One of the most popular searches that brings people to Naturally Crabby is a variation on "how do I take care of my crab that I brought home from the beach." Now there are two possibilities here. 1. Someone purchased a hermit crab at a boardwalk tourist trap and is looking for basic care information (believe it or not this is the better option of the two). or 2. Someone picked a hermit crab up off of the beach and took it home.

I can completely understand how tempting it might be to take that little fellow who you've been interacting with all afternoon home to live with you. He is cute, quirky, and very very active. There are a couple of major problems though. The first problem is that harvesting hermit crabs (even one) is illegal. You must have a special permit to harvest them. This allows the USDA to keep track of their numbers so that the ecosystem does not become unbalanced. You might say that one crab doesn't make a difference, but imagine 1000 more people thinking the same way that you do. Put that crab back!

The other reason that bringing home that beach crab is a problem is because the odds are overwhelmingly against that crab being a Land Hermit Crab. In North America, Land Hermit Crabs are confined to a very few specific locations. So what are you finding out walking about on the beach during your vacation? Why Marine Hermit Crabs of course! They are notorious for scurrying around in the tide pools looking for food.

Below is a picture of a marine hermit crab, look at the differences between this one and the land hermit crab at the top of the page. The eyes are a big give away, as are the lack of a big pincher!

Here's why bringing home marine hermit crabs is a huge problem. Marine Hermit Crabs MUST live completely underwater in a fully cycled salter water aquarium complete with live rock. They will absolutely die if they do not have this setup. What's worse is that they will die a slow suffocating death as their gills will allow them to live for several days but they just aren't efficient enough at processing air to work much longer than a few days.

So let's say, hypothetically, that you already brought one home. What do you do? First choice is to take it back to the beach ASAP. And by beach I mean the ocean beach where you found it, a body of fresh water won't work. If you are too far from the beach you only have a few other options. You must work fast, because time is running out.

First determine whether or not you are willing to fork over the money required to set up a salt water system for these little guys. If not move on to step two.

Step two, get on the phone, start calling mom and pop, locally owned pet stores that have salt water fish tanks. Explain that you accidentally brought a marine hermit crab home from the beach and have nowhere for it to go. Large pet chains rarely will agree to take them because technically it is illegal, although you can try. The smaller stores are more likely to take pity on the poor thing.

If everyone says no, start calling schools and universities and ask if they have a biology department, talk to anyone that might know if they keep tanks and what kind. You must not wait to do this. You can prolong his life a little by offering dechlorinated salt water with a bubbler in it. But it is not a permanent solution.

In the end, the best thing you can do is just to leave the hermit crab on the beach where you found him. Take some good pictures to remember your trip and if you really want a new hermit crab, adopt one when you get home.

Speaking of Jumbos, I went down to St. Louis to visit Daethian from All Things Crabby and we had a great time. We ended up going to Petco and checking out their hermit crabs. They had a strange mix of Jumbos, large crabs in painted shells, and small crabs in natural shells. I got a couple of jumbos including Lewis.

He's been injured and is missing his left armor leg as well as having a huge chunk nicked out of his walking leg. He still uses it pretty well though. As you can see he is also coming up on pre-molt pretty desperately by his cloudy eyes.

I thought it was funny that I picked up a jumbo (who is now easily the largest crab in my tank) right after I wrote the article on Jumbo crabs. Ah well, I maybe change the pictures in the article eventually.

Lewis has gone off to hide as I expected. I'll just try not to hold my breath as I wait for him to come out. He sat in the water dish for several minutes without moving. It was like he was in a trance. I snapped this picture before he seemed to come around and wander off. I could just imagine him thinking . . . ahhhh, pooooool.

A lot of people are a little leary of adding a Jumbo Hermit Crab to their tank. For some, it's just because their current crabitat is too small, for others, it's the fear of those great big pinchers. Truly a jumbo hermit crab has the capability of doing some serious damage, however, in the time I've spent crabbing I've never met a jumbo hermit crab that was aggressive to either other crabs or people.

There are somethings you should keep in mind before getting a jumbo though. As with any pet, different sizes of animal have different requirements.

For a jumbo hermit crab the first thing is size of environment. A jumbo should really have around 20 gallons all to themselves. They really need to have space to move around, climb, and tunnel. Hermit crabs are built to travel across beaches and therefore, exercise becomes very important.

Hiding areas. The majority of commmercial hiding items are not large enough to house a jumbo crabs. It is your responsibility to find something that the crab will feel comfortable in. This means either buying something larger or making it. a custom built cocohut is a great place to start.

But probably the most expensive need with Jumbos is shells. For a crab that is going to need turbos with a 1 1/2 to 2 inch opening, shells can quickly become a major investment. They also take up a lot of room in your tank. Though jumbos change shells and molt less often, it is still important to have a good variety of jumbo shells.

All of this being said, Jumbo Hermit Crabs are really very special and a personal favorite of mine. They are rarely shy and often seem interested in what you are doing, especially if it involves the food dish. If you choose to get a jumbo take the time to make sure you've got everything ready to add this new big guy to your tank.

I'm collecting data on the average hermit crabber. I hope to do this every two years to better understand how trends in crabbing are changing and evolving. Please if you have a minute, come and fill out this survey, it takes less than 5 minutes and does not require registration. I will be posting the results and making all the finding public for anyone to use.

This will be cross posted on several sites so I am asking that you only take it once. It will run until October 15th.

If you have a website or hermit crab blog feel free to post that link there as well. I will be coming back here to post the results in a month.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/67300/hermit-crab

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t is always kind of magical when you see a crab change shells for the first time. Magical and gross. Heavy on the gross. One thing that most people don't realize is just how much hermit crab there is inside their shells. The abdomen of a hermit crabs wraps all the way around and follows the shell as it spirals. Click below to watch a very clear video of a hermit crab changing shells.

Notice how at the beginning of the video this little Ecuadorian hermit crab has both pinches deep in the opening of the shell. This is a pretty classic posture for crab who is shell shopping. They can only get a rough idea of how close it is to the right size by inserting their big pincher.

Also pay attention to just how moist his abdomen is as he changes from one shell to the other. This is because of the shell water that is kept inside his shell. The water is a specific mix of fresh water and salt water and the easiest way for him to get that water into his shell is for him to have access to pool deep enough to let the water in. If you look closely you can see his 4th and 5th pair of legs. They are called "shell legs" and are very small, they help with cleaning and anchoring mostly and cannot be walked on.

Always offer your crabs a variety of hermit crab shells. I'll be talking more about shells and sizing in an upcoming article. Enjoy the video, it is not mine but a really nice one recently uploaded to youtube.