The Hermit Crab Crabitat

So you decided you want a pet and you’ve narrowed it down to a hermit crab. Now its time to give your precious little crustaceans the perfect home.  The best houses for hermit crabs are more fish tanks than houses.  New ones, if you can afford them, are great, but an old, leaking ten gallon tank will do wonderfully.

The essential components of a hermit crab home include something for the crabs to bury themselves in, a water supply, and a food supply.  Play sand is recommended because it is easy for the crabs dig in and it can be baked to insure sterility.  A water supply can be anything that holds water, however, sponges are the most widely used.  Ponds or pools can be added to the tank but need to be kept shallow, hermit crabs cannot breathe underwater and will drown if submerged. 

Food is also a very simple thing to take care of, many commercial foods are available and any will do the job, however, it is best to keep feeding the crabs the same food.  Switching between two may cause the crabs to shy away from the new food.  An egg shell should also be added to the habitat to give the crabs a source of calcium, which is essential for their exoskeletons.  The environment should also include some vegetation, real or fake, to provide an enclosure for your crabs and help keep the humidity up.  It is important to keep the crabs environment humid because they breathe though a modified form of gill and if their gills dry out, the hermit crab may suffocate.  The best ways to obtain the necessary humidity is to keep a pond and keep any sponges wet.  It is also important to uses a dechlorinator in the water because chlorine can be harmful to the crabs.

It is an easy thing to setup a hermit crab habitat, or a crabitat, and to keep your little crabbies happy.  Just keep them sheltered, wet, and feed.