Went to Pet Safari and saw the hermit crabs, its uber huge. Ranging from large to jumbo Price is fixed @ RM30 ea.

The pre-sales caring looks ok despite the overuse on the heat lamp and a dung bettle? in the tank with the crabs.

If anyone is interested in large hermit crabs, head over there for some purchase. As calculated, there is 12 in that 60g tank.

Looks good but camera shy

Got myself a black ruggie and named it Blackpepper due to its dark exo color.

It was too active and escaped from the ISO tank. Seeing its capability on adapting the tank environment, i put it in and was welcomed by a short wrestling match. Currently away from home so hope they can have a truce between them.

.aka Pinch


.aka BlackPepper



p/s : click for bigger picture.

This post has been edited by onscreen: Dec 2 2008, 04:26 PM

LOL another one calling it helmet crab

Ok, for strawberry crabs shells, you need to come to pet family @ SS24. Last check was 2 hours ago and they have shells for sale @ RM7 each.

They do have strawberry crabs too but very limited now. Another place for it is Pet Safari, they do sell it but those were large and jumbo while the former place is medium only.

Majority medium to jumbo hermit crabs require large amount of water be it fresh or salt. Food portion wise, Strawberry crab is a huge eater.

I shall get the phone number for you. Hope i do have the plastic bag

Any luck in finding your lost crab? Escaped crabs usually hide under the cupboard, cabinet or any place that is dark.

Do not worry.. failed molting is a common thing and sometimes it is something we cant do to change it except for improving the crabitat, improve the humidity and changing of environment.

Most failed molting is cuased by surface molting with disturbance from other crabs or owner or burrow molting and got stuck and couldnt crawl up to surface for replenishment (that is how my very first crab died stucked below a log and didnt know till its too late, dug him out and witnessed him struggling for survival )

The plastic bag is where i can get the phone number from since i am away from home at the moment, its a Pet Family plastic bag.

One of my small crab is undergoing a tough molting session as many of its legs dropped off and i should blame the recent hot weather since there is no way to lower the temperature without drying up the humidity.

29c in tank temp. reading with 70~75% humidity reading is pretty imbalance.

If anyone have good ideas in lowering the temperature, do post up. Currently little Blackpepper is still surviving with only 2 pincers and hoping that it can pull through this tough session and get into molting stage for regrowth.

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Added on December 27, 2008, 10:39 pm

Time for me to put in the photo of my tank. Shot in segments and stitched. Blur focus is on purpose to create certain depth to the photo. It was another redone after the peaceful departure of BlackPepper, RIP buddy.



Image of my medium PP, Pinch, who hid in the new spot of the tank for 5 hours without moving. That proves that the new tank environment suits him @ 30c / 75% humidity. I have a standing fan blowing slightly above the tank opening to create a breeze.

This post has been edited by onscreen: Dec 27 2008, 10:58 PM

Its not expensive.

RM8.90 each. The brand i use is Exo Terra. Can be purchased almost in any major pet shops. IMO, Pet Safari have the most stock. Check Pet Lover Center too, almost the whole rack of Exo Terra products.

NO worries g-string. first of all, put the crabs in a temp tank first. Avoid using the aquarium substrate you bought for time being.

Make sure you have 2 water dish, sea salt water and fresh water. Sea salt MUST be real sea salt. Processed salt contain unsuitable minerals that could suffocate the crabs. Fresh water must be cooked / boiled water.

Food, don't give fish food as it have different diet values for crabs. For the time being, settle on fresh fruits and it is one of the main food source for strawberry crabs. Change your food dish every 24 hours and replenish it often.



For the big tank, its time to invest money into it. Depends on the size, get a moderately large driftwood for their climbing obsession. If you have a huge pocket, you can settle on some climbing toys for your tank decoration :

1. Exoterra fake jungle (lots of leaves varieties) Small and Large @ 8.90 ~ 12.90

2. Exoterra artificial vein (3 varieties) Fine / Medium / Coarse @ 10.90 ~ 22.90 *tip : if you are crazy enough , buy all 3 for the optimal combo.

3. Exoterra granite rock cave (variable sizes) @ 9.90 ~ 40.90 *tip : best to get medium ~ large cave, depending on your tank for optimal hiding spot.

4. Exoterra granite rock water / food dish @ 8.90 ~ 29.90. This is entirely optional as you can use any Tupperware as alternative solution. For the food dish, you can go natural by using shells.

5. River pebbles @ varied price. I bought mine @ RM4 for 1KG. They are good decoration substrate to separate dry and damp areas. Also a good "floor mat" to prevent crabs carry in excessive amount of soil into the water dish.

6. Sand substrate. Most pet shops used to sell fine beach sand around RM10 and recently they no longer have such item in their inventory. So, you have to settle on a slightly rough river sand.

