Hermit Crab Care Sheet

If you want to keep your Hermit Crab happy and healthy, then you should read this Hermit Crab Care Sheet. A land hermit crab is an amazing pet. They are very intelligent and can live for decades. However, they require a lot of attention and care. If you want to keep your hermit crab happy and healthy, you should follow these simple steps.

Hermit crabs are very social animals. They enjoy being around other hermit crabs. They also love to play. The curious crabs are wanderers and can explore their environment.

If you want to keep your hermit crabs happy and healthy, then follow these simple steps:

1. Feed your hermit crab regularly. Feed them every day and at the same time.
2. Clean out their tank regularly.
3. Provide plenty of hiding places for your hermit crab.
4. Give your hermit crab plenty of space to move around.
5. Make sure that your hermit crab has enough room to swim around.

Quick Facts

• Hermit crabs are fun to watch and make great pets.
• They need their friends. Even though their name is a mouthful, they need to be in pairs or groups.
• The length of an adult is between 2 and 6 inches.
• The crabs can live up to 10 years with proper care.
• They are not in the water.

Hermit crab enclosure

There’s plenty of room for the ermine crabs to thrive. We recommend a 10-gallon plastic or glass tank with a screen top to prevent crabs from escaping, but they may need more room as they grow. The tank can be placed in any place with extreme temperatures, but be careful where you put it.

Temperature & Humidity

The temperature should be between 72 and 81 degrees inside the enclosure. It would be best if you used a quality tank heater or lamp to maintain the temperature. 

A humidity gauge can be purchased to ensure your tank has a humidity level of 70% or more relative humidity between 60 and 80%.

Substrate

You must provide enough deep moist sand to protect your crabs from being harmed in the molting process, a natural process for hermies. The height of your largest crab is three times deeper than the proper amount. Calcium carbonate sand sticks to your crab’s legs and abdomen, which is why you shouldn’t use it.

Food & Water Bowls

Adding a larger food bowl and two smaller water bowls are required. The water bowls need to be large enough for crabs to get stuck but not so large that they get stuck. Make sure to dechlorinate both of them because fresh and saltwater can cause diseases. Crabs can get in and out safely and help maintain humidity if a sea sponge is placed in each dish.

Accessories

Hermit crabs like to climb and hide. Their house should be decorated with branches, half logs, caves, and shells. They can hide under the leaves if they add some Catappa leaves. Extra growth shells are a must when they need something bigger.

Diet & Nutrition

Hermit crab food has a proper balance of vitamins and minerals, so they are omnivorous scavengers. Smaller crabs should be crushed because they don’t get as many pelleted foods a day. Eat at night and take care of your body during the day. 

Adding calcium supplements to hermie’s food can help support their health since shimmies need a lot of calcium to support their health.

A balanced diet for hermit crab is included.

• Commercial crab food is of the highest quality.
• Vegetables such as spinach, carrots, romaine lettuce, and noncitrus fruits such as coconut and papaya are good treats.
• Brine shrimp, nuts, seaweed, and fish are some of the treats that can be offered.
• Provide calcium and carotene supplements.
• You should beware of commercial food with preservatives, such as copper sulfate, that may harm your little one.

Habitat Maintenance

• Thoroughly clean the natural habitat at least once a week, including putting the crab in a secure habitat, scrubbing the tank and furnishings with a 3% bleach solution, rinsing thoroughly with water, removing all traces of bleach smell, drying the tank and furniture completely, and add clean substrate.

Grooming & Hygiene

• Allow the crabs to exit at their leisure by placing them in their saltwater dish daily.

Handling & Safety

The crabs’ bodies are soft, making them vulnerable when they are in the process of changing. It is important to keep them isolated from their roommates and not drop them onto a hard surface. It can hurt or kill them.

It is never a good idea to release crabs into the wild. They can harm the local environment since they aren’t likely to survive.

Increased appetite or activity, staying outside of the shell, lost claws or limbs, strong odor from inside the shell are some of the symptoms of illness or distress that you should report to a doctor.

Land hermit crabs don’t eat very much, so it is important to remove uneaten food every single day to keep it fresh.

The table salt has a trace amount of Brisbane in it that makes the saltwater impossible to make.

Feeding

Things to remember when feeding a crab.

• Fresh, clean chlorine-free water should be available all the time; it may not come from a bowl, but it will rely on the plant’s strength.
• Feed at night if you crush all pelleted foods.
• Variety in their diet is an important trait for the first crabs.
• The crab needs to be washed out of its food and water dish each day before being given fresh water and food. 

House

• Adult land hermit crab behavior and exercise should be accommodated in a habitat that is at least a 10-gallon tank.
• New shells need to be bigger than the current shell to provide climbing décor and hiding areas. Misting daily will keep 70 to 80% humidity level, which is required to keep the gills moist, prevent dehydration, and ease molting.
• The substrate should be 3 inches or deeper and consist of sand, coconut fiber bedding, and sphagnum moss.
• You may provide a low-watt bulb for nocturnal viewing of the grenadier crabs.
• Two shallow dishes of water are needed in the habitat at all times. One with fresh dechlorinated water and the other with marine saltwater with a specific gravity range of 1.021 – 1.026. The water should not be more than 0.25 inches deep, and if it is greater than 0.50 inches, it could cause your crab to drown. If you place a sponge in the dish to help your crab climb in and out, you should change the sponge frequently to keep the crab from getting sick.
• Different species of arthropods can not be housed in the same group of hermit crabs.

Normal Behavior

• The girlfriend crabs should be housed in groups of three or more.
• It will usually bury itself in the sand once or twice a year. The crab is very fragile and should not be disturbed. Move the other crabs to another tank or put a divider in the tank to protect the crab that is molting. Make sure there is proper humidity.
• Extra shells should always be available so that the hermit can change whenever it’s ready in the aquarium setting.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this article. I hope you learned something new about how to take good care of your pet! Please comment below any questions/comments you have regarding this topic.