The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Pet Hermit Crab The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Pet Hermit Crab
Showing posts with label Pet Hermit Crab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pet Hermit Crab. Show all posts

Monday, February 8, 2016

Hermit Crabs Make Adorable Pets: But These Little Packages of Cuteness Are High-Maintenance


Hermit crabs make adorable pets but these little packages of cuteness are high-maintenance and require very exacting care

Hermit crabs are widely believed to be easy to care for, and ideal first pets for children. Neither of these beliefs is true. Unfortunately, hermit crabs are very difficult to keep healthy, and they should be kept in groups. Not only are hermit crabs are not hermit-like at all, they are gregarious partiers who will keep a crab-party going all night.

You’ve probably seen the clear plastic critter-carriers and one-gallon fish tanks where hermit crabs are sometimes displayed. These are not safe homes for hermit crabs. In fact, if the critter-carrier has a standard “berry-basket” top for ventilation, the crab inside is probably already dying a slow and painful death. Hermit crabs breathe air through modified gills. They will drown in water, and they have no lungs. If the gills ever dry out, the animal is in serious trouble. The resulting death by suffocation can take months, but it is inevitable. Therefore, maintaining sufficient humidity in the hermit crab enclosure is very, very important.

This brings us to the topic of equipment.

ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT

This list is a very rudimentary introduction to the equipment needed to keep crabs healthy.

  • An aquarium tank, marine terrarium, or large covered enclosure strong enough to contain wet sand. Be sure the cover is tight enough to prevent the crabs from pushing their way out, that some air can get in, and that it keeps moisture inside the tank;
  • Water-conditioning fluid, to neutralize chlorine and its by-products in the water;
  • Safe sea salt, of the kind sold for marine fish and crustaceans;
  • Safe sand, enough to be a few inches (15cm minimum) deep in the tank;
  • Water dishes, sea sponges, shallow food dishes, and a slotted scoop to remove uneaten food from the sand;
  • Quarantine tank, which is basically the full set-up in miniature, for safe moulting;
  • Hidey-huts for the crabs to relax in, during the day;
  • Extra shells of the correct sizes and shapes, at least three per crab;
  • Thermometers for the sand and hygrometers for the main tank and the quarantine tank;
  • Branches and rocks to climb on;
  • Moss and extra sea sponges for soaking, to help keep the humidity above 75%; and
  • Heater for one end of the tank: most hermit crab species like a temperature of 75-80F/24-27C on the warm end of the tank.

EXERCISE

These cute little crustaceans will keep themselves fit, presuming their tank is big enough. They love to climb, and crawl, and pull. If you are very careful, you can “walk” them across your hands held low over a soft surface. As the crab moves across one hand, bring the other one around in front. To do this, your hands need to be positioned side to side, and not fingertip-to-fingertip. Otherwise, the surface will be too narrow and the tiny crab will become frightened.

FEEDING

Hermit crabs are beachcombing scavengers. As omnivores, they require both meat and plant-matter in their diets. Unfortunately, the commercial crab foods do not make a good diet for hermit crabs. They tend to contain preservatives, but some are safe enough: read the ingredient list. The real problem is that commercial foods are boring. Crabs don’t like to smell the same meal twice in a row. They will be happiest if every meal is a little different: some fish and a touch of apple today, perhaps some chicken and seaweed tomorrow.  (Thacker, 1998).

Wash all fruits and vegetables before feeding them to your crabs, and use de-chlorinated water to do it. Always do everything you can to keep your crabs away from chlorine. Meat can be raw or cooked, or even freeze-dried, but avoid preservatives (including salt).

That’s not to say that everything always needs to be fresh. Stock up on an assortment of jars of baby foods. Keep some freeze-dried daphnia, bloodworms, tubifex, and shrimp on hand from the aquarium section of the pet store. Offer a few pieces of low-salt cat food.

Crabs need calcium. The simplest way to provide it is to drop a couple of cuttlebones onto the floor of the tank. Cuttlebone is sold in the pet-bird section of the pet store.

Unlike many animals, hermit crabs need two kinds of water bowls: one with freshwater and one with salt water. The salt water cannot be made with table salt, because of the iodine in it. Both bowls need to be big enough for the crabs to submerge themselves, and easy to crawl out of so the crabs don’t drown. A piece of sea sponge in each bowl makes a convenient safety raft.


GROOMING

The hermit crab tank needs to contain a conditioned freshwater bowl and a conditioned saltwater bowl. The precise details of these will vary with the particular species you keep.

Along with the water that the crabs will use for “grooming” themselves, these creatures must be provided with an assortment of appropriate shells. The shapes will vary, again according to species, but whatever the species you should provide at least three shells per crab in your tank. The shell sizes should be slightly smaller than, equal to, and slightly larger than the crab’s current shell. Please, please, please stay away from painted shells. The “non-toxic” paints are meant to be non-toxic to your children: they are generally not safe for your hermit crabs.

HOME ENVIRONMENT

Hermit crabs are primarily nocturnal. They enjoy exploring their home, re-arranging things, and seeing how many of them can sit on a perch before it falls over. You’ll hear them clacking away with their claws through the wee hours. If you do most of your sleeping at night, you probably don’t want to put the crab tanks in the bedroom.

Also, keep in mind that hermit crabs are invertebrates who are subject to the same kinds of poisons that are used to kill insects and spiders. If people in your neighborhood spray their lawns, or if someone in your house tends to go after spiders with a can of “bug-spray”, hermit crabs are not for you.


TRAINING

There is no training required for hermit crabs. While you will need to rescue them from time to time, especially during moults, and you’ll need to provide appropriate shells for them to choose from, they will act according to their natures.


