Introducing coenobita variablis, Crazy Crