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November 2008:
"Flower Paradise" |
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| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to enter the competition. If not, please register first. |
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Survey #023:
What is your second storey made of? |
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| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to vote. If not, please register first. |
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| Say NO to Crabinacup sold at Walmart! Such humiliation and animal cruelty against hermit crabs must not be tolerated. |
| Say NO to the painted shells sold in many pet stores! Hermit crabs are not toys, nor are their shells. |
| You can help our protest by signing the petitions and joining many other crabbers in the battle for the respect of hermit crabs. |
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| If Hermit Crab Paradise has proven helpful to you, please link back to us! You may use the 90×90 icon above if you wish, but please upload it to your own server. We appreciate your support! |
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| Aquarium size is very important. In the wild, hermit crabs travel miles a day for food, water and shells. Thus, it makes sense that you should provide enough room for your hermit crabs to run around in and exercise. Plastic kritter keepers are not suitable permanent homes. A 10 gallon aquarium can fit up to ten hermit crabs. If you have more, a 20 gallon aquarium or larger would be more suitable. The aquarium should also have a glass lid that covers the whole aquarium with a small exposed corner for air. |
| Do not put the aquarium in direct sunlight. This can prevent humidity from building up in the aquarium and increase the temperature to a dangerous level. It is best to keep the aquarium in a warm place, such as the bedroom or living room. |
| Stick some wallpaper on the outside of the aquarium to give your aquarium a more "natural" feel. You can also change the wallpaper periodically so that your hermit crabs don't feel bored. |
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| Woodshavings is warm and many pet stores use it, but why are many crabbers who have done their research strongly against it? Woodshavings attract mites and if purchased outside pet stores, it may have been treated with pesticides. The best standard substrate to use is play sand. It is inexpensive and is easily accessible. Hermit crabs can moult safely in sand and it does not attract mites. If you like, add small amounts of gravel to the aquarium (but don't mix it all in with the sand) to give the scenery more variety. |
| You should wash (with dechlorinated water) and bake the sand in an oven after purchase, especially if it is already wet. Sand from the beach may contain pests and harmful bacteria. Once sterilised, add a small amount of dechlorinated water and sea salt to the dry sand to give it moisture. The sand should be just wet enough so that you can make a sand castle out of it, but not so wet that it is sloppy and dripping with water. The sea salt helps hinder bacterial growth. |
| Clean out the aquarium at least once a month. If your bedding does get infested with mites one day, you can either bake and wash the sand to kill the mites, or throw it out and buy new sand. If left untreated, the mites may irritate the hermit crabs and drive them out of their shells. |
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| Hermit crabs love to have fun too! Ensure that there are many climbing toys for hermit crabs to play on. Not only does this help keep them happy, but it also keeps them healthy and active. Buy suitable and safe toys and avoid ones with too many smooth sides. Although hermit crabs are great climbers, they can slip and fall. Toys such as climbing nets, plastic plants are excellent choices, but make sure that they don't rise to the top of your aquarium so that your hermit crabs can use them to climb out and escape. Be warned; if there is a possible escape route out of the aquarium, it won't be long until the hermit crabs find it. |
| We strongly recommend that you do not put any wood or metal ornaments in the aquarium. Wood attracts mites and may decay in the humid environment of the aquarium. Likewise, metal objects may rust when exposed to moisture. Fake plants and other bright coloured ornaments help put some life into the aquarium. A great ornament you can try is a plastic climbing net, but do not place it high enough for your crabs to climb out and escape. Rocks also make great obstacles. You may also like to put a cave in your isolation unit if a moulting crab is too weak to dig. These come in handy, but make sure there is still plenty of room in the isolation unit of the moulter. Make sure that all toys and ornaments are cleaned (do not use soap or detergent!) with dechlorinated hot water to remove any dirt and pests before placing them in the crabitat. |
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