As an owner of 9 of these guys, I've had to give several people the cold, hard truth about owning hermit crabs. Made a lot of people change their minds. Hermit crabs are not a beginner species, requiring very specific care. Glad to say mine overcame the beginning challenges and are doing amazing!

I have a poor hermit crab impulse buy story! I worked at a pet store chain in my early 20’s. At the time I did own hermit crabs, had several tanks of them and really enjoyed them. One day, a parent came in to the pet store with her kid to relinquish their hermit crabs because “they didn’t have time to care for them”. So they signed the paperwork that they were no longer wanting their hermit crabs and they were available for adoption. Right after they did this, the mother and her son turned around and bought a hamster!!! That same day!!! I wanted to say if they were too busy to care for the hermit crabs, what made them think they would have time for a hamster!?! I had no ability to say this because of the contract with said chain store. It wasn’t that they didn’t have time, it was the kid got bored of the hermit crabs and wanted something else! It is such a horrible mentality! I felt bad for the “new hamster” because I knew they didn’t do any research into the proper care and I knew the kid would also become bored of that eventually!

Edit: soak their new shells in the marine salt water and they'll move right in. Also, there a a lot of great Hermit crab shops on Etsy where you can get dehydrated organic unprocessed food they'll love!

Awe! I have 3 hermit crabs that I adopted from the Land Hermit Crab Society. They can live 40 years and sadly usually die in a year or so. Don't get me started on the painted shells!
They'll use every inch of that 40 gal! Mine love their hamster wheel and are on it all the time.

I feel this deeply as someone who's been keeping aquariums for years, with a special soft spot for bettas.  There are too many people who get pets without any research or consideration for their needs. When you bring home a creature who has no choice but to live in whatever box you put them in, it's your responsibility to create a world that fits their needs.

It's a learning process for sure, and we all make impulsive decisions and husbandry mistakes at some point.  But there is so much information about keeping all sorts of critters that there's no real excuse for neglecting an animal's needs.

i felt the same way when i bought my first fiddler crabs!, they told me, NO water, like at all, but fiddler crabs live half their lives in water, i have autism though so in about 2 weeks i knew every single thing possible about them, that you could read in a library anyways (90's was rough, had to read books and stuff) by the time i was done i had built my fiddler crabs the most awesome place ever, it had a water fall, it had a big beach area with little plants i grew outside the tank and planted in there when they ate or bulldozed them, basically every single invertebrate people buy almost all of them do it wrong, glow in the dark sand, with black lights on 24/7 for scorpions is a thing i see all the time, looks cool but nobody thinks about how the animals feel blasted by UV radiation 24/7,   thanks you for helping people take better care of their little hermit crabs, it's been a long time, i'm in my 40's now, maybe i'll do this as well and build some hermit crabs a awesome place to live.

I work as a Park Ranger in Florida at a Conservation park and unfortunately that entails finding a lot of abandoned pets at my park. About three years ago a coworker of mine found a decent sized hermit crab wandering around the park near the water (freshwater reservoir) He was set up in a old 10 gallon aquarium by himself with cypress mulch, two water bowls with sponges and a clam shell for a food dish and that's it. I kept feeling bad for him and bringing in more and more of my personal extra supplies (heat meat, oyster shell, isopods etc) until I finally just sat down, did some actual research and decided to build him a new enclosure. I'm still in the process of building it as I'm going fully bioactive, but I'm so excited about it! I never knew how poorly these guys were treated by the pet trade and they all deserve so much better. I hope to make a difference in at least one crabs life and am even thinking about adopting my own crabs in the future :) (Adopt, don't shop!)💜

Before I got a hermit crab, I did super research. 10 gallon tank, sand, eco earth, a proper area for a salt water soak, area for just fresh water, the proper food with the fresh fruit (he LOVED apples), climbing things plus hides, calcium blocks, heat mat because, Indiana,it was expensive. But they are fascinating animals if you know how to take care of them. Sebastian lived 10 years and my niece adored him and he was taken out daily to just crawl around.

I can´t understand how peoplejust randomly decide to get a pet as if nothing and as soon as it gives them the first issue they just throw them away.

The least you HAVE TO DO is finding them a new home where they´d be taken care of. Animals aren´t things.

