File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
Hello /an/,

Today I bought two big hermit crabs. I put enough food and water for both of them. Suddenly, at night, I hear lots of noises from the aquarium tank. I turn on the lights only to see one of them killing the other. D:

I told the pet store like THREE times that I was pretty sure this was going to happen, but they denied that. And now I lost 7 bucks.

Tomorrow I am going to the pet store and tell them wtf. I am sure they won't refund my 7 bucks, and give me another crab. But, should I do that, knowing that the crab might kill the new visitor?

Pic VERY related. :(
>> Anonymous
Hermit crabs are usually communal... why do you think it did that? Were they fighting over a shell?
>> Anonymous
Wow, I never considered them as pets, so never thought this would happen. Reminds me of when I was little and with my mother at the pet store:
Me: MUM! That mother-mouse is eating her babies!
Mum: No she isn't, dear, she's just cleaning them.
Me: No! Take a look! She's eating them!
Mum: .......... OH MY GOD! She's eating them!
>> Anonymous
Yup, animals eat one another all the time. Hamsters particularly are known to do so. The only time i've heard of hermit crabs doing so is when protecting or fighting over a shell... so who knows.
>> Bitter Anon !!WJLRQ1cwCyZ
>>85468

Dolphins>hamsters

and I hate dolphins.
>> Anonymous
The one that got eaten may have been getting ready to molt :\ Hermit crabs will fight over a variety of things but they only kill with the intention to eat each other (in my experience) if one is molting (because it smells oh so delicious). I had a crab eaten over the winter and just barely saved one a couple months ago.

When you DO get another crab, keep an eye on them because hermit crabs ARE known to bully one another and bullying could lead to death (typically by starvation XD they keep the other from the food dish).

Make sure you have a sufficient number of suitably sized shells and plenty of food and water around.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Well it seems he wanted his shell alright. He is using his shell now and left the one he was using. I am gonna get another hermit crab but smaller, so the bigger one would not care of his little shell.

Also, separated food dishes just in case.
>> Anonymous
If you knew it would happen, why'd you go ahead and put the two crabs together?
>> Anonymous
>>85621
OP did'nt -know-. Besides, I see these critters together in pet stores all the time. I did'nt -know- either.
>> Anonymous
>>85624
>>I told the pet store like THREE times that I was pretty sure this was going to happen, but they denied that.

Sounds as if the OP might have had a little more than an inkling...
>> Anonymous
>>85627
Still he trusted the pet store who _should_ know what they were talking about. They could have given him warnings or told him what to look for.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
OP here,

I got a new one for free. This time I chose a little one. He is very active, running everywhere. I hope they become friends.
>> Anonymous
Can you take a picture of your whole tank where your crabs live? And dont these things need water other than for drinking?

This is the first i have heard of pet crabs, im awfully interested.
>> Anonymous
>>85645
i don't think pen0r pics are ok to post on /an/
>> Anonymous
>>85463
delicious crab you must eat it
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>85645
There is a wet sponge for them when they need to drink water. They need to take a bath once per week, so I am planning to put a cup of water inside the tank.

They are very easy to take care of, I had one when I was in high school and it lasted for years. Also very cheap to maintain.

This website has a lot of info, but don't worry about all the warnings and tips they tell you, cause you just need to feed it and thats it, simple as that.
http://www.hermit-crabs.com/index.html
>> HUUUURRRR !2POBxxR/2E
Crab battle.
>> Anonymous
I have two large hermit crabs, they get a long fine together... now. when I first got them and put them in the tank the one would bully the other... I fixed the tank up with some sand, a clean sponge, and a log for them to hide under and now they are the most peaceful, lazy pets I have every owned.
I saw you take them both back to the pet store along with the pictures and show them the crime scene so to speak... demand they refund your money or replace both your crabs.
>> Anonymous
GIANT ENEMY CRAB
>> Anonymous
Giant Isopod > Hermit Crab

