i have marine ones... like the one in the video.....

i just bought two hermit crabs from carrefour mv, no idea what species or whatsoever. just bought them cos they are cute

anyway, it is okay if we use our kitchen water to feed them?

i recommend filtered water. The water coming out from Diamond water filter or NESH filter is suitable.

Be sure to prepare a seperate water bowl for them. 1 bowl for freshwater which is the filtered water, and one bowl for saltwater. I recommend Red Sea brand sea salt.

This post has been edited by blitzboy: Jun 8 2008, 03:21 AM

more pics?

seem interesting

i have neither diamond nor nesh filter. can i use mineral bottle? those do not have chlorine i think. and i dont have salt water, guess i have to buy them from aqua shops?

my hermits were very active when i brought them home, but now they barely move.. just sitting there doing nothing. any idea why? natural?

i feed them crabworx.

tap water will be fine as long as you add anti chlorine into it. And you dont have to buy salt water. You just buy the sea salt. Pets Safari got sell Red Sea Salt.

Is your tank have enough substrate? What is your tank's humidity and temperature.

Dont always feed them commercial food. Add some fresh food into their diet.

The crabs may be destressing right now. Given the correct temp and humidity, they will be fine. And normally they are active during the night .

pets safari, so far..

currently, i am using the commercial plastic made thingy as the substrate. honestly not enough for them to dig and bury( is this a MUST?) they are in a small plastic container now.

fresh food, okay will try. but afraid it will smell after one day.

speaking of activeness, i think they had just quarreled for the only empty shell

looking forward to find some wood or plastic stick for them to climb.

hi guys...
I need help here...

I took some hermit crabs from the sea...
together with some sand and salt water from the sea...

but I think I have to change the water this weekend...
coz the container will probably stink...

i know normal water can't keep them alive...
what water can keep them to alive?

is it adding some salt to the water will help?

beside of that...
what things they eat?
i mean normal food...that is less hassle to prepare...like grass...?bread?the usual aquarium fish food?





This post has been edited by eason47: Jun 9 2008, 09:36 AM

your hermit crab look like this?







The solution is, you will need a full fledge marine tank (saltwater aquarium to keep it alive). I wonder if your are fast enough to setup one before it die due to lack of natural sea water. This hermit crab feed mainly on dead fish, and regular sinking pellet fish food. you can buy at aquarium shop and be sure to ask for food for marine fishes. You can make arrangement with the aquarium shop to setup your marine tank, and it is going to cost you for the tank, the filter, protein skimmer, the lightings, gravel, maybe some coral rocks for decoration ,the salt and the sea water supplied by the shop.

How many hermit crabs you have? A standard 2 feet sized glass tank would be sufficient, but please ask for the one with increased height, to create deeper water.

OR


Like This ?




As for this one, it can survive on dry land, and will need filtered or mineral water to keep it alive. You can feed it with bread, and fish food or fruits such as papaya, apple, corn, Hagen CrabworX

This post has been edited by blitzboy: Jun 9 2008, 11:02 AM

Ouch...
I'm not sure...
I didn't see any difference between that 2 hermit crabs...
the only difference is one is inside the water...and the other one u put on the dry place...

since I taken it from the sea...
so...I think it's mean to be live in the water...

can I self-make the salt water?
how to do it?
adding salt into normal water?
or need to buy from aquarium shop?

will it going to be die?
but I store them with the sea water and sand wor...

Pls buy anti-chlorine & Red Sea brand sea salt from the aquarium shop. Buy the hydrometer as well, because you need to measure the salinity of the water. You need filtered water & the Red Sea sea salt to mix the sea water at home, treat the water with anti-chlorine and then add salt to the water, make sure you get the salinity reading on the hydrometer is between 28-30 specific gravity. Once you have enough sea water to fill up a tank, leave the water running in the tank for a few days to cultivate bacteria, by then the water is safe for the hermit crab to live inside it.

Boiled tap water can be used for hermit crabs.

@ahtiven : 5 inches of substrate and make sure you get a termometer for the tank. If possible, get a humidity reader as well. New carbs are rarely active when they first brought into homes as they have to adapt the enviroment. This is known as Post Purchase Stress ( PPS ) .. they need intensive care and to make sure that your crabs is comfortable in your home, spend more time with them, play with them. Talk to them gentally as they DO understand emotion and feelings

Also, you have to monitor the crabs really frequent. When crabs get too stressed, they would just crawl out from the shell and run around shell-less.

Next thing to make sure is you get extra shells just incase they are in need of changing shells. Each crab must have at least 3 shells minimum. For instance, you bought 3 crabs from a pet shop and you have to get 9 shells in total that is the size of the current wearing shell or slightly bigger from the current.

