NOTE**Hermit carbs are sociable creatures that live in groups, so if you decide to purchace a
hermie please buy more than one. Don't confine you crabs to a life of loneliness!
The Cage
When buying the crab's cage please but a 10 gallon tank as the min. Keep in mind the larger the crab
you get the larger the cage you will need. Do not under ANY circumstances buy a wire cage for the hermies, unless you live
in a warm climate. You will also need a water dish, or you can use a clam shell for extra calcium. If not then you can
buy Cuttlebones, in the pet store, they are sold for birds. The crabs need a saltwater pond, a food dish, and if you
would like, a treat dish. Make sure you buy fake plants and toys for them to hang and climb on!
Iso-unit Setup
After you are finished setting up the crab's main cage, you should setup an iso-unit.
An iso-unit is a place for a crab to stay if it is moulting, sick, or dying. The things you will need for it are:
- Two (at the min.) dishes/shells for food/water
- extra shells
You can set it up any way you would like or you can look at the way i setup mine by clicking on the
cage setup button on the side pannel.
Substrate
There are many types of substrate available at petsores solf for hermit crabs. The following are some
of the best:
- Beach or play sand
- River Pebbles
- Crushed coral reef sand
- Compressed coconut fiber
- Calci-sand
- Forrest bedding
- Gravel (aquariam safe)
Make sure you have hills and flat surfaces to make it fun for the crab!
Water
You should refill you hermit crab's water dish everyday. If you have different size hermit crabs
all in the same cage, its best you put river pebbles at the bottom of the water dish so the baby crabs dont drown. Hermit
crabs breathe out of gills on their legs so they need to keep their legs moiste. To do this you can buy a squirt bottle and
mist them once a day.
Bathing
If you have read other caresheets on bathing hermit crabs twice a week they are wrong. Don't do it!
Bathing you crabs too much will cause them stress and when that happends they legs start falling off! You shouls bathe them
once a week to get them nice and clean and to prevent them form smelling. When you bathe your hermies you can put them in
a plastic container, bathtup, or the sink. To bathe them you put them on their backs and let the water flush throughout their
shells. During bath time hermit crabs become extremly active so i suggest that you watch all of them very closely.
Diet
Hermit crabs are scavengers and will eat anything you give them. However, avoid giving them any dairy
or dairy based products. If you choose to give your crabs any fresh food make sure you remove them the next day. Moldy or
spoiled food will lead to a hermit crab's death. To see everything they can eat go to the Diet section on the side pannel.
Handling
Forget whatever any other caresheets say about not handling your crabs. You should hold your crabs
for a minimum of 10 minutes each day. If you don't your hermit crabs will become alarmed, when you want to take them out,
and pinch you! Don't shake the crab off, that will only injure them, instead put the area the crab is pinching under
luke-warm water. Take your crabs out of their cage and them roam around the floor, but remeber NEVER take your eyes off them.
Illness
The cause of most illnesses is most likely form unclean water or dirty cages. A way to avoid this problem
is to clean their cage daily and give them fresh water everyday. Make sure you are bathing them only once a week.
