Unfortunately, when we eventually transferred Oscar from the progam to home, we knew nothing about the proper care of hermit crabs. We made the usual ignorant mistakes until Oscar moulted on the surface and we thought he had died. At that point I started researching hermie care because I wanted to find out what we did wrong. I learned that we had unwittingly been keeping Oscar in what must have been a hermit crab prison cell from his perspective.
Fortunately, after doing all this research, we were overjoyed to discover that Oscar was still alive in his shell and had just left his shed exoskeleton on the sand! I rushed out 5 minutes after this discovery and bought a 10 gallon tank, sand, coconut fiber, water dishes, etc., etc. (went a little crazy in my joy at his being alive), and also another hermit crab (yes, still making mistakes as I was learning). Every day since then (which was last Friday evening) I have pored over the crabber websites and these forums and have gone out to get some new thing I realized crabbies need. Now Oscar is happily ensconced in a small partioned off section in the new tank recovering from his moult, while our new hermie Felix gets acclimated in the other part of the tank.
I am so grateful that you experienced crabbers are out here spreading the word on the internet so we could learn how to properly care for our little guys! Thank you!!! I hope to give back by providing some hermit crab care resources that the animal-assisted therapy program can send home with the crabs so their new owners will be prepared!
BTW, is it normally to suddenly become obssessed with these little guys? I think I am there.
Tanya