Alternative solution is to wait for 18 days, and i can get some washed beach sand from Port Dickson


Lastly, you can start decoration the tank as you see fit. If you use tupperware as water dish, make sure its deep enough for the crabs to submerge and emerge and also some small rock for them to crawl in and out.

Avoid using pine wood, bamboo items as it is harmful to crabs if chewed.

So far this is what i could think of. Fire your questions away if i miss out anything

No problem, glad that i respond to your post in time.

Yes, coconut fiber is good enough for substrate. Make sure its damp else it will kill humidity. Make sure its deep enough for your crabs to burrow. Mist the fibers to keep it damp always.

Crabs chew damp coconut fibers. I am not sure why but my crabs do that very often.

One shop particularly you should consider is the Pet Lovers Center in Sunway Pyramid. It have nearly the full range of exoterra products ranging from terraniums to climbing toys for crabs / reptiles to feeding / water dishes and hiding caves. Also, they sell gauges for temperature and humidity reading @ 8.90 each.

You can try Pets Wonderland, Pet Safari as well. Who knows they carry something else that fits in your tank

You can get those large shells in Pet Family, SS24. RM7 with 20% off. If i remember correctly, last counted is 4 available shells.

About the sea salt. Look for Red Sea sea salt. It come in small bottle t huge 2KG bags. Buy the smallest bottle available and yes, 1 tblspoon per liter. You can taste the saltiness as the sea salt is safe for us humans too. (i once accidentally drank the water and i am still alive now :cool:)

Regarding the water, to be safe, i did boil it . IMO, all water filter wont filter the water 100% as some microscopic elements could bypass the filtering process.

Dont worry on paying for the sand, take it as a best wishes token from me to your strawberry crabs.

Oh before i forget, balance up the strawberry crabs diet and in time to come, when they do their molt, the exo-skeleton will "glow" even redder.

This post has been edited by onscreen: Jan 3 2009, 12:21 AM

Wow, all i can say is you mix and matched all of it real good!! 74 ~ 76% hG is good since you have a tank lid.

Looks like the crabs is heading to a good start in the new tank. Well done! Dont put a fan for breeze. Learning from my experience, fan / air cond will dry up the humidity in the tank but it gives good temp.

On my side, i had a very bad new, one of my new crab, a small Ecuadorian, dropped 3 of its legs and now left 1 leg and 2 pincers. Currently in ISO and hope it can pull through.

My aunt switched on the light last night and forgot to switch off till this morning and caused a huge stress build to all my crabs.


@prophet007 : Cheers mate Invested quite some time to redecorate the tank. Though i have made a few changes to the water dish but the overall layout stays the same. Seeing the crabs climb around just make me a much happier owner

One reason i dislike keep snakes as pets is i have to kill live small animals to feed them

Anyway, back to topic Lil' Ecuadorian pulled through the hard stage last night, as for now. Surviving with a limb and 3 pincer, it have to lean one side to move around, very slowly. Brown liquid came out from its abdomen so its a sign of over stress and much possibility of dry humidity.

Still very strong tho, finished up any food i throw in.

From stress actually. Its common for captivity crabs. In the wild they got stress from the competition of other crabs, in captivity, they build up stress from bad tank environment, low humidity, too high / low temperature, lack of shells.

Lil buddy passed away around 9pm. I let it rest in the main tank and died peacefully between the stack of shells. I removed the table lamp from the tank, so none of my family members will switch that on accidentally.

The light cycle. Just like us humans. When its dark for the whole day, our mood will drop and depression will rise. If the light cycle is consistent, it will maintain the mood and stress at pace despite any build up stress from the environment.

If the light is on for the whole day or during the night, the stress will build up as the crab have nowhere to hide as to them, in the nature, light is their enemy as larger crabs will hunt them for food or being "fried" by the sun. So in the day, they burrow / hide in dark areas, hole and will come out during the night.

As the light cycle keeps going on normal pace, the crabs will learn and adapt accordingly. Not to mention, they have sense of understanding and certain degree of intelligence.

One incident is the way i put their food, they know which spot i will throw and once, i saw all of them stacked on the food spot waiting Humorous it is

Strawberry crabs is quite strong for its size, so when they adapt on something, they will keep doing it. Make sure you have your drift wood being put slightly away from the door. Soo, they have to adapt another new height and challenge.

Went to pets family few hours back, 8 large strawberry and 3 small cute ones. For Pet Safari, not sure, last checked was few month back, 14 of them, large and jumbo.

Thanks for the information. I can assure you Pet Family will still have stock. They do even sell large turbo shells even.

oh no.. you took the small strawberry crab home!! It is so cute and always visit it whenever i am in Megah .

Woah.. truly pity the small one as its a different species with the others. If it can take care of itself really good, then there shouldnt be a problem for you, just like my Purple Pincer, very self sufficient.