Just Got A Hermit Crab – How Do You Make Salt Water?

A few things I’ve read…

Apparently mine is a “land hermit crab” from the Caribbean. He is also a “tree crab” (gotta get some driftwood for him). He looks just like the color photo on my booklet.

The booklet says that these guys are Nocturnal Scavengers. And recommends that they eat from 5 different categories:

• raw meats (shrimp, fish, beef)
• raw fruits (apples, pears, grapes, oranges, bananas)
• raw leaf vegetables (romaine lettuce, bean sprouts, celery leaves)
• cooked vegetables (lima beans?!? spinach, peas, carrots – really??)
• and other crap like peanut butter, dry pet food, crackers
• the very last thing on the page is “Crab Food”. Wtf?
• Update – Clark is hovering over the fresh stuff I put in his bowl (grape, banana, lettuce) – no idea if he’s consuming it yet

I’m going to put some tiny bits of stuff in the crabitat and see if he goes for it. There’s no way a wild hermit crab eats dry food from the pet store. They must eat dead fish, seaweed, etc.

SALT WATER

Apparently they need salt water…

How do you make salt water for a hermit crab?

This guy made a really nice video: (watch it dammit – he went to all the trouble to tell us how to do this – help his count on youtube!)

But I wanted to make a small batch (I only have 1 crab). His recipe:

• 1.23 oz. Coarse Salt
• 34 oz. of Fresh Water

I don’t have anything that will measure 1.23 ounces of salt – much less 1/2 or 1/4 of that. But I do have teaspoons, 1/4 teaspoons, cup measures, 1/4 cup measures, etc.!

So here’s the breakdown:

HERMIT CRAB SALT WATER FULL BATCH using teaspoons and cups:

• 1.23 oz. of Coarse Salt = 6.13 teaspoons of Coarse Salt
• 34 oz. of Fresh Water = 4 1/4 cups of Fresh Water

HERMIT CRAB SALT WATER 1/2 BATCH using teaspoons and cups:

• 3.07 teaspoons of Coarse Salt
• 2 1/8 cups of Fresh Water

HERMIT CRAB SALT WATER 1/4 BATCH using teaspoons and cups:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons of Coarse Salt
• 1 1/16 cups of Fresh Water

Always level the top of your measurement. Like: make sure the salt is flat on top when you measure out the teaspoons.

NOTES:

If you have city water then filter it! What if it has chlorine or fluoride? Not like the ocean is pristine or anything, but just in case!

And don’t use iodized salt! The guy in the video said to use coarse salt.

Important: if you don’t have any iodized salt for YOURSELF expect to have health problems. They put Iodide in salt for a REASON! Look it up. Stop using Sea Salt for everything.

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF I’VE LEARNED:

Bake your sand!

It’s easy.

Take your crabs out and put them in something tall that the cat can’t get to. Lock this tall thing in the bathroom. Put a sign on the door: NO CATS!!!

My sand was wet – so I put it in a big bowl and rinsed it (swish around with a clean hand – let it settle, then pour off the extra water).

Take this opportunity to wash your terrarium and everything in it – swish salt water in it. Thoroughly dry.

Then put tin foil on a baking sheet, sieve your sand through a colander to remove some of the poop, bake at 425 (paper burns at 415… so I’m guessing that stuff dies at higher temperatures).

Some sites said to add salt to kill off germs. I’ll do that next time. No idea how much you should add.

Let it cool down to room temperature.

Pour back in to your crabitat (dust will fly up if you pour too fast!).

Then I poured filtered water on top until there was a little beach and ocean for my little guy.

Apparently these guys loooove moisture. He immediately started climbing over everything in the crabitat (before he was just hiding under a leaf).

I read that they have gills – but are fine breathing air… but not completely dry air forever. If they’re too dry apparently they’ll die.

IMPORTANT: If they are molting they’ll appear dead – don’t remove a “dead” looking crab for several days – there might be a soft pink guy waiting to harden behind the limp shell.

Now I’m going to add some Salt Water.

And a separate dish of Fresh Water.

I figured out how to observe him without having him jump back into his shell all the time: I just put his crabitat on my desk. He got used to me within minutes. To be fair; I’m pretty motionless – just typing and staring, occasionally moving the mouse. Oh dear. That sounds bleak. I gotta get out more lol.

Happy crabbing!

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