Keeping Pet Land Hermit Crabs
Hermit Crabs Hermit crabs have long thin bodies that are poorly armoured (except in the case of the Coconut Crab). the discarded shell is occupied by a slightly smaller crab, vacating another shell, and so on until many crabs have been re-housed. Both fresh water and sea water need to be available for drinking and bathing, but since land hermit crabs can drown there needs to be some way for them to crawl out of the water. In many species hermit crabs live in groups of different sized animals, and when one finds and moves into a new shell a chain reaction is set off &ndash. Most live in the sea, but a few species live on land in the tropics. As the crab grows it needs to find a new, larger, empty snail shell to move into. Caribbean and Pacific hermit crabs need to be kept warm (70-85° F or 23-30°C) and they require a humid atmosphere (75-85%). As the pet crabs grow they will need larger shells to move into. In order to protect themselves from predators hermit crabs hide in empty snail shells which they carry around. A couple of these land hermit crabs are commonly kept as pets in the USA. Land hermit crabs will eat just about anything, so feeding is not a problem.