Hermit Crab tank

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DustinKeating

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Jan 9, 2005
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Does anyone know if it's possible to support some hermits that you've got from the ocean?

I live very near the ocean (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and there's plenty of hermits all over the place, and they live in shallow tide pools that in the summer are generally very warm. So room temperature or so should be alright. I've been thinking about converting this cruddy little 20 gallon into just a local SW tank, just hermits and stuff. I assume it would be very low maintenance....anyone tried this, anyone done it?

Also, what kind of salinity would they need....can i just measure this from the place i found them? (seems kind of innacurate, but who knows)

Secondly, if this is succesful..think i could add them to my saltwater tank/

(10 gallon, 2 oscellaris clowns, one hermit)
 

seastaar88

seastaar88

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Feb 1, 2004
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i dont know about adding tehm to your established system....
but i say, GO AHEAD and experiement! i've said it before and i'll say it again, i'm a huge fan of collecting your own stuff. it does take trial and error. i think a 20g shallow tide pool tank would be AWESOME. in fact, i've OFTEN thought about doing that myself (i live a mile from long island sound) and think that this will be my year. so keep us posted -- i'd love to hear how things work out for you and if you have any tips ;)
 

S.Reef

S.Reef

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Dec 1, 2003
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I wouldnt trust the hermits in a system with fish. You could successfully keep a tank with just the hermits. They are probably very hardy and will live a while.
 

Lotus

Lotus

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Aug 26, 2003
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When I was a kid, my family used to set up a SW tank with critters collected from the sea (NY coast). It seemed to work fairly well, although I don't know anything about the technical bits of how we ran the tank. I do remember that we would do water changes with water from the area we had collected the critters. I remember starfish, hermit crabs, scallops and small silver fish (the same ones we used for bait). Of course, if you're close enough to the ocean you can be constantly swapping out fish/inverts when you find something new.

I'm not sure that if I ran a SW tank now that I would mix native with tropical fish.
 

CAPSLOCK

CAPSLOCK

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Jul 19, 2004
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I say go ahead and experiment... the livestock will be free and probably healthy. You should be able to get pre-cycled live rock directly from the ocean or tide pools, too. And live sand.

You probably don't want to measure tide pool salinity as a basis for your tank though. As the water evaporates throughout the day, the salinity in the tide pools rises quite a bit. You'd get different salinities every time you measured. I think nearby ocean water would give you a better idea what they need.
 

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DustinKeating

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Jan 9, 2005
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yeah that's all really good input from everyone thanks a lot, i think this will be a lot of fun. And relatively cheap. All i'll need to buy is a new powerhead and filter.

Does anyone have any ideas what i should feed them?

and do you think it would be alright to keep a big jug of ocean water for a long period of time, so i dont have to drive to the beach every week?
 

1979camaro

1979camaro

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Oct 22, 2002
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you bet it is...it would take a couple people or a dolly to move, but ive seen people buy water at the LFS in those...of course if you wanted to be wussy (;)) you could get a few 5 gallon bottles and do it that way
 

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DustinKeating

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Jan 9, 2005
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That's a really good idea, and to be honest i'm not so stressed over losing some hermits either.

I actually have a cottage in pugwash, which i'm sure no one really knows but the point is. It's a big fishing spot, so there's tons of little fish, lobsters, TONS of starfish and all that kind of thing, so it should be pretty diverse.
 

SALTY WATERS

SALTY WATERS

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Feb 6, 2005
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#18
and do you think it would be alright to keep a big jug of ocean water for a long peri

Unless you are planning on keeping this water at consistant Temperatures and having some circulation, I would think you will have alot of "die off" of the natural organisms that are living in this water and by the time you actually add it to the tank it may not be of good quality. just a though!
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

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Jun 3, 2003
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1979camaro said:
you bet it is...it would take a couple people or a dolly to move, but ive seen people buy water at the LFS in those...of course if you wanted to be wussy (;)) you could get a few 5 gallon bottles and do it that way
Click to expand...
hey hey--i do it the "3 gallon jug" way (yeah, call me a wuss, but i only need two or three of those for a water change every two weeks) :)
 

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