# Hermies!!!!!!



## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

I bought all the stuff I need to get Hermit Crabs! Yayy!!! :-D I had Hermies years ago and now I miss them so I decided to get some again ;-) I bought a 20 Gallon long tank for them and I am getting it all set up for my new Hermit Crab pets. 

I'll post pictures when I can if you are interested.

I  Hermit Crabs! :tongue:


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

I love them. Remeber to keep the tank humid.


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## Chevko (Nov 15, 2012)

Hermies are adorable! Don't forget to set up a container for them to submerge themselves in, fresh and salt water. *Recently went to a pet store that had a massive sponge in it*

Can't wait to see them  What kind did you get? :3


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Yay! I've been wanting them for years, but now that I've been researching a little they seem to require more care than I can handle. Definitely take pics!!
How many are you going to have in there?


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

I used to have a big setup with 25 of them in a 75 gallon. Once you get the humidity, the fresh and salt "pools", and a good quality food (which you pretty much have to order online), they're really easy. 

They have such awesome little personalities! Just remember, they're nocturnal, so they won't be out much during the day, early evening is the best time to watch them. Also, they can climb the sealant in the corners of a tank, and even airline tubing!

A trick for keeping humidity up, is to take the label off of a pop bottle, fill it with water, and pop an airstone in there. My crabs used to hang out under their little "sprinkler".


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

The worlds largest sprinkler was built to help a rare species.


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

Chevko said:


> Hermies are adorable! Don't forget to set up a container for them to submerge themselves in, fresh and salt water. *Recently went to a pet store that had a massive sponge in it*
> 
> Can't wait to see them  What kind did you get? :3


Hmmm I think they are all Purple Claw Hermies, one of them I'm not too sure yet. I guess I need to look at pics of the different species to know for sure.

Yep they have a salt pool and a fresh water pool, all conditioned too.


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

aemaki09 said:


> Yay! I've been wanting them for years, but now that I've been researching a little they seem to require more care than I can handle. Definitely take pics!!
> How many are you going to have in there?


 Yeah I'll take lots of pics, but the only problem is that I somehow lost the program on my computer that takes the pictures off of my camera to put on the computer. So till I figure that out, which may be a while cause I know little about computer stuff LOL. 

I bought 6 small Hermies for the 20 Gallon long tank.


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

Skyewillow said:


> I used to have a big setup with 25 of them in a 75 gallon. Once you get the humidity, the fresh and salt "pools", and a good quality food (which you pretty much have to order online), they're really easy.
> 
> They have such awesome little personalities! Just remember, they're nocturnal, so they won't be out much during the day, early evening is the best time to watch them. Also, they can climb the sealant in the corners of a tank, and even airline tubing!
> 
> A trick for keeping humidity up, is to take the label off of a pop bottle, fill it with water, and pop an airstone in there. My crabs used to hang out under their little "sprinkler".


I was thinking if all my Bettas die in my 30 gallon tank I may move them into that later. But so far the fish are doing better YAY!!

Yep I seen mine start to get active around 4 then by 8 or 9 they are running around full force lol. I never knew they could climb the sealant in the corners! :shock: I better watch that when I take the cover off. If one ever escaped without me knowing it, my cat will be sure to let me know ha ha! My cat loves watching them like they are HER pets :lol: 

Ahhh an awesome idea for humidity! So you use a pop bottle the size of the ones in pop machines? How do you keep them from tipping it over? I already have miles of airline tubing and those little airstones, I'd just need to get a little air pump.


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

Whats the miniumum tank for Hermits?


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## Chevko (Nov 15, 2012)

ChoclateBetta said:


> Whats the miniumum tank for Hermits?


I think it's around ~10gal per one/two depending on size.



Kitty Whiskers said:


> Hmmm I think they are all Purple Claw Hermies, one of them I'm not too sure yet. I guess I need to look at pics of the different species to know for sure.
> 
> Yep they have a salt pool and a fresh water pool, all conditioned too.


Eee, be careful with purple claws... Once they attach they're hard to get to let go D: I had one latch onto my palm for no reason ;___; First time I swore in front of an adult because it hurt so badly. They couldn't get him off me and thus wound up poisoning him with rubbing alcohol because they didn't know what to do.

T___T Bad experiences, but they're still so pretty!


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

Hermies usually only pinch when they think they're going to fall. I had mine for about 3 years and never got pinched.

A regular bottle works great. Your substrate should be 4-6 inches deep, and "sandcastle" consistency. So, damp enough to build a little sandcastle, but not soupy. Then, you just bury the bottle into the sand, this makes it hard to tip over.

Here's some of the pictures of my old setup... If I didn't have the bottle in there, I would run an airline into one of their pools. Usually the fresh one, because it got a little difficult to keep the salt pond full if I did that, and would end up with salt everywhere LOL
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/Bane_Skyewillow/Hermies/


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## Chevko (Nov 15, 2012)

This guy was in the middle of my palm, not really going anywhere was the thing. Randomly opened it's claw and latched on. Been skittish of them ever since, Sanny and Quina, two of the three I once had, didn't make me skittish when they would latch on and Quina would act like it was going to latch but didn't hardly do it. 

