I need help on Hermies!!!!!!!!!!

[BynxandJake]

I need help.You see,I want to get a hermy,but i dont know what they need.For example,I don't know WHAT they eat,whether or not you put the food in a bowl,what should be in their tank,is it better to have one or two......and there are a few other questions i have...Please email me at ACrwLftOfThMrder@aol.com.

[LilWurm]

Okay, well, I hope you did not buy a hermie because you are obviously lost.

Keep them in a 20 gallon tank or larger, 2 or more. That for starters.

As far as what they eat, they love variety. They are tropical so they like coconut, papaya, bananas and such. I feed them FMR food and treats, and the occasional fresh fruits and veggies. They love eggs, too. And junk food (sparingly). NO dairy!!

They should have salt water. They NEED it to survive if they are not Purple Pinchers, but PP's love salt water, too. And NO chlorine in their water!

You can use Play Sand as a substrate. It's better than Calci-Sand and MUCH cheaper.

Your temp. and humidity both need to be between 70-80.

You need an ISO tank for when they molt (usually about every 10 months, smaller ones more often).

They need toys like a coral piece, a hermie hut, maybe a half log, driftwood and such. They LOVE to climb!

Make sure you have extra shells. They like to change shells.

As far as dishes to keep your food and water in, your local PetCo should have little plastic reptile dishes in 2-packs that will work just fine. They have hermie ones that come in real bright colors, but the repti dishes are the same exact thing. So it doesn't matter which you get.

If you have water in a dish that a small hermie could completely submerge in, be sure to put a couple stones in it for the little hermie to get out. They can drown.

I suggest misting them if you don't bathe them once a week. I usually just mist them every once in a while and bathe them every 2 or 3 weeks. There is a lot of controversy about baths. It is your choice what you believe. I fall inbetween.

Anything else you need, go to www.hermit-crabs.com

Good luck!

[Daethian]

She covered everything but you can get a checklist either at the site she listed or at www.hermitcrabassociation.com and you can take that to the store with you!

Don't let the pet store talk you into buying very expensive calci sand either. Its too pricey and it stinks when damp, it will also stain your crabs.

[LilWurm]

Um, oh yes, I was thinking about this post the other night and I forgot about StressCoat and Instant Ocean.

If you bathe your hermies or leave a dish in their tank that they can bathe in, you should put a drop or 2 of StressCoat in it. It helps with stress. You'll find it in the fish section of your local PetCo or Wal-Mart. PetSmart will probably have it, too.

And Instant Ocean is the salt I use for my hermies water. It is uniodized salt for mixing into fish tanks for a salt water setup. You don't have to worry about the ph, so pay no attention to that. Just take a small amount of it and mix it into your hermies' water (more salt with more water, less salt with less water).

If there is anything else you need to know, you can go to the site I linked or e-mail me at LilWurm@comcast.net

[hermiehannah]

Just to add a few things, make sure to not bother your hermies very much at least 3 weeks after you get them. PPS (post purchase syndrom) can be a very difficult thing to deal with. I think there is an explanation there. Also you need to have a glass lid for whatever size tank you get. And humidity and temp gauges. Good luck with your hermies!

[LilWurm]

Lolz, actually, if you can't afford glass lids (I couldn't for the longest time ... and the ones I got are too big!), a moist towel works fine. Remember to mist it, though, or else your humidity will get much too low.

[JenHan disease]

i fed mine a mixture made up by the pet store i got them from, but it basically had-
oats
fish flacks
saltanas
cornflakes and weet bix
a little bit of apricot

i also fed them brine shrimp and sprinkled crushed cuttle bone over the food.
hope that helps!
good luck with the hermies!

[Daethian]

YOu can get a plexiglass lid cut for under 10.00 which is not much at all and is more consistent than a towel. I tried a towel in the beginning and it just dried out way too fast.

[LilWurm]

Lolz, yeah, I suppose I should have stressed that towel lids are TEMPORARY ONLY. I still have mine on because my lids were too big, but I have a large waterfall, so my humidity stays stable.

You could get a waterfall if you wanted, but you would want a 40-gallon or larger for something like that. My waterfall is quite large and takes up its own corner, and it cost me $60.

So, yes, keep in mind that a towel is a temporary deal.

[Pantamallion]

I've been looking everywhere for a waterfall and tehre is absoloutly NO WHERE that I can find one. I checked teh reptile sections, ect. So I've decided to build one myself... well maybe not a waterfall, but a wading pool. I'm going to take a shallow cat bowl and shape it into the sand and then add some rocks if I do get smaller hermies, and that's it :p

[CF Tristan]

I wonder if anyone ever suddenly looks at the list of things to buy and to do and says 'uh...never mind. I'll get sea monkeys.'

[PPHermit crab]

I think a lot of people probably do just that. Alot of people think Hermit crabs are easy throw away pets. Granted after the first set up they're not that hard to care for..but you can't slack on it.
I'm using the towel method now to keep the humidity. The towel serves two purposes. I give it a good spray in the morning then when I come home from school. The humidity stays between 70% and 80% which is fine for the hermys..but means I need to remember not to leave food in there for too long or it will mould. The towel is a nice black beach towel so it covers the tank entirely. It keeps the crabitat dark and I can cover the tank to keep it warm or keep them from panicking when I'm in the room. FOr the first few weeks the crabs were very jumppy around me. I keep them in my room and it I'd so much as sneeze they would dart into the shell. I cover them durning the evening so me turning on and off the light doest freak them out. I've noticed since changing towels from a light blue one to black the crabs have been more active. I think the dark covering of the crabitat tricks their bodies into thinking it's perminant night.

[Daethian]

Crabs need cycles of daylight though... so make sure they are getting some sunlight.

[Pantamallion]

Urm..... Well I found a waterfall yay! But see lil wurm said that you need to have at least a 40 gallon... and I'm only going to get a 15 gallon or so... But I do have to say, the waterfall is quite small, but it will be big enough to keep the humidity in the large tank...