WHERE TO NEXT?

Are these little guys right for you? They are adorable, no question, but they are very difficult for beginners to keep healthy and happy. In many ways, parrots and the licensed exotics are easier to maintain. Perhaps consider a dog instead? Or a pony?

If you have decided that hermit crabs are the right pet for your family, the next step is to do some reading. This care-sheet has only introduced you to the barest skim off the top of the information you need. Investigate the details of putting together a proper enclosure, and the details of shell replacement, and the details of temperature and humidity. Next, put together the main tank and a quarantine tank, and monitor the humidity and temperature for a week or two. Once that is stable, seek out several healthy crabs and a nice assortment of high-quality shells for them.






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Saturday, March 14, 2015

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Minor League Baseball Team Will Not Be Giving Away Hermit Crabs At Their Opening Game - Auctioning Off Special Jerseys to Benefit the Herman Crab Association


 Waldorf, Maryland - A Waldorf minor league baseball team is abandoning a plan to give away 1,000 live hermit crabs on Opening Day.

After announcing the plan, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs received thousands of emails, calls and posts on social media-- both for and against the promotion.

In response, the team says it will change its name to the "Southern Maryland Hermit Crabs" for Opening Day, which is April 24.

Players will wear special jerseys that day, which will be auctioned off to benefit the Hermit Crab Association. Members from that organization will be invited to throw out the first pitch.

Hermit crab activists will also be given the chance to speak to fans attending the game.

You can read my previous post here:
Have You Heard? The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Minor League Baseball Team Will Be Giving Away Hermit Crabs As Pets, At Their April 24 Opening Game



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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Hermit Crab Association Statement on The Blue Crabs Giveaway at The Team's Opening Game on April 24


The Hermit Crab Association and its members are extremely saddened to hear of the planned promotional event for the opening day game of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. The decision to keep hermit crabs should warrant the same amount of consideration as owning any other type of pet and we believe they should never be given away as prizes because of this. Hermit crabs require specialized care and when given the proper environment should live for decades in captivity - they are not in any way a short lived pet.

Lacking the proper care, these hermit crabs will not live for more than a few weeks or months, which will lead to heartache for the small children of hundreds of fans. The plastic terrarium they will be sent home in is only a temporary transport container, and the initial set-up costs of a proper enclosure with new items will generally start at $100 for anyone receiving one of these "free" hermit crabs. This will place a financial burden on the fans of the Blue Crabs, or on the local animal rescues that will be asked to take them in once the details of their needs are learned.

The Hermit Crab Association is an online international community of hermit crab enthusiasts and owners, and we are not opposed to the captive ownership of hermit crabs. However, we are concerned about the lack of proper information that is provided by pet shops, and from the distributors that import the crabs into the United States.

The fact is that millions of hermit crabs are collected from the wild every year, as there has only been a handful of people in the world who have been successful with breeding them in captivity. Smaller crabs are already 5 years old, and the biggest are well over 40 years old. Many do not make it through the collection process and the transport to stores, and others will succumb from the stress of adapting to life in captivity. Many more will die slow deaths in the following weeks and months in tiny plastic cages from a lack of basic care.

Their needs include an enclosure that is large enough for the crabs to move around comfortably while providing enough space for all of their requirements. They dig underground and stay there without surfacing for months at a time to molt, which is how they repair injuries and grow larger. This requires six or more inches of moist cocofiber or silica-based sand, based on the size of the hermit crab. They need to be provided with dechlorinated freshwater and marine grade saltwater deep that is enough to completely submerge. Their temperature requirements are higher than room temperature at 78-85 degrees, and because of having modified gills for breathing they require humidity that is constantly above 70%, or they will slowly suffocate. They are omnivorous scavengers and their diet consists of fruits, vegetables and plant matter, seafood, insects, meat and poultry. While they are a communal species and should always be kept with others of their kind, they do need to be provided enough individual space that they can retreat from disputes, and so they are not discovered and dug up by other crabs while vulnerable from molting.

We are very much hoping that the team will reconsider the giving away of living animals as thank you gifts at this event. There are many other options available, such as plastic figurines or plushies that can become a permanent reminder of what is sure to be an amazing opening game.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Have You Heard? The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Minor League Baseball Team Will Be Giving Away Hermit Crabs As Pets, At Their April 24 Opening Game


Blue crabs logo
Waldorf, Maryland, - The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Minor League Baseball Team has a special surprise for their fans. They have announced that each of the first 1,000 fans at the April 24 Opening Day game presented will receive a live hermit crab and terrarium container as part of the home opener festivities.

Under the banner of "Anchors Away on Opening Day," fans can expect a plethora of nautical-themed promotions, including the introduction of the entire Blue Crabs roster as players are brought onto the field in luxury sport boats. Fans will also have a chance to win nautically inspired giveaways throughout the night to celebrate the start of a new baseball season.

In addition to live hermit crabs, the first 1,000 fans at Regency Furniture Stadium for the April 24 opener will receive a 2015 magnet schedule presented by Community Bank of the Chesapeake.

Following the inter-divisional matchup between the Blue Crabs and the Somerset Patriots, fans will be able to enjoy a fireworks display and take part in the return of the popular "Launch-A-Ball" promotion.

Tickets for Opening Day are only available at the official Blue Crabs website which can be accessed at www.SOMDBlueCrabs.com.

"How crazy is it that we are giving away live hermit crabs for our first game of the 2015 season - said Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Assistant General Manager Courtney Knichel. "The craziest part about this promotion is the fact that we are doing something that has never been done before, and it is just the first of 70 home games. Fans will just have to wait to find out what else we have in store for them for the other 69 games, but I know that they will not be disappointed."

What are your thoughts?

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