I was thinking about getting hermit crabs, but I hadn't done all the research yet. Now I know that the enclosure I was gifted would be too small for them. I'm glad I watched this video!

I had a redemption arc as an adult hamster owner.  Massive tank, pinterest boards of ideas, made enrichment toys for feeding.  It cost me much more than the £10 hamster, but each one I had was so happy and lived long healthy lives.  Even now with no current hamster, i still like looking at what people do.  It seems more people are realising that they are not just temporary cheap pets, there is an explosion of amazing homes for these amazing little creatures.  Education is so important and I hope people see your video and follow your example x

my grandmother impulsively bought me a hermit crabs because I mentioned that I would like to have some WHEN I WAS 11. I AM 17 and have NOT thought about it in a long time! I am absolutely not prepared to have them, but my mother thinks i am ungrateful because she got them for me. I am watching a lot of videos and learning how to take care of them properly, because I do not want them to be neglected. I’ve already learned quite a bit!

TARANTULA KRAB!

I'm astonished to learn that my childhood experience with hermit crabs in the 90's was apparently really wholesome. The only hermit crabs I ever saw outside of a pet store were in our elementary school library, where two of them lived in a big tank with a lamp, sand, shells, climbing surfaces, basically everything in the ideal set-up. In hindsight, our librarian was apparently just an awesome lady who really liked those crabs and probably knew all about them. She was great for lots of reasons, but I hadn't given her proper credit for how cool this was.

Agreed! A long time ago I was sucked into hermit crabs as pets not realising that pet shops have zero idea how really to take care of them. This was pre-google and it was only when education started to come out from the Land Hermit crabs centre that I learned about the nature of the wild collection pet trade, their life cycle, natural life span and how inadequate pet shop set ups were.

My sister took her kids to a beach in Alabama and bought one of those hermit crabs from a souvenir shop. My sister isn't big on pets, but she got it because they told her that it could live for about 30 days with good care. After she did her own research, she found out that they live a lot longer with proper care.

We ended up getting a large tank, substrate, heaters, etc. We also bought two more because we're told they are social. It has now been about 6 months and they are thriving, living their best life.

Also, my traumatic story about getting pinched by a hermit crab happened about 2 weeks ago lol literally right in the middle of my palm. I still feel phantom pains when I think about it. But I still handle them 😅

OMG my favorite youtuber getting hermit crabs? Yay! I've had hermit crabs for about 6 years now! I have 7 hermies in a 125 gallon tank.
I would recommend sealing to top of the tank with something like saran wrap to hold in the humidity. Your substrate mix is perf! It should be 'sandcastle' consistency so they are able to burrow and not have the sand cave in on them. I would also recommend to have both the salt and fresh water pools deeper so they can submerge in either!
I'm so glad that you are showing proper husbandry of this animal because it's so sad to see how neglected they are and all of the misinformation out there about what they need.
Hermit crabs are definitely not an "easy" pet, so thank you so much for using your platform to show others about the proper care that they need and deserve! <3
haha I watched this vid while feeding my tarantulas and centipede!
Keep it up, I love your vids so much! <3

People like to impulse buy hamsters as well or get them for their kids because their "cheap" and "low maintenance pets". I own 3 and they are not cheap or low maintenance. People need to understand that small animals matter just as much as big animals do.

I was so surprised you got hermit crabs! I've had crabbies for about a year now and I've watched so many videos and joined the groups and have learned so much! One thing I would say is that the substrate needs to be sand castle consistency. I would add primed water and keep mixing it until you can clump it in your hand. That way their tunnels don't collapse. A hygrometer would be great too so you can make sure the temperature and humidity stay between 75-85. Enjoy your new babies and their crabitat, can't wait to see more content about them! ❤

As someone who works at a pet store I wish hermit crabs would just stop being sold now this is just my opinion and my own thoughts on them. Since they're wild caught they don't survive in captivity very well, people don't realize how much care they actually need. But I will say good set up, I would just add a couple of more things that will help to hold humidity, maybe deeper soaking bowls and more climbing and hiding spots. Just make sure to mist occasionally throughout the day, if they dry out they can potentially die. Also they are notorious for just changing their shells constantly so have lots of different shells in many different sizes, I normally suggest like at least 3-4 if not more per crab

Love the tank, thanks for the info I didn't realize how much care they do need. Pet stores should be ashamed for not informing people on how to care for them.