Tybee Island Hermit Crab Stores

[coledofner12]

Don't get me wrong I love Tybee Island, Georgia but their gift shops have these big glass bins that are as big as a normal sized dinner table that have over hundreds of crabs crammed inside of them. Most of the crabs are dead, they have mights, or are missing limbs. Almost all of the crabs are painted shell crabs and they are the ones that are mostly dead. So me and a couple of friends decided to buy half of the live ones and give them away to people who want one who we know they can take care of them. The day after we did that the bins were filled with more crabs most of them dead. I think gift shops should not be able to sell hermit crabs at all.

[emmac350]

Welcome to tourism, Cole! Tybee Island isn't the only place like that - I live near Destin and Panama City Beach, Florida, and every store has signs up in their windows for "Free Hermit Crab With Purchase of Deluxe Hermit Crab Kit!" Those kits, by the way, are critter keepers with calci-sand, a sponge, a small shell for the pellets that they give you to feed them, and one extra painted shell (your choice of design!) while the poor crabs are kept in the exact same conditions that you described.

That being said, many people who know how to care for crabs won't buy their crabs because, like you found, it only encourages the store owners to buy more crabs and condemn them to the same fate. It's incredibly sad to see crabs like that, but if you buy the store owners will think that crabs are obviously selling well, gotta buy some more!

[coledofner12]

Ya. It makes me very angry to see a living creature basically tormented.

[Sterwick]

I've spoken to a petstore and said the substrate was very shallow and they simply said 'You've got to remember display conditions are different to housing conditions, if we had deeper substrate they would never get sold and it'll be a nightmare trying to sell them!' But the conditions weren't bad at all, and i could see where he was coming from. There were a few pieces of driftwood, a reasonably large tank, (over 10 gallons but the crabs were giant) cocohusk substrate (athough not much), some lettuce (at least not pellet food), a heatmat, water (although no saltwater) and there were no extra shells. Not perfect, but much better than the gift shops mentioned. If the conditions in the gift shop were like the ones in this pet shop i went to there would probably be much less deaths. Although i really think the pet store i visited should be giving out care leaflets.

Stevo.

[CrabbyJo]

Sterwick,
my local pet store has the hermit crabs in a large enclosure made to look like a hut with a roof overhead. It has plexiglass walls that come up about 10 inches. Then there is about 18" of open space between the walls and the roof. There are water dishes for salt and fresh water, and always some powder commercial food in there. Plenty of hideys, and some extra shells.
The thing is, the crabs from that pet store tend to die when we get them home unless the shipment JUST came in. There is no means to keep in moisture, and no heat source. Hence, they are kept at room temperature in very dry conditions.
This pet store refuses to listen to me, I'm viewed as the "crazy crab lady" I'm sure. I just get patronizing looks when I try to give them suggestions.
I won't buy from that store, and try not to patronize them if I can avoid it.

[Sterwick]

hmm... it's all to do with profit really? It's a real shame considering the numbers are falling in the hermit crabs' (PP's anyway) population. But the saddest thing is- what can we do? We all try to spread proper care advice but that makes little impact compared to all those petstores that advertise things that are wrong. Sometimes I think we should leave them be in their natural habitat rather than messing around with nature like us humans do for the benefit of us.

Stevo.

[Sterwick]

I did see a serious issue at Kenchester water gardens- humidity was only 30%. So I emailed them and told them what was causing the problem and what they can do about it. They did listen, but it's only a local company, if they were worldwide I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got a response, the email said:

Dear Stevo,

Thank you for your the e-mail.
Since reading it the tank has been sprayed. The problem may may have arisen due to the fact that we added an extra heat mat within the last few days due to temperture drop. Also the hygrometer was placed to close to the heat mat. Your knowledge is greatly received and think you will be happy to know all hermits are alive and moving around the tank.

Thanks again

Phill

I'm glad I got a result, but obviously it is not so easy when you have a giant company such as Pets at home or wal-mart.

Stevo.

[CrabbyJo]

Well, it's also very discouraging when to mollify you they just say "the tank has been sprayed". Which will raise the humidity for what, 10 minutes or so? Baloney!

Darn these people.

[ladybug15057]

True, maybe even up to a half hour to an hour. But what happens when they close for the night and nobody can spray till the next morning or so, if they do at all? Did they place a water source on the extra heat mat, or take any other action to help keep the humidity level up?

[MaxPlastic]

There is a chain of "Gift Shops" here in Georgia (Actually the SouthEast) called EarthBound who have that table top plexi glass setup with a bajillion crabs in it. This is actually where I got my first two crabs (before I knew the facts of mall stores... AND hermit crabs!). The one I actually got my crabs from here in Atlanta wasn't too bad (I suppose) but the one down in Savannah must've had 8,923 and a half crabs in it, a giant plate for water just stuffed with like 50 sponges... No room for the crabs to bathe or drink at all... I guess they just drink from the sponges... > _ O Blech... I was tempted to buy one of the crabs because he was a big one (like a baseball) but I didn't want to risk encouraging them. I did buy some FMR Hermit Crab treats and the guy at the counter had the nerve to say, "You know this isn't their food. They need the hermit crab food not just this." I was like, "Well, the 'food' you sell here isn't the food they need either." Mashed up reptile sticks does not a healthy hermit make. Anyway... I mostly buy crabs from higher up and well maintained PetSmart and PetCo stores, or a great mom and pop shop if I can find one.