Neta and Margs story 2008

I'd kept Marine fish for over 15 years and had always loved watching the Marine Hermit crabs changing shells etc. so when i saw Land Hermit Crabs in our local well know pet store i wanted them, so neta and I went away and began to read up on them, how to keep them and what was needed, the more we read the more intrigued we became.
So we decided to buy 10 Hermits, we had the Crabitat set up ready and popped them in and sat back and watched, we saw very little, they all went into hiding, or buried themselves, looking back now they were all suffering from post pet shop stress, anyways we decided to add more Hermits so bought another 10, making 20, and again all was quiet in the Crabitat.

Over a matter of a few weeks, we would see more and more activity, but we did find having them facing the TV and near a lamp just meant everytime the TV picture changed, or we walked in front of the lamp, all the Hermits would hide or drop from whatever they were climbing on, in the end we decided to move them to the bedroom, wow!! did they like that, they liked the quiet and lack of movement around the room, now every night was party time, seeing anything up to 10 Hermits at any one time. We now hold crab watch nights and stay awake watching them, and oh yes they can be quite noisy at times, what with them falling, hitting the glass, knocking things over, and yes we have heard them chirp when all is quiet.

On reading up on these little guys, we soon realised they needed salt water too, something the pet shop didn't tell us, after all they didn't have salt water in with them, boy how pleased they were the day we added salt water, I think they all took a bath that day.

Imagine our disbelief when we went into the pet store and found they no longer sold Hermit crabs, but worse then that they no longer sold anything for them, food, sand, shells, nothing, how on earth were we going to feed them? well we started by ordering off what on line UK sites we could find, we also orded form the USA, as their sites have a huge amount of Land Hermit Crab stock.

Our worry was that this pet store had started a trend with selling these special little critters, and then took away the means to keep them alive, so along with our fellow Land Hermit Crab owner Dee, we decided to set up this web site, to help other UK owners, who bought from the same Pet store, and to help them to look after their Hermits without worry and stress, or even to help them rehome them if they feel they can't take care of them anymore.

We have recently acquired 8 more Land Hermit Crabs from the same well know pet store but in another county, they had no food for them, and the humidity was way too low, so we struck a deal and took them off their hands. They are in an isolation tank and all are suffering from post pet shop stress as well as dehydration, but we are hopeful most will recover.

If you would like more information on looking after your Land Hermit, or feel you should rehome yours, then please visit our forum and we'll do our best to help you, you are not alone anymore.

Regards Anita and Marg, (written by Marg)
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