I was wondering how many in here have hermit crabs? I now have two little one of the purple pincher variety. Tomorrow they are going into a 29 gallon glass tank.

Does any one know how many gallons are required for each hermit crab of adult size?

I am having trouble finding out just how many I will be able to have in the long run.

Oh, I also need to find out how often I need to change the substrate. Other than that, I have everything else figured out.

Thanks,
sammie

I've got 4 crabs in a 20g tank.

It takes forever for them to get large, and they never stop growing, a large crab is 15-20 years old.

Heres a good info sheet on them-
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pages/sizing.htm

I have 2 teenies and 2 micros, they are quite comfortable in their tank.

You need to do a full change of the substrate every 3-6 months.


You shoudl eb able to fit about 6-10 crabs in that tank, and in 10-15 years if you still have them, you might need to upgrade to a taller tank LOL.

I have 6 PP's....2 of them I have had for 1 year, and the other 4, I just got in August...but I really love these little guys!!

This is the site I belong to, they have really good info, and very helpful people there!!

http://hermitcrabaddiction.net/forum/




From what I have read, you can keep, at max, 1 medium sized crab per 2 gallons....so a 10 gal tank can have 5 medium sized crabs at most....and of course, they would prefer to have more room....much like fish!
Sounds like you have plenty of room in your tank for some more friends, as they are very social!

jsartist has crabs... erm, sorry, I just realised how dodgey that sounds. Jen has even had ones spawn, I think theres a good thread here somewhere about it, try using the search function on this site, or wait for jsartist to respond...

LOL I have crabs!!! It's okay, everyone knows.

There is much discussion and debate as to the proper way to do everything for them. Basically I've read what I could through the years and applied my own way to do things based on my personal research. And yes, as Mads said, I have had my hermits spawn before. If you do a search back in June of last year there is a whole thread about it including pictures. The threads are also posted on the 3 main hermit crab sites on the web.

I keep several different species and as I love showing off my babies, I'll include some pics of them here. I've had most them for a year or two and some as long as 3 or 4 years. I have a range of sizes including a very large baseball sized PP. He hides a lot but it's exciting when he comes up and creeps around the tank.

I don't regularly change all my substrate out; rather, I have a very deep substrate, undertank heaters and the crabs constantly digging and turning the substrate, so it cycles naturally. Just l ike an aquarium, I do change out a little from time to time but never all of it at time. It disturbs molters and disrupts the entire community.

I have crushed coral sand, silicate (blasting) sand and Eco earth in the tank. They dig through all parts and mostly molt in the silicate sand. I include as many natural items as possible including moss and driftwood and have deep filtered fresh and saltwater pools. I provide shells that they would encounter in their natural environments and have had even the pickiest species change shells regularly.

I'll post some pics of my setup and hermits:

Olive, one of my longtime Es!

yeah, your tank is really great!!! How big is it? how many do you have in there all together?
does you EE mold easily? I was thinking of getting some, but i've read that lot of other people have had theirs mold easily, and that it is kinda stinky

I bought two hermit crabs for my mother for Mothers Day. Thought I'd give her something to take care of while she's home all day. She likes them and takes good care of them, but she hates the fact that they only come out at night. I've also noticed that they don't grow as fast as the pet store implied, telling me I needed to have the bigger shells around for them. OK, so one day maybe they will need to change and they need them there, but the way I took it, they were going to grow overnight!

I wish they'd do something, mom is getting bored. Next step, a betta!

And what pretty crabs they are!

she could try turning their tank light off during the day, and putting it on at night...this will trick them so that they will come out during hours that she is awake to see them!


and they definately don't grow as fast as the stores imply...but they do love to switch shells and try new ones on...i noticed that mine do it more frequently when i boil the shells....and of course they cool down before i put them in with the crabs. but some crabs like their shell so much that they stay in it as long as possible!

How often they come out has a lot to do with how comfortable they are. At any given time of day or night I have hermits out in the open in my tank. At the moment I see 3 of them. If you notice in my tank I have lots of cover so that makes them feel safer. Also they are more active when they are warm. They are tropical animals that do need a heat source of some kind. My tank stays between 70-80ºF year round.

Crabs are also very social and are more at ease when there are several of them around. As for the growth issue, the smaller they are the more rapid their growth seems. My tiny ones were constantly molting and changing into bigger shells. I look back at those pics I posted and several have actually changed shells since that time.

those hermit crabs are cool