Isopod would liek eat over 9,000 hermit crabs in one sitting.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
I found one when I was vacationing in thailand, I was sad I couldnt take him home, I think than once I get set up I'll have a few of them in a tank
>> Anonymous
Hold up OP! That hermit crab tank is not going to hold up. I've taken care of hermit crabs for a year and I had to give them up because they were too time consuming for me. Hermit crabs are really complicated if you take care of them right. From your tank I need to tell you a few VERY important things about what they need:

You need a temperature and humidity gauge. Hermit crabs need a temperature of 72-80 degrees F. I would recommend an overhead light with one of those reptile bulbs that gives off all those special types of light, as it aids in their digestion. Humidity is much more important. Hermit crabs don't have lungs. They have modified gills. Cover that lid halfway with some saran wrap and mist that place over. Get a humidity gauge (pet store) and make sure it stays at 75-80%.
>> Anonymous
Next up is your substrate. It appears to be some gravel, which is unsuitable for crabs. It wears down their legs, scraping the shell on their legs away. There are two substrates I recommend. One is coconut fiber. You can get it at the pet store, as reptiles often require it. Brands such as Eco Earth, Bed-a-Beast, and Forest Bedding all use it. It's pretty cheap and one brick should be enough to fill your whole tank, judging by its size. The other choice is play sand, the kind used in sand boxes and things like that. You can go to any hardware store and pick up a 50 pound bag for only around 5 dollars. Sand is good because it is more natural for them, but forest bedding is good because it hold moisture for humidity and is edible. One thing both do is allow hermit crabs to molt. This is very very important. When they molt, they bury themselves from just a few weeks to even months. Big ones molt less and usually take longer to molt. What they do is they eat a whole bunch of food (I'll cover diet later) and then bury themselves completely in the substrate. They shed their exoskeleton and grow. To replenish themselves they then eat the old exoskeleton. It is very crucial that you do not disturb them, as doing so will kill them from stress. One last thing on substrate, please make sure it stays moist all the time, because they often like to tunnel around in it, and molting requires moist substrate since they build an artificial cave while doing it. The substrate, no matter what it is, should not me saturated but moist to the touch.
>> Anonymous
For species, you appear to be in possession of two Purple Pinchers, aka Carribean hermit crabs. They come from the edge of florida to the whole Carribean sea. They are the hardiest type of hermit crab available. They can live for 40 years and grow to the size of a softball, however in captivity it is nearly impossible to achieve this. They are very social, but hate overcrowding and lack of shells. The reason yours fought was probably because of a shell fight. If there is a shortage of shells they will fight, or if they are too crowded. Always allow 2-3 shells for each of them in case they want to change. Purple Pinchers like turbo shells a lot, so buy yours some of those either from a pet store or the arts and crafts store. Please don't buy painted shells, because the paint could chip off and kill them if ingested. Also there have been very sad cases of hermit crabs being sealed in from the hardening paint, which means they are trapped in their shells. You can buy crabs in painted shells though, and odds are the minute you expose them to non painted shells they will go into one of them. As for company, two crabs if fine buy you can fit 5 in that ten gallon tank, but make sure they aren't too big. I'm sure you could use your good judgment on this. 5 medium sized crabs sound reasonable. If you have lots of things for them to climb on, they will have more space basically, and less of a territory problem. In the wild they travel in colonies of 100. They breed in the wild quite well, but it is so complicated to do in captivity that I won't go into detail on how it works. I'll just say you would have to invest a couple thousand dollars. Anyway, gender doesn't really matter, since it hard to distinguish them apart.
>> Anonymous
Diet is extremely crucial. Hermit crabs are scavengers, eating whatever lies around for nutrition. In captivity, we can feed them many things. I see you are feeding hermit crab pellets. I'm sorry, but those aren't good. Not only do the ingredients not mirror their natural diet, but it contains dangerous preservatives that only large animals can manage. For example, a common preservative in hermit crab food called copper sulfate is actually used in pesticides! Considering that crabs are crustaceans, which are arachnids, I wouldn't recommend that. I fed mine a staple diet of spirulina powder, freeze dried bloodworms, flax seeds, cuttlebone, and FMR hermit crab treat, the only product I've seen that doesn't use ingredients. You don't have to give them that, but I recommend a varied diet with lots of calcium and protein. I based my diet of of http://www.epicureanhermit.com/ . Go to the safe food list. Make sure you add in lots of fruits and vegetables too. Another rule is that the fresher something is, the better.
>> Anonymous
Next up is water. Hermit crabs don't suck the moisture out of there. They eat it, which isn't an easy way of drinking. What you should provide is a water dish deep enough so that they can completley submerge themselves. That way you won't need to bathe them, they will do it themselves! You can use something like a plastic container for a water dish. Make sure they can get out so they don't drown Filling one side with rocks or putting in a large shell will do. Again, good judgment works best. One thing I am sure you haven't heard of is that they need salt water. You can get aquarium salt at the pet store. Get a second water dish and add just a little bit to that dish. This sounds strange but they need salt water since they visit the beaches so much. One more thing about the water. Never use tap water. The chemicals in it will permanently damage the gills. Bottled spring water is what I always used.
>> Anonymous
As for toys and such, hermit crabs love to climb and hide. Provide caves for them to hide in during the day, and give lots of climbing things like cholla logs. Hermit crabs don't like being out in the open unless it is night.

