Definition:

Little Billy has had 3 hermit crabs since his 12 birthday. He has a 20 gallon tank housing his 3 small PP crabs. One day when he is at the store picking up some ocean salt water for his crabs, he spots a tank containing 2 poor little Ruggies that have no water except for a damp sponge, huge pellets of food that he doubts they have even attempted to eat, and no ground cover to protect them from the 100 watt heat lamp that is shining directly on them from an open tank top. Billy has been a very conscientious crab owner. He explored on-line information on how to care for hermit crabs and has all the bells and whistles to keep his crab people happy. He has proudly seen his crabs molt, grow and prosper for the past year. Billy knows that the little Ruggies will not last long in the current conditions they are in. He consults a clerk, advises her of the poor crabitat conditions, and notes that there will likely be no changes made based on his advice. Billy's mom is a sweetheart and lets Billy rescue these poor crabs from their sorry condition. Billy finds out from the cashier that those are the last ones from their shipment last month, and now they can order more. (God forbid). Billy provides his new crabs with a dip into his tanks water dish, and then they scurry to hide in the handy cave he has for his crabs. Well, a week later, and Billy has still not seen his new crabs. He doesn't think they have even been to the food dish. He isn't too concerned since they are likely de-stressing in the wonderful conditions in his tank. Well a couple of more weeks pass. Billy thinks he seen one of his new guys in the water dish, now there is signs of digging, this crab must be molting. Well another couple of weeks lapse, and it is now high time to do a deep clean. Billy carefully digs around to see if he can locate where his crabs may be down molting so he proceeds cautiously. Billy takes out some of his plants and shells for rinsing, he has found the top of one of his new crab's shells, he checks to see how the little guy is faring and discovers that it has died. Billy is heart broken. Finally the entire tank is unearthed and Billy discovers that neither one of his new little ruggies made it!! That darn PPS, it is just not fair!

Hermit Crab Paradise has joined the esteemed ranks of The Crab Street Journal's Sister Sites to become the 9th (active) member of the Crustacean Care Coalition. Hermit Crab Paradiseis committed to providing current, accurate care information and abiding by the Code of Ethics of the program.

Hello everyone, my name is Wai and I am from Australia. The very first time I saw land hermit crabs was on the day a primary school friend brought in his single hermit crab to run around the classroom floor. Roughly two years after that encounter, I adopted Toejam and Earl on 18 May 2003. As a result of deeming the care advice from any pet store as quality, I learnt things the hard way; a process which involved the death of many hermit crabs up till now. It was not until Toejams death in the critter keeper with wood shavings 11 months later that I realised something was probably wrong. I proceeded to do some reading on a certain hermit crab website and created Hermit Crab Paradise on 18 April 2004 to publish what I had learnt. I adopted nine more hermit crabs over time, but they all died by July 2005. My parents forbid me from adopting any more until I finished high school, so I used the time to focus on researching online. To my surprise, I realised how many mistakes I had made in the past and that the money spent on adopting more hermit crabs should have been used to buy better supplies. On 16 November 2008, I commenced crabbing again with greater success. With the help of many other experienced crabbers, everything on Hermit Crab Paradise was rewritten to reflect todays quality land hermit crab keeping techniques.

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Zoea 1

Little shrimp-like baby 36 hrs life (Please view full size) [Singapore]

Posted: 12-Oct-2003  - Resolution: 400 x 300