Try looking for this product : Exo Terra artifical Vein, Exo Terra feeding / water dish. The price is varied from RM8.90 till RM49.90 for the dishes while RM15.90 for the Artificial Vein ( Medium ) while RM29.90 for Coarse Artifical Vein. Some plastic products contain uncertain amount of toxic so try avoid any of it. Large driftwood is good as a decoration item. Just make sure that you soak it in warm water before you use it.

Oh i forgot this : Crabs do need privacy. If they want a moment of their own, Exo Terra Reptile Cave is a good choice for them. Varied in size ranging from RM 8.90 till RM48.90 (Small to Extra Large) or you can get those small flower pots (may it be plastic or clay) to make a hideout place for them. Oh, if you feed bread to them dont be surprise to see balanced bread being stacked in the hideout.

For the substrate, get some fine sand that is non color-ed. Geo-System substrate is the brand of sand i am using for my crabs. Make it 4 ~ 5 inches depends on the size of your crab. Also get some smooth river pebbles for extra flavor. The price for that is RM 8 per 4kg? . There another sand brand that is optimized for reptiles and crabs, Repti-sand is the name. Though its expensive ( RM16.90 ~ RM29.90 ) but the sand is extra fine and well processed.

Optional substrate to enhance the tank environment is the Exo Terra Jungle Bedding. It comes in a fixed size pack or i would say, rather huge pack and tagged with a price of RM19.90. It consist of wood bits that is excellent in humidity management so you wont have to spray fresh water on the substrate that frequent.

Sorry if i typed that long English is abit choppy due to me eating dumplings while typing.

---

Added on June 9, 2008, 4:41 pmPossible to take a picture of the crabs? So that some of us would be able to identify and assist you over setting up a proper environment for the crabs.

This post has been edited by onscreen: Jun 9 2008, 04:45 PM

i have got four hermit crabs from langkawi, but now has been transfer to sungai petani in kedah. you want it i can transfer it to you but you have to tell me how to send the hermit crabs to you.
i may not charge cause i am search for adopters to adopt them. i am going back to Sarawak for third semester.
all of them are healthy, four of them are in various size. they have been with me for four weeks already.
so if you want your hermit to have friends please let me know and the way to send it to you.
i will not charge you foe each one of them but as for the cost of sending them to you will be taken into account.
so will you adopt them?
and please tell me how to send it to you.

wow, thanks for the long explanation! i am sure it will benefit a lot other crabbers out there too!

anyway, i put a wood stick in it and now two of them do not seem to go down from the wood..

just to add one more note, they are really noisy in the nights...

For fresh food, of course you have to take it out after 24 hours or it will start to smell, especially in a humid condition. And yes, the substrate is a MUST. How small your plastic container is?

Well, maybe if you dont know anything about hermit crabs, you shouldnt take them from the beach. Did you wash the sand from the beach? And you will have to change the water every 3-4 days. As mentioned, Red Sea Salt is the best so far. And dont you ever you table salt cause they will sure die.

Speaking of food, it is better if you provide some fresh food. I dont think hermit crabs will eat grass. If you consider preparing fresh food a hassel, then you should release them back to the beach. And try not to feed too much cheap fish food, cause sometimes the quality is not so good and there are certain preservatives in the food.

Noisy means they are active. Hermit crabs usually goes active at night and inactive at day except for weather changes. Mine goes active when its raining and they are sleepy heads when sunny / hot season.

Food, hermit crabs eat anything that can be pinched / tear. for instance, Steam fish without added ingredients, steamed prawns, peanut butter, bread without the crust, fruits fibers (except orange, durian, grapes.) they dont eat vegetables except for carrot and steamed potato. for a more balance food nutritions, baby food is the best. If you have a large tank, put in 2 food dish, one serve general food while the other cater specific types. This way, they have varieties in thier meal.

Some crabs are intelligent enough to move the food and mix it so dont worry on mixing the food at once, this will extend the hours of food exposure before it turns bad.

i have got hermit crabs to adopt, all together i got four. from the size from half inch to one inch and a half. but i dont know how to send it with train or ship. please if you want them help me to solve the prblem of sending, thank you. they are healthy and free of charge but you will have to pay for the send cost. thank you.

I just never search for the info online last time...
just when I got it back from the beach...then only I search for info throughout the internet...
only then I know it's call Hermit Crab

ooo...
okie...so they are not eating grass...
alright...noted...

can't leh...
my home is very far from the beach leh...
I will try to observe their behaviour this few days...
trying not to let them die...

pls take a picture of your hermit crab, and post it up here so we can help you the best we could.

can i use those sand by the roadside and use it as the substrate? my container is small around 20cm x 10cm only.

as for the food, i tried feeding apple(50 cent size) but they did not seem to eat, but the apple changed from one place to another place tho lol. hafta throw the leftover or else it will attract food flies.

now i am curious what species are they, shud be Equcarion(sp?) something like that cos they are purple-white ish. maybe they are local after all, here the pictures; daimyo and shogun :

can someone help me identify them?

This post has been edited by ahtiven: Jun 10 2008, 12:56 PM


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