also titled, You've Already Brought Him Home, Now What?

The best way to go about adopting a hermit crab is to set up and stabilize your tank first, and, then go get your hermit crab. However, that is not always what happens. A lot of people who I meet with questions about their new friend have just arrived home from the mall with a crab, a kritter keeper, a couple of shells and some food.

While larger kritter keepers (pictured) might work for making an ISO tank, the easiest and most effective tanks are the glass ones.

What size should you get? That depends on how many crabs you want to keep. I would recommend, regardless of size, that you start with a 20 gallon tank. This will give you plenty of room for water dishes, toys and hideys and plenty of room for them to run around as well. There are many owners who successfully keep their hermit crabs in a 10 gallon tank with a second level. However, I recommend the 20 gallon because I have seen many, many other crabbers outgrow their 10 gallons quickly as they want to add new crabs. So if you have the funds and the space, start with a 20 gallon. There are four absolutely essential aread that must be worked out as soon as possible.

• Water
• Temperature
• Substrate
• Humidity

This is the short list for people that already have their crabs and are trying to stabilize their tank quickly. Once these things are taken care of, you can breath easy for a minute or two, then start on the REAL research!

Water Hermit crabs need two sources of water, salt and fresh. Fresh water can be provided in a number of different ways, you can add natural spring water or distilled water directly from the container. Or you can use bottled, well, or tap water and use a dechlorinator. It is important, when chosing a dechlorinator that you pick one that does not provide a slime coating. I use Doc Wellfish Tap Water Conditioner which is widely available.

It is important that, unless you are using spring or distilled that you use a dechlorinator. Years ago it was possible to dechlorinate water by allowing it to sit overnight but now there are other additives to water like Chloramine and heavy metals, that can only be neutralized with help from dechlorinators.

Temperature Temperature in your
tank needs to be kept within a range of 75-84. This can be done a number of ways. If you live in a very warm climate it is possible to keep the temperature stable without any assistance from lights or heaters. However, normal "room temperature" is not this high, it usually hovers around 65-70 and will not keep your crabitat warm enough. You must also keep seasonal changes in mind. My tank stays warm enough in the summer but as winter arrives I have to add both heaters and lights to keep my tank within a safe range. Hermit crabs are not like people, they cannot regulate their own body temperature. It is crucial that you keep your tank within the 75-84 range.

Under the Tank Heaters (UTH - pictured) are the most common heaters used to warm a tank. Thin black rectangles that can be adhere'd to the bottom of your tank, they can be found in the reptile section of your local pet store and are sold in various sizes according to the size of your tank. Be sure to buy the heater that is appropriate for your particular tank. You do not want the heater to cover the whole bottom of it, rather, one side so that the crabs can decide where in the temperature zone they want to hang out or bury themselves. Do not add or turn on an UTH unless you know your crabitat is empty of hermit crabs. A molting crab just above where you place the heater may not have the strength to move. The best time to attach an UTH is when setting up a tank or just after a deep clean. Reptisun and Moonglo lights are also a common way of heating a tank. Very safe and effective, the only downside is that they do affect humidity. Be prepared to supplement humidity (we'll talk about how later) when you use this method. What NOT to use. Don't use heat rocks or repti-heat lamps.

Be very cautious trying to use non-pet products to maintain a stable temperature in your tank such as waterbed heaters, heating pads and space heaters. They are very hard to maintain stability and run additional risks because they are being used in ways never intended by their manufacturers.

Substrate For a beginning crabber I recommend playsand. It can be purchase at your local home improvement store or at Toys R Us for $3-5 for a 50lb bag. It's very easy to use and quick to set up. I place mine in a bucket and add enough dechlorinated water to make it a sand castle consistency then throw it in the tank. It needs to be wet enough for the crabs to dig in it and hold their caves up, but not sopping.

Another good choice is EcoEarth or Fiber Bedding (pictured). I have used both and prefer the sand but there are a lot of good crabbers who use both. Eco Earth and Fiber Bedding are made out of shredded coconut fiber and once reconstituted in water (salt water to avoid mold) it takes on the appearance of moist dirt. I have found that it can be easy to misjudge the amount of water and EE that gets too wet takes awhile to dry out enough to put in the tank. If you've got time to get things set up, this is less of a problem. There are other choices that hermit crab caregivers have chosen. Crushed coral, calcisand, moss, beach sand, and others.

For a beginner and a first tank I would start with sand or Eco Earth and stabilize the tank before you move on to something more complicated. There are even hermit crab owners who use a mixture! Stay away from gravel. This is one of the most common myths of hermit crab care out there. Even aquarium gravel which is proported to be safe and smooth is a poor choice. Your crab needs a substrate that is moist and can be dug in. The only time gravel is a good idea is when it is used to prevent crabs from digging under the water dish. Now how much substrate? Pick your largest crab and measure the height of his shell, multiply by two and that is how many inches of substrate you need in your tank. This is where your kritter keeper starts looking pretty shabby, Five inches of substrate in an 8 inch kritter keeper can get kind of cramped!

Humidity Hermit Crabs breath through modified gills. The require "wet" air to breath. Aim to keep your tanks humidity between 76 and 84%. Wetting the sand or Eco Earth and putting your tank together for the first time will probably been good enough to start with. A fresh tank always has high humidity (as long as the substrate is moist). However, this will not last and your goal is to keep it stable. You can buy natural sponges to sit in the water dishes or my favorite, create shelves of natural moss that is moistened with salt water.

You can get moss at your local pet store or at the craft store. Just make sure you are getting all natural moss, preferably Hiawatha or Sheet Moss. Some others are okay, some are not. Spanish Moss which is very common, is also not safe for hermit crabs. These will help maintain a more constant humidity in the tank. Another way to raise or lower the humidity is to adjust how much of the top of the tank is covered. This may mean using a hood and screen, saranwrap, or a towel. Just make sure whatever method you use, you secure your tank to prevent escapee's. A hermit crab can climb out just by holding onto the silicone.

While you're out at the store pick up a temperature/humidity guage. You can get them at the pet store or in the home and garden section of many larger stores. The pet store ones are the most expensive. I bought one of the inexpensive ones six months ago and it's just now showing signs of breaking down.

Done! Now What? Once you've gotten these things take care of you've just scratched the surface. There's still so much more to do, but what you've got will keep them well long enough for you to take care of the rest of the list, which is just as vital to the well being of your hermit crabs as the first four.

• Hermit Crab Hiding Places
• Hermit Crab Climbing Places
• Fresh preservative-free foods
• Extra shells
• A hermit crab buddy, or two, . . . or five