Hermit Crabs

A hermit crab would seldom find a strawberry, since crabs live in the ocean and strawberries grow on the land, however, I am sure that they would eat them if the opportunity arose; they are quite omnivorous.

An adult coconut crab has few predators, humans are responsible for killing the majority (either indirectly through habitat destruction or directly for food). Juvenile crabs are preyed on by gulls and other bird, sometimes other coconut crabs, rats, monkeys, lizards and pigs.

The scientific name for a crab is Pediculus pubis.

Hermit crabs require a far more restricted environment than the pet stores would have you believe. Most pet stores don't even realize the amount of care that is needed.

They require a regulated, tropical environment, which cannot be obtained with a plastic or wire cage. The temperature must be maintained between 74*F and 81*F, and the relative humidity should always be between 70-80%. This cannot be obtained with regular misting. You have to have a lid to help hold in heat and moisture, and it helps to also have other means for keeping the air moist, such as a damp moss pit, moist substrate, or a device like a water bubbler ("Jacuzzi"), etc.

To help them live longer, do not feed them commercial foods. Most commercial foods contain a preservative called Ethoxyquin which is a slow toxin for hermit crabs. It is used in the making of pesticides, and hermit crabs are more closely related to insects than they are to actual crabs. Feed them a very wide variety of foods, preferably organic, free from pesticides (very well washed if not), rich in proteins, calcium, chitin, and zeaxanthin. You can feed them the same foods you eat, just the meat should be cooked without any seasonings (you can fry them in olive oil, which the crabs love, or steam them or even microwave small bits), and they need plenty of fresh and cooked vegetables and fruits for the juices and oils and enzymes they contain. Seaweed is a must, as it is rich in nutrients that the hermit crabs require. You can pick up Spirulina and kelp in your local grocery store nutrition section, in the bulk foods, as well as the seaweed used for sushi, or pick up sheets at the pet store. You can get freeze dried shrimp and mealworms at the pet store as well, just make sure there are no added ingredients (preservatives). They also enjoy organic worm castings, also known as earthworm droppings, but they look just like black dirt.

Please visit this website before you get a hermit crab, or if you are not sure you have the complete setup you need: http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=75&keywords=essentials

And this: http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=29&keywords=essentials

Please note that these articles are a little out of date, but only a couple of things have changed: There is no need to bathe your hermit crabs if you give them water dishes that are deep enough for them to submerge (give them a way to climb out, such as glass pebbles or uncoated river pebbles), and there is no need to bathe them in stresscoat, if bathing is ever needed. It is believed that it may block the exchange of nutrients through the crab's skin/exoskeleton.

No need for a sponge in the water dish, there are other means of creating humidity in the tank, and sponges must be sterilized every couple of days to prevent the growth of bacteria.

Playsand is no longer a recommended substrate, as there have been many instances of crabs becoming poisoned or having other problems related to toxins in the playsand. Much of it is "safe", but there is no way to determine whether it is or not, as most of the impurities cannot be seen or smelled, and do not wash out or disappear by sterilizing the sand. There is no means by which to determine where the playsand was created (by pulverizing rocks) or what sort of impurities may be in the soil/rocks from which it was created. Better to use Eco Earth (coconut fiber) or, best choice, Aragonite sand, sugar grain or select grain size, as these sizes are created to be Oolitic, ie, rounded so no sharp bits can enter the crab's shell and puncture the soft abdomen. it's also very nutritious for them. Never, ever use Calci-sand.

Do read those articles, do some searches in the forum if you have further questions, and join up and ask if you can't find the answers you are looking for.

Good luck and happy crabbing!

A hermit crab is very vulnerable without the snail shell, so you can expect it to get eaten, (or dry up for land hermit crabs), or injured before too long.

Some species of hermit crabs actually don't use snail shells at all, however.

Dont hurt him.. They remember everything and they will get revenge! Beware you in for scare

mutalism

Be patient. Make sure that the temperature and humidity are in the proper range 72-82 and let them take their time. Some crabs are just skittish by nature but even social crabs will not come out unless the conditions are favorable.

Your hermit crab is pink because it just molted. hermit crabs are vertibrates which means they need to molt to grow. hermit crabs burrow underground to molt and stay their for a week to months.

Whenever they molt, they get bigger. People dont know how fast exactly, but many times a year.