Good websites are easily available with a google search. There are a lot of forums available for them. www.crabstreetjournal.com is one of the larger ones, and has links to other good sites.

That's basically all I can say for now. I took care of them quite well, the longest I had one was for about 14-15 months before I gave all of mine away to someone who was much more anchored in the hobby. I took care of three species, the rarest being Strawberries. Make sure you lurk moar about their care, as what I've said covered some but not all of their care. The reason they look so easy is because they are capable of surviving limited periods of harsh conditions. Hope you got money to burn, these things can be a real bitch.
>> Anonymous
>>85767
>>85766
>>85765
>>85764
>>85762
>>85761

Also to add on to that, in b4 tl;dr
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
I am not sure man, I never took all this precautions when I was in high school and my crab lived for more than 2 years. The only reason he died is because I left for vacations and the one who was in charge of taking care of it forgot to feed him.

I will take that advice in mind though. I sure want a better sand, more things to climb, variety of food like apples, vegetables, etc. (it can be the left overs from dinner) and humidity control.

But for now, I will just put 2 more shells and a water bowl tonight.
>> Anonymous
i used to have some hermit crabs many years ago. most of the time they all got along.

am short on time and i have not read all of the replies

i know that you should keep many empty crab shells available. this will keep the crabs all happy and not feeling pressured.

i could tell that one crab (usually the largest) was king crab and ruled the land.

Every now and then you would see him pushing a small crab around. it almost looked like they were playing but i think it was more than that.

i had a large shell that i used to keep water. they would crawl in, take a sip and crawl out. make sure it is not to deep that they drown or become trapped. also make sure it has enough weight that they will not relocate or tip it.

once a week i would bathe them under warm tap water faucet. at first they seemed a little nervous but over time they became used to it. it keep them clean and mite free.

i can only guess the reason why one was killed was it wanted to be king crab and only the strong survive. someone has to be the leader. the leader ate the crab food first and left what it wanted.
>> Anonymous
If you bring the remains of your old crab back in the container they'll pretty much HAVE to give you a new crab...
>> Anonymous
>>85788
says who
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
That son of a bitch changed shells AGAIN. But this time he didn't need to fight for it.

Protip: Get your crabs enough empty shells for happy community.
>> Anonymous
>>85765crabs are crustaceans, which are arachnids

and this children is an example of a fucking idiot
>> Anonymous
>>86046

Well excuuuse me for slipping up on arthropod and arachnid when I wrote a 1,285 word explanation.
>> Anonymous
>>86055
I thought it was copy & pasta, in some paragraphs.
>> Anonymous
>>86046
They also breast feed their young.
>> Anonymous
>>85463

"Considering that crabs are crustaceans, which are arachnids,"


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH


YOU ARE A RETARD

EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS NOW TAINTED BY YOUR IDIOCY
>> Anonymous
>>86074

If you're not going to appreciate the help I'm trying to give, I'll just delete it. Enjoy your dead pets.
>> Anonymous
>>86082
You're not exactly a credible source of information.
>> Anonymous
>>86082
Wasn't OP, idiot.
>> Anonymous !XmzeeVzD0o
     File :-(, x)
OP, more pictures of your crabs please!
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>86130
Sorry if the image quality sucks, but I don't want to put the camera with flash on their little pointy eyes heh.

The little one always sleeps in that branch tree for some reason. I added a small bucket inside the tank to see if they would like to sleep inside it.
>> Anonymous
NEEDS MORE SHELLS

NEEDS MORE SHELLS

NEEDS MORE SHELLS

NEEDS MORE SHELLS
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Enter, George.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
i got more first set of crabs!
>> Anonymous
>>86203

That one looks Ecuadorian. Ecuadorians and Purple Pinchers tend to get along well, but having one of each species is good. Ecuadorians usually are either tan, gray, or light to dark brown. Their eye stalks look more slanted than the Purple Pinchers, whose eye stalks look like commas. They NEED salt water much more than the Purple Pinchers, as their are more beach prone then them. Please, remember what I said about their care before I deleted it. It could save their lives.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
This is one of the rarer Hawaiians.
>> Anonymous
I had three crabs once. One day, I look in their cage, and there's only two. I found the shell of the third one... BUT NOT THE BODY. I cleaned through ALL the sand, but found NOTHING - no pieces, no shell!

... I'm pretty sure they ATE HIM.
>> Anonymous
>>86304
husk, not shell.
>> Anonymous
It may be the species of hermit crab you have- I used to keep hermit crabs, and I generally had several at a time with no problem. I don't think there was ever a time that I only had a single crab in the cage, and most of the time I had three or more.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
It pisses me off that they rarely touch the $10 bucks of crab food that I bought from the pet store but they ran after the bitten apple I just put inside the tank.
>> Anonymous
>>86621
OM NOM NOM kekekekeke
>> Anonymous
>>86621

I told you that commercial stuff is bad. They don't like it and it is bad for them. The preservatives can really wear them down. A varied diet of all the food groups will really go a long way.

http://www.epicureanhermit.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=9

Here is a whole safe foods list I found.
>> Anonymous
>>86641
According to the list they can eat Tobacco.
Smoke up little dudes.
>> Anonymous
>>86211
Saltwater is a definite!!! I have four crabs right now, two PP and two Ecuadorians and I find it's better to have at least two of a species. I used to have all PP's and one E, but the E was lonely. In my experience, PP's and E's get along fine as in they won't really bother each other, but they don't really socialize either.

>>86641
Commercial food is bad!! There's actually commercial hermit crab food that contains copper sulfate, which is poisonous to them! I have to say though, not ALL commercial food is bad :\ I'm a college student with limited access to fresh foods for them, so I use a variety of dried foods I found in my local pet store. These are a little different though because I made sure the label said 'apples, cranberries, mango' and that was it, no added extras. It's all about the labels :<
>> Anonymous
I must say what happened to your poor crab was defiantly a shell fight. =_= But I've had a similar problem. Either I'm really unlucky with hermit crabs except the one I've had the past three years. Or said crab is homicidal. He's gone through 3 other crabs and hes now alone in his tank. They all had plenty of access to food and water, room, shelter. I bathed them weekly, and all that good stuff. But now it just that one sitting all alone in his tank. I feel sorry for him but I don't want him to kill anymore crabs. any suggestions?
>> Anonymous
>>86649
Put crabs bigger than him. Lets see who is the bully then.
>> Anonymous
>>86651
Well despite this crab being homicidal I still love him. O_O;; I don't want him to die.
>> Anonymous
>>86655
Don't worry they won't kill him. Unless they want HIS shell...
>> Anonymous
>>86662
is crabby gonna have to pinch a bitch?