"Is it safe to keep my big hermit crab and my little hermit crab together?" I get this question a lot. In fact I've even been told by pet store associates that you should NOT keep different sizes of crabs together. Well today, I'd like to set the record straight. It is perfectly fine to put all types of hermit crabs together. The only thing that you must do to keep them happy is provide hiding and climbing areas that are appropriate for all the sizes you have as well as a much larger variety of shells.

It is true that I have had a few instances of aggression in my crabitat but every single instance (three) the aggression occurred between crabs that were roughly the same size.

You can also keep different species together without problems as long as you offer a bit wider variety of diet and take into account that different species like different types of shells. The only exception to this is Straws (C. Perlatus) and they too can be incorporated into your tank but it does take a bit more accomodating that the other species. I'm going to address these species-specific issues in a future post.

So if you've got some big guys and want some little guys or you just think that you might be ready for that large or jumbo, know that as long as your tank is big enough, you're in good shape. Adopt away!

I received an overwelmingly positive response to my other article about hermit crabs in painted shells. Most people were saddened and shocked by what they read and a few were even called to action to speak out about painted shells to other people. However, not all the feedback I got was positive. I had a few people leave comments which claimed that I had no proof of the methods that are used to get hermit crabs into the painted shells. I fully admit that it is a hard pill to swallow. Noone wants to believe that their hermit crabs might be victims of cruelty. However, my previous article is absolutely true. Proof is a powerful thing. I'm embedding this video so that anyone who wishes to can see first hand the process that I wrote about in my other article.

So you've decided to add a crab to your clan. Or maybe you just found yourself standing in front of the hermit crab tank at your local pet store, contemplating their current crew. Is is possible to maximize your success based on what crab you pick and why? Absolutely. In this article I'm going to walk you through picking out a crab from a pet store, some things to look for to help you make the best choice, and what types of situations to avoid if possible.

There are several steps to evaluating a crab tank at a petstore before you ever start looking for that special crab.

1. Setup. What type of substrate are they using? Are there water bowls? Is there a temp/humidity gauge? What is the reading at? This will be important later as you help your new crab adjust to their permanent home. As you can see in the picture, this pet store is using sand in the bottom (which is great!), there are two water dishes which is rare, but unfortunately neither have standing water in it, only damp sponges. There's also no way to tell if one dish is salt water.

2. Now do a second sweep. Look for dropped limbs and dead crabs. Take a wiff of the crab tank to see if you can detect a fishy odor. A mild smell is not that unusual but if it's knocking you over it means that either there is a lot of crab death happening or they are not cleaning out dead crabs very often, neither are good signs. Likewise, a few dropped limbs isn't totally out of the ordinary but if there are more than one or two, these crabs are in bad shape.

3. Empty shells. Take a look at the crabs in the tank and take a look at the empty shells that are in there with them. Are they similar in size and decoration (because they will most likely be painted). If they are then chances are very good that these shells recently had owners who are now deceased. The more random empty shells the better off you will be going somewhere else.

4. Look at the edge of the substrate at the bottom of the tank (you should be able to see it if they are in a glass tank). If it is a different color than the rest of the tank, streaked with mineral deposits or worse, moldy, move on. It means that this store doesn't often do a thorough clean of their tanks, let alone, a complete tank clean between shipments.

Once you've gotten all this information from the tank itself you can start to evaluate which crab you might want to take home. The key to this type of search is activity. When possible, ask the salesperson if you can look at the crabs yourself. Most store workers will let you, especially if you ask politely. Reach in and lift up all the hidey items. Half round logs, tiki huts, cocohuts, whatever is in there. Shift the hiding crabs out into the open gently. Replace the hidey and allow the crabs to move back toward it if they wish.

Look for activity. Who is out and about. Who seems petrified by your presence and who seems merely put out. Select a couple of likely candidates and gently, one by one, take them out and sit them on the palm of your hand. Do they come out after a few seconds? Do they seem curious? An active crab has a much higher survival rate even if they have dropped a limb, than an extremely passive, withdrawn crab.

Try for a crab that is in a natural shell. I know it's nice to rescue those decorated crabs but if you are looking for a survival rate that is fairly tolerable, natural shelled crabs do much better than painted shell crabs.

If you are more than 10 minutes from the pet store look into bringing along a 2-3 gallon kritter keeper with a decent setup to transport the crab in rather than the cardboard box/plastic cup. I've had bad luck with crabs that had to wait to be placed into a tank compared to the ones that got moved into the crabitat fairly straight away.

In the end, you choose which crab you want and from where, but in the future, you can use all the information available to you to make an informed decision and pick crabs that have the maximum survival chances possible.

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Did you know that one of the main staples in a wild hermit crab's diet is feces? I know, pretty gross huh? But it makes sense. Hermit crabs are beach combers and as they travel across the beaches and the inland areas they consume all sorts of things and animal and bird feces make up a large part of that. The practice of consuming feces is called coprophagia.

Since I started crabbing every great once in awhile I hear stories of a crabber introducing some sort of feces in their tank. Turtle, guinea pig, and horse poo are the ones that I've heard of. The crab responses are usually very good.

Recently too, the practice of adding worm casting to the tank has become popular. Worm castings are basically a clean dirt but no less than 100% worm poop for it. Few people think of worm castings as true feces because it is honestly what makes up the dirt in your yard, but it provides much of the same benefits.

After some late night internet combing however, I ran across a product I'd never seen before, Seabird Guano. (Guano is a polite word for bird/bat feces). I passed on the bat guano because I couldn't see crabs venturing into cold, dark caves however, seabird guano is something that they would certainly encounter in their natural environment.

So did they like it? No word yet. As the weather shifts they've got all got underground as they normally do for a few weeks. I'm going to be doing a deep clean and installing some warming cable and I'll be back to update you on how it's received in a few weeks.

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The following is the raw results from a hermit crab survey that I set up over the course of one month. I invited crabbers from lots of different forums to participate and we had, in the end, over 300 participants. While this is a great number, more than I had hoped for, keep in mind that it's not a perfect sample. It's a sample of crabbers who are willing to go online to read about, research, and talk about crabs. There is still a significant demographic of crabbers who don't do that.

1. How many crabs do you have?

2. How many active tanks/crabitats do you have (not counting ISO)?

3. Do you have a tank specifically designated for ISO situations?

4. What is the size of your largest tank?

5. How many species do you have?

6. What type of substrate do you use?

7. What type of heat do you have? (check all that apply)

8. Do you have a thermometer?

9. Do you have a hygrometer? (measures humidity)

10. Do you offer salt water?

11. What do you use to make your salt water?

12. Do you use stress coat dechlorinator?

13. Is your substrate moist or dry?

14. What kind of fresh water do you use?

15. How many times a year do you deep clean your tank?

16. Do you bath your hermit crabs?

17. Have you ever adopted a crab rather than buying it at the store?

18. As a general rule, do you let your hermit crabs molt in the main tank or do you ISO them?

19. Have you ever purchased food/items from an online hermit crab specialty store?

20. What kinds of food do you feed your hermit crabs? Select all that apply.

21. How old are you?

22. Are you male or female?

23. How long have you had hermit crabs?

24. How long have you had the crab you have had the longest?

25. Would you consider yourself a hermit crab activist?

Survey written and executed by LolaGranola, feel free to post and reference on your site or blog. A link back to Naturally Crabby is appreciated but not required for this post.

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