We know because scientists have tracked and studied them and their growth patterns. You can also visit Carol of Crabworks and meet Jon and Kate who are over 30 years old.

http://www.geocities.com/hermit_crabs/carol/

Well, my Kawasaki EN450 goes fast enough to scare me...and I'm fearless. It can get up to 90+ mph. The top speed depends on how the bike is geared, how well it cuts the wind and how much weight it is carrying so, there is no really good answer.

Marine and Land hermit crabs both have eyes with which to see. Their vision is believed to not be very sharp.

Moving shadows will cause a land hermit crab to retreat into his shell, as he interprets this as a possible predator who may be coming to eat him.

Hermit crabs do not have ears, however, and are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Their antennae sense vibrations and scents in the air, and this is how they interpret their safety and where they should go to find food.

ONLY if the setting or location is ACTUALLY its natural environment. Hermit crabs live in tropical places, on the shoreline and first row of trees by the ocean. If you live in the Caribbean, and see other hermit crabs living by themselves in the wild, then PLEASE free the poor guy and return him to his natural habitat! ALL hermit crabs from pet shops were caught in the wild, it is nearly impossible for pet stores to successfully breed hermit crabs in captivity.

You could try spoon feeding them. Put some mashed up fruit or honey on a spoon and offer it to them slowly. If they do not act interested, you could try placing some on their lower antenaes. If you are lucky they will then raise the food that is on their antenaes up to their mouth parts to start eating. Keep trying. Or place it directly in front of them and leave them alone. If they end up tucked into their shells and dont startle when you gently probe their claw, they most likely are dieing. Seperate them and hope that they die a quick mercifull death. Make sure you do your research on how to care for hermit crabs so that they don't get into that positition. Sometimes it's not our fault, but knowledge does help prevent the enevitable.

Hermit crab species range in size and shape, from species with a carapace only a few millimetres long to Coenobita brevimanus, which can approach the size of a coconut.

The shell-less hermit crab Birgus latro (coconut crab) is the world's largest terrestrial invertebrate

no, so don't put water in your tank that is to deep. It is still important to have drinking water, though, so try putting a sponge in some water instead. yes,they swim but in shallow water,i have a hermit crab and it has a bowl with shallow water in it.My hermit crab goes swimming sometimes,but don't force the hermit crab.

You get a shell, or a bowl that is close to the ground an put applesauce in it. if you leave him alone, he will eat it.

this might seem sad but the only way to get it out is get a hammer and smash the shell

They both want something at the same time and they don't want the other crab to get what it wants for themselves.

No! They can't eat human food, like twinkies, seasoned meat, and heavly salted foods (unless it's sea salt)

They can eat all fruits and veggies(non acidic) , SEA salted nuts, lean (not fatty) meats, ect...

Neither. All crabs are crustaceans.

Amphibians are cold-blooded, lay eggs and have an internal skeleton with soft skin.
Crustaceans are cold blooded, lay eggs and have an external skeleton (shell).

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Depending on the size of the female crab, thousands of eggs are laid and deposited with the aid of the gill grooming appendages on her pleopods along the left side of her abdomen.

She will carry her eggs as they mature for approximately 1 month during which time the eggs will change from brick red to a dark gray in color as the embryos deplete their yolk supply. The female will hatch her eggs in the ocean by passing clusters of eggs from her pleopods using her gill grooming appendages to her maxillipeds and forming clusters that are then passed to the tip of the claws and flung out to sea.

The eggs immediately burst upon contact with salt water and the new larval hatchlings referred to at this stage as zoeae float amongst the plankton. Each zoea will pass through 4-6 different stages lasting somewhere between 40-60 days until it eventually metamorphosis's into a megalopa which looks like a combination between a hermit crab and lobster. At the end of this stage which is thought to last about a month, the larva will find its first mollusk shell and begin to spend longer periods out of the water until eventually the megalopa buries to molt and resurfaces as a juvenile crab now fully able to survive on land. At this point, the tiny hermit crab's modified gills have adapted to breathe air and if submerged indefinitely in water, will drown.

(citation: hermitcrabpatch.com)

I have 6 hermits. Once they decide to change shells, they do it very quickly. They are vunerable without the protection of their shell. I have 7 hermits. I have seen 4 of them change.It would probobly take about 10 seconds.