Hermit Crab Care Guide
Hermit Crabs are an amazing specie of crustacean. Their shells give them an almost stylish look. A hermit crab’s tough exoskeleton (their kind of skin) and strong pincher gives them a good chance of survival against enemies and possibly falls. But the shell that they wear every day of their life is used mainly to hide their vulnerable back-end. Hermit crabs cannot turn their torso from side to side like other creatures. Instead they let their unarmored, oddly shaped, embarrassing tail drag about behind them. If not for the shell, they would be in danger from many predators and creatures that may hurt them. They do, however, turn the necessary shell into something beautiful. Sometimes their home-on-the-go is shiny and glitters in the sun, sometimes it is a rustic looking shell with moss hanging in tendrils around them, or sometimes they live in perfect beach-shells that one dreams of finding on a cool morning when watching the sun rise from the ocean, winking itself awake. These mysterious creatures turn their vulnerability into something magnificent!
Habitat
It is always best, before purchasing a creature, to be sure you have the right habitat set up for it. The right ecosystem is key to a thriving hermit crab (or any animal). At a minimum, each hermit crab should have about one gallon of space and, despite their name, hermit crabs are actually social creatures and will get lonely without another hermit crab, so it is best to buy more than one. Many people make the mistake of assuming hermit crabs will fight if they are kept in a container with other crabs. While fighting is not unheard of, it is better for your crab to have a friend or two instead of being alone.
Once you have the container, you will need a lot of sand (hermit crabs enjoy digging into at least six inches of sand). Many companies advertise ‘special’ hermit crab sand, but it is okay to buy any kind of beach sand. You can even pick up a bunch of sand at a beach for free! All you need to do is microwave the natural beach sand to kill any possible sand fleas that live in it. Another important thing is warmth. A land hermit crab need to be in temperatures between 75˚ F and 90˚ F and the humidity levels should be around 70% and 80%.
Hermit crabs need fresh water to drink from and salt water to bathe in so it is best to place two dishes of water on the same end of the container. One should be fresh water and the other should be salt water (mix 1 1/2 tsp of salt with 8 oz of water and never use salt with iodine, a harmful preservative to hermit crabs). On the other side of the container you can place a dish of special hermit crab food, and always use dishes that are shallow or have a ramp leading up into them. You should also always use plastic or ceramic bowls that are non-porous to prevent bacteria growth. Then you can experiment with adorable ‘toys’ and protective homes for your crabs.
Hermit crabs need fresh water to drink from and salt water to bathe in so it is best to place two dishes of water on the same end of the container. One should be fresh water and the other should be salt water (mix 1 1/2 tsp of salt with 8 oz of water and never use salt with iodine, a harmful preservative to hermit crabs). On the other side of the container you can place a dish of special hermit crab food, and always use dishes that are shallow or have a ramp leading up into them. You should also always use plastic or ceramic bowls that are non-porous to prevent bacteria growth. Then you can experiment with adorable ‘toys’ and protective homes for your crabs.
Bringing your Crab Home
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Many beach stores (like Super Wings) sell hermit crabs. You can also find them at pet stores. But these crabs have been unkindly taken from the wild and shipped to such stores. It is WAY more humane to ‘adopt’ your crabs at local hermit crab pet resorts. The crabs at these places have been cared for by other people and then donated because their original caretaker could not keep them anymore. If you adopt them, you are not supporting the cruel crab business like most people do.
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Shells
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Hermit crabs need to have access to many different sizes of conch shells. Before a hermit crab molts, they can become very anxious and may start changing shells as a result. Some crabs will move into a larger shell before digging under the sand to molt to get ready for their slightly bigger size after a molt, while others move into a tighter shell (perhaps for ease of moving under the sand). An other reason to have many shells lying around your crab’s habitat, is when you have more than one crab. Hermit crabs may actually fight over shells when there aren’t any at hand. In the wild, these crabs are used to fighting to live and it is very important for a hermit crab to hide their oddly shaped behind.
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It can be fun and exciting to pick different shells for your hermit crab to try on. It’s adorable to see them in different ‘shell styles’, but do not use any shells that have been painted. Paint chips and falls off. It’s inevitable. This also means that, since hermit crabs are scavengers and will eat many kinds of food, your crab will eat the paint the chips off the shell. Paint is not a natural substance and is never good for any living creature to eat and it can act as a poison to your hermit crabs. If you have crabs that have painted shells in their habitat, remove them immediately. If your crabs are wearing painted shells (because, yeah, they’re unique and can be pretty) put naturally colored shells into their habitat to try to encourage your crab to change shells. As soon as it does so, remove the painted shell.
Feeding
A hermit crab’s food should be high quality. Lucky for you, there are many different forms of crab food. Between pellets and gels, you can find a perfect balanced diet for your crabs, and the only thing you have to keep in mind is to avoid commercial food that has copper sulfate or ethoxyquin. Try to find treats or something with calcium in it like oyster shell bits or cattle bones to maintain a healthy shell. Once you have your balanced diet planned out, feel free to feed you crabs treats such as vegetables, coconuts, cereals, popcorn, and always include wood! These little creatures practically go crazy to chew and play on it (I don’t know why). They also need protein for their exoskeleton (hermit crabs molt), so offering them raw fish or beef bits may be a good idea.
Basically, you can feed hermit crabs almost anything, just make sure to check the ingredients to avoid any unwanted excess sugars!
Basically, you can feed hermit crabs almost anything, just make sure to check the ingredients to avoid any unwanted excess sugars!
Bathing
Bathing is a very important part of a crab’s health. It cleans their shell (hermit crabs have the slight bad habit of storing food in the back of shell and letting it go bad) and freshens them up. As I have gone over in the habit arrangement section, a hermit crab needs both fresh and salt water. This is because they need to drink fresh water and bathe in salt water. You can make your own salt water or you can buy special hermit crab bathing water like Oceanic Salt. The height of the water is also important. Fill the bath up with enough water to almost submerge the crab’s shell, swish it gently around to help it understand that the water feels good. You may want to leave the room to allow the shy crab to come out of his shell and truly clean. If you are not going to be present for your crab’s bath, I’d recommend a set up that allows the crab to easily leave the water if it wants to since they do require oxygen to breathe. After about thirty minutes, your crab can be taken out of its bathing tank. At least give your crab a bath every week to maintain its health.