Keeping sand at sandcastle consistency is really hte best way to do it. The rule I've heard for depth is two to three times deep as your biggest crab. If one's three inches, shell included, then you need six to nine inches deep for molting purposes. I didn't have this ability when I had my three and thus had to take out my tiniest, Vivi, when it went to molt. Buried itself a good four inches down into one of those big pickle jars that was a quarter filled with sand. Went all the way to the bottom and I'm sure it would have kept going if there were more room, lol. Little guy was less than an inch tall.


Edit: Also, the album needs a password o 3o


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

I thought I reset that... dangit!

Play sand is amazingly cheap, one bag will more than handle a 10 gallon for deep sand. I had a 29 going for a while, but ran out of room for climbing and hiding things. lol

EDIT: I fixed it for real this time.


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## Meowow (Jan 6, 2013)

Hey guys! I am new to this website. However, I am not a new hermit crab (or fish) owner, and I have quite some experience with both. I have 3 hermit crabs right now! <3


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## Meowow (Jan 6, 2013)

Oh, and by the way, my oldest hermit crab alive is Claws, he is about 2 years. Daisy is one, Crabby is not even a year old yet. Hermit crabs live approximately 10 years, but mine never lasted that long, because mom is always making me go to PetCo to get them. Anyway, I have been a proud hermie owner since I was just around 5 years old


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

There are documented crabs at 30+ years in captivity. They're the size of a softball, and it's hard to tell exactly how old they are, but if you practice quarantine and a few other odds and ends, they'll live for a very long time!


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## Meowow (Jan 6, 2013)

I will take pics of mine soon and post them


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## Meowow (Jan 6, 2013)

ok, thanks Skyewillow


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

Skyewillow said:


> Hermies usually only pinch when they think they're going to fall. I had mine for about 3 years and never got pinched.
> 
> A regular bottle works great. Your substrate should be 4-6 inches deep, and "sandcastle" consistency. So, damp enough to build a little sandcastle, but not soupy. Then, you just bury the bottle into the sand, this makes it hard to tip over.
> 
> ...


 Nice pictures of your Hermies. Sushi looks like the one Hermit Crab I just bought, I named mine "Moon Pie" LOL


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

*Hermie Questions....*

How do I keep it moist enough to make a sand castle? I put in Eco Earth mixed with play sand a couple days ago when i set up my crabitat and the top inch is already dried out.

A part of the other side of the tank has crushed coral in it as substrate. It is where I put the fresh water and salt water dishes and their food dishes too. Do I need to keep that moist also?


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

I would take the coral out. It's not really something they'll be able to dig in, and they LOOOOOOVE to dig. It also might be what's drying out your sand since you mentioned it's not moist. Anything dry that touches something damp will wick the moisture from the sand.

Aside from that, what type of top are you using on the tank?
And the pop-bottle humidifier would help.


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## Kitty Whiskers (Sep 28, 2009)

Skyewillow said:


> I would take the coral out. It's not really something they'll be able to dig in, and they LOOOOOOVE to dig. It also might be what's drying out your sand since you mentioned it's not moist. Anything dry that touches something damp will wick the moisture from the sand.
> 
> Aside from that, what type of top are you using on the tank?
> And the pop-bottle humidifier would help.


 Well in my crabitat I have the coral seperated from the Eco Earth/Sand mixture with a large pice of Mopani hardwood from the petstore. It makes like a 6 1/2 inch tall sort of wall. It has deep ridges in it to make it easy to climb over. The one side has the coral to make cleaning easier and they wont burry under the dishes knocking them over etc. The other side is bigger that is filled with the EcoEarth sand mix where they go to dig to china LOL. 

The lid is a screen top lid. I bought a hard plastic sheet to cut to cover one half of the screen lid to keep moisture in. I haven't cut that yet so I keep misting 2 times a day to keep the moisture in.


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

A towel over the lid will help with moisture.

Usually a wide and flat dish won't tip over. I'm trying to remember how I kept mine clean. Lol


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## Jessie1990 (May 21, 2012)

I have 3 hermies. One Ecuadorian and two Purple pinchers. One of my PPs went through his first molt with me recently. He was down for quite awhile and I noticed he was back up and picked him up and about had a heart attack. He was munching on, what I thought was, another crab. It turned out it was just his exo skeleton... that was the first molter I have had because my crabs are pretty large. I will post pics later


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

It's pretty scary when you first see that! I always feel horrible when I see the petstore crabs dropping legs!


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

Skyewillow said:


> A towel over the lid will help with moisture.
> 
> Usually a wide and flat dish won't tip over. I'm trying to remember how I kept mine clean. Lol


Oh, and either way, the crabs liked to clean their shells into the food dishes.. I'd always have poop noodles in the food! >_<


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## Striker0086 (Jul 1, 2012)

For keeping humidity in you can get a glass cover for the top of the tank, cut plexi glass, or glad press n seal or saran wrap are the most effective ways of keeping in the proper humidity. About 90% of the top should be covered to keep the proper amount of humidity in which is about 75-85%RH.


I'm confused, you guys say you saw your crabs molt? or exoskeleton? :-?They are suppose to be able to bury in the sub for this process in their life. They molt many times during their lives. It's suppose to be done under ground given proper conditions.


I currently keep crabs I currently have four species. Strawberries, Violas, Ecuadorians, and Purple Pinchers.


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