New Owner, This site is so helpful!

[DiannaVB]

Hi everyone,

As you may have guessed I'm a new owner of two small PP hermit crabs. I am one of "those" people that bought a little plastic cage, a painted shell crab, and got the free plain shell crab that comes with the little plastic cage at a surf shop on vacation after my child convinced me he needed a crab. Then after we got back to the rental house I checked google and WOW there is more to this than a little plastic cage.

So, I made the little cage up the best I could and did a flurry of online ordering. At the moment I am left with two questions.

1. They will be moving to a tank I had stored in the garage. It's not quite 40 gallons. Will it be okay to start out with just two crabs or will they be lonely? If everything goes well I will surely add more eventually.

2. The tank is an unusual size. 36"L x 18"W x 14"H It isn't very tall so I'm undecided how deep to make the substrate while keeping enough living space. Thoughts?

Thanks!

[wodesorel]

Two crabs do great together! We tend to amass crabs for different reasons, but all they ever need is a single buddy. The longest lived crabs I've seen over the years are the ones that have been kept in pairs.

It's a 30 gallon breeder, which is basically just a short 40 gallon. You can treat it the same, but less height may mean less room for substrate as they grow larger.

[DiannaVB]

It's been less than a week and my painted shell crab has moved into a natural shell! It's a bit too small but that's all I have until my Crab Patch order arrives. Hopefully I can get the permanent crabitat put mostly together tonight after the UTH arrives.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

If they can fit their little butts into a natural shell they will choose it over a painted one any day. At least in my experience. I have one of those plastic cages I use to pick up crabs at adoptions or the store instead of the cardboard boxes. I always bring a little bit of food and a lot of different size shells. I had one change out if it's painted shell into a natural shell before my mom got the car started. (She is a bad influence and shows up at my house with new crabs or offers to take me to rescues or stores. Lol) they really seem to hate the painted shells! It's ok, we do too!!!