Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Land Hermits Crabs















LAND HERMIT CRABS
Scienific Name : Coenobita Rugosus



















Facts About Land Hermit Crabs

Hermits can live about 20 years in wild.
They cannot breathe underwater and will drown easily. So make sure your water dish for them is not too deep.
Hermit crab have a soft abdomen & exoskeleton, so they need a shell to protect themselves from predators.
Hermits are considered quite a nocturnal animals, most active at night. That includes them eating & drinking most during the night.
Hermit crabs are scavengers & omnivores, they consume both vegetables and meat. Love eating fresh fruits like apples.
Lost limbs can be regenerate in moulting process. Eyes cannot be replaced.
They will eat the exoskeleton that they shed to get extra calcium to help grow a new one
Smaller hermits moult more often than larger hermits.

Identify Boy or Girl
Do not attempt to pull/force your hermit out of their shell to check !!
Female hermit crab will have a 'hole' (looks like a tiny dot) on each of the last pair of their two legs, called gonopores.
Hermits cannot reproduce in tank as they need to deposit the eggs into the sea. So it really doesn't matter which gender you got.















Care for Land Hermit Crabs

They require two types of water - Fresh & Salt. Always provide two water dish for them.
Water given must be de-chlorinated. Change daily.
Use salt mix that is for Marine Aquarium, do not use Table Salt.
Hermits are extremely sensitive to metals. Make sure there is NO METAL contents in your tank.
Bathing them once a week is enough, too much will stress them. Water must be de-chlorinated, add a little salt. Do not immerse them totally into water.
Keeping a variety of empty shells for your hermits to chose from. This also lowers the chances of shell fights between hermits.

This is Silver - Close up.
Say "HELLO" to everyone !






















For all my Hermit crabs posts, please click here!

5 comments:

heavenabove said...

Love your little hermit crabs. One time, I had 24 of them at once! They are neat and easy to take care of. Yours and their setup are very colorful. You may have just inspired me to get more of them.

Astro Galaxy said...

Wow.... 24 of them ??? It must be a big happy family because they love to be in big groups. So nice.
Cheers !

Anonymous said...

my daughter wanted to do a science fair project of the sensitivity of hermit crabs to metal and after a little online research i see this is a no brainer as not to hurt any crabs but are their any related science fair topics in relation to hermits and or other crustations somone might suggest as she loves these type creatures,also we are in the midwest and not around beaches or the ocean,thanks

Anonymous said...

my hermit crab never stops moving! Hes like the energizer bunny in crab form!!!!And 24!!?????!!!!you must have had a BIG tank!!!!My hermit crab is in my hand right now!

Astro Galaxy said...

Hi Megan,
I've only 6 hermit crabs but now I'm left with none! They each slowly pass away one by one after about 1 year! So sad!