HCA: Hermit Crab Association

As you can see from my posting history, I have had hermit crabs for several years now. But I've been gone for a couple years so i thought I'd stick my head up in the new owners thread and say hello.

I used to have a couple dozen hermies in a pair of 55G and a pair of 40G breeder, but my mother made me cut back to just a single 40G breeder. (She also made me keep them in an upstairs spare bedroom in the hope that I'd lose interest.)

This weekend marks my return to the hobby after a couple years of passivity. I've set up a recently bought 30G curved front tank in my office, and moved the hermies down where I can take better care of them and get more joy out of them.

I hadn't taken a census in a couple years, but now I find I have 4 PPs and a ruggie. I think I'm going to have to find a couple extra ruggies to keep him company (which means I'll need another tank, yippee).

Welcome back, its nice to meet you. Its always good to have more active members! I'm glad you're able to enjoy these sweet creatures again! I'm definitely excited to see pictures of your set up and crabbies.

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Welcome back! I certainly do remember the name.
This question has bugged me for a while now... So far, have you noticed a change in hermie care? If so, what is it?

(Also pictures are certainly welcome!)

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

This time around I have decided to limit myself to just using tanks I can buy cheap on Craigslist. So far I have a 36G bow-front and a 26G bow-front.

The total cost was $90, and included lids and a stand for the 26G.

Rawrgeous wrote:Welcome back, its nice to meet you. Its always good to have more active members! I'm glad you're able to enjoy these sweet creatures again! I'm definitely excited to see pictures of your set up and crabbies.

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I don't really have anything amazing yet, although I have enough plants that the tanks will look very green. (I saved almost everything from the last time.)

aussieJJDude wrote:Welcome back! I certainly do remember the name.
This question has bugged me for a while now... So far, have you noticed a change in hermie care? If so, what is it?

(Also pictures are certainly welcome!)

Honestly?

For starters, I didn't notice this before but now that I am back I can see that some of the super elaborate crabitats are not intended for the benefit of hermies but are instead showcases for the sake of being showcases.

Also I thought some people here were a little too obsessed with "ideal" care before and acted in the absence of scientific or even empirical evidence (see UV lighting, for example), but now I hear that there's a hermie "food pyramid". Considering that hermies are scavengers, I think that's way over the top.

The jury is still out on UVB and how crustaceans actually process vitamin D and calcium in their bodies. I'm reading 3 different studies right now that suggest scientists still don't know.

The food pyramid was published in 2008, with the post being updated in 2013 with a disclaimer stating that the info was likely outdated.

As far as I know land hermit crabs diet consists largely of leaf litter, decaying sea life, insects, and whatever fruits/ vegetation grow in their natural habitat.

Oh! Also Land Hermit Crabs and HCA merged last year; that happened.

Nate the great wrote:Honestly?

For starters, I didn't notice this before but now that I am back I can see that some of the super elaborate crabitats are not intended for the benefit of hermies but are instead showcases for the sake of being showcases.

Also I thought some people here were a little too obsessed with "ideal" care before and acted in the absence of scientific or even empirical evidence (see UV lighting, for example), but now I hear that there's a hermie "food pyramid". Considering that hermies are scavengers, I think that's way over the top.

Thats interesting.. And totally understandable.
Like soilentgringa said, a lot of these changed are based off scientific research or the lack of research. It's pretty much us to fill in the gaps in hermie crab care.

soilentgringa wrote: The food pyramid was published in 2008, with the post being updated in 2013 with a disclaimer stating that the info was likely outdated.

Yep.

The article was originaly published by Kilimanjaro on July 30, 2008. Some information may be out of date, but the overall information on hermit crab nutrition is sound.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92554

IMO, it's a very good starting point for new crabbers who just found out the commercial pellets they've been feeding their crabs are junk and possibly harmful - which can be very overwhelming, especially when it's likely not the only thing they've been told was ok but isn't.

Nate the great wrote: For starters, I didn't notice this before but now that I am back I can see that some of the super elaborate crabitats are not intended for the benefit of hermies but are instead showcases for the sake of being showcases.

Definitely. You don't have to have some crazy expensive, magazine worthy crabitat. As far as I recall, the HCA has always said that you can make a perfectly acceptable crabitat really cheaply. There used to be a lot of threads talking about items you could repurpose for the crabitat to save money. Not sure if they're still around. Really, the only things you can't skimp on are adequate space, heat source, substrate, salt water mix, dechlorinater, shells. And these things last quite a while so in the long run, not a bad deal.