow up to see if NabbE was the problem crab. She had suspicions they/he was taking out some of her other Es and some Straws as she started having losses. I never had luck with Es, but it didn't seem like they all were bad, just one or two, usually the dominant males. Kuza had amazing luck with his, and he had a trio of females.

Oh, thanks guys!
I will let my brother know, and we'll get something figured out!

He got the tank today!
Went with a 29 gallon, it's huge!

NLindsey921 wrote:Equadorians need a minimum 40 gallons because they dig a lot and in smaller tanks it's more than likely they will dig up molters. Also they are highly cannibalistic. They will eat any molter they manage to find.

Edit to include: I however did keep 2 in a 29 for about a year with no problem.

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From experience, my small E has never had any major attacks, it was actually my medium crab who almost dug up an already naked crab underground once. My E never dug a crab up, but that might be because she is the smallest crab I own.