Hermit Crabs - Tumblr Posts

Crabs!

Just had the best morning ever. One of my hermit crabs came up from his molt yesterday. I checked the food dish this morning and it’s been disturbed, meaning he’s eaten for the first time in two months. Went out to the kitchen to fix him some fresh fruit and vegies, and there were Jehovah witnesses at the damn door.  I did it guys. I told them to go away cause I was treating my crabs. 

Dodgy looking hermit crabs. 

me on tumblr: hey guys do you want to hear about hermit crabs

me in real life, no concept of social norms: hey guys do you want to hear about hermit crabs

terrestrial hermit crabs do not have lungs, only having modified gills, and can't breathe without water. their shells, along with offering them shelter and protection from predators, are very important for providing them with the water that their body needs to stay moist! taking a dip ever so often allows them to refill their shell with this moisture.

...also, did you know that many hermit crabs have evolved extraordinarily large penises in order to avoid leaving their shells to reproduce? depending on the species, this could give them a penis-to-body ratio of up to 60%! :)

me on tumblr: hey guys do you want to hear about hermit crabs

me in real life, no concept of social norms: hey guys do you want to hear about hermit crabs

calling all crab likers!!

I would like to implore you to use the highly neglected tag "#crabposting" for all your crustaceous needs (particularly hermit crabs). though I am only one man, I believe we can make it happen. we can bring more crabs to tumblr

in the meanwhile, would anyone like to see some pictures of my hermit crabs? this is fish :)

being a hermit crab owner will have you saying shit like this

I actually have a hermit crab named fish!

here she is!

Mom said it's my turn on the hyperspecific poll

>I had hives during my middle school graduation

>I have a pet named after a character from Shadow of the Colossus

>I have a pet whose name is another animal (like a cat named Fish)

>A random stranger pretend to try to kidnap me when I was young to teach me a lesson (they didn't know my parents)

>I dislike wasps but make an exception for dirt daubers

>I had two separate pet parakeets who were eaten by cats

>There's a tree in my yard that's actually two totally different species that grew/fused into one tree

>I got my chosen name from the first dating sim I ever played

>multiple of these apply to me

>none of these apply to me

A post I can't get over it.

Why I am Against Purchasing Hermit Crabs

Hey friends you probably know me from my betta fish post, but guess what? I’m back to share the hard truths about the hermit crab industry!

1. Hermit crabs don’t readily breed in captivity so they are all wild caught

Yes those hermit crabs you see crammed into small wire cages on the boardwalks, or you see in small tanks at the pet store, were once completely free until they were stolen from their proper home to be sold as “cheap” pets.  You tell me what is better: a tiny plastic tank or an entire beach?

2. They are forced into painted shells to sell more easily

Hermit crabs would rather lose a limb than be pulled out of their shell, so how do sellers get them into those pretty painted shells?  They crack the shell, drill holes in them, freeze the crabs to near death (sometimes actual death) to slow their reflexes, and that’s only naming a few methods.  They are then either stuffed into, or left with the painted shells as their only option.  Not only that, but painted shells are extremely dangerous to the crabs as they will chip and either irritate the crabs body within the shell, or be eaten by the crab and you’d better believe that stuff is toxic! Here’s a good list on other reasons why painted shells are bad.

3. They are kept in awful conditions prior to and often after they are sold

They are placed in an overcrowded box without enough resources to share.  Not only that, but hermit crabs need a lot of humidity, and this enclosure holds none.  When you purchase a hermit crab from this type of place you absolutely are not rescuing it.  You are giving that establishment more money to do this to more crabs.  Buying these guys is supporting a cruel industry.  After they are sold you are often given something along the lines of this 

which, again, is too small and does not hold enough humidity.  The minimum tank size for a hermit crab should be 10 gallons.  They also need a few inches of substrate for molting.  They are also often kept alone which is a big no no! Hermit crabs are extremely social and should always be in groups.  In these conditions they often live a few months while in the wild these guys have a lifespan of up to 30 years!

I already own hermit crabs!!

That’s okay!  This post is not an attack on you! Here are some care sheets on how to properly care for a hermit crab so it could potentially live a full life x x x and please never release your crabs into the wild, that goes for any pet.

But I REALLY want a hermit crab!

If you are planning on keeping it properly cool, you can still do that! The unfortunate, yet convenient, thing about animals is that people often decide they don’t want their pets anymore.  Adopting a previously owned pet is always more ideal than buying (especially in this case).  You can often find them online, I personally use craigslist.  This is what real rescuing looks like!

Here’s a video and an article that covers this whole post very well.  (I normally do not support PETA for reasons I won’t mention here but I found these to be pretty good resources).

So please keep this in mind the next time you see hermit crabs for sale!

a hermit crab pokemon that uses the ball you catch it in as its shell with varying def/spdef and secondary typing based on what ball it is

In ocean city atm and I saw these. They’re hermit crabs but I’m not so sure them being in the cage with painted shells isn’t so good. I hope that a expert would take a look at these guys and tell me if this is ok.

They have arrived! They are named Kraken:)

I cannot stress enough that hermit crabs make terrible pets! They are not good pets for the average person and definitely much harder to care for than what is advertised.

Kraken is in a quarantine enclosure and then will move into a 20 gallon tank with my other hermit crab, Nessie. The only reason I even adopted Kraken is because my other crab was lonely since his friends had issues molting and died (molting is very dangerous and a lot of the time hermits just don't have the energy to properly molt because of the abusive hermit crab industries neglect).

I am following YouTube tutorials of what to do when bringing home a new crab to try to give this guy the best chance possible. I probably will continue to not post my crabs often (I don't think I've ever posted about Nessie before) but did want to introduce this guy.

Hopefully he pulls through!

Still don't have the animal I said I was bringing home a few days ago but I will get them soon!!

Here's an updated quarantine tank. If you know what animal it is you will also know this is not a suitable tank long term and they will be in here for like a month. There's a high death rate when bringing this type of animal and a quarantine enclosure like this is one of the best ways to ensure they survive.

I will reveal what they are when I bring them home but I think it's pretty obvious

Feel free to keep guessing though, I'd love to see what people think it is

(If you know what they are, I don't think they are good pets for most people but I've had one for like a year and his friend died in a molt a few months ago and I've been searching for another one ever since because they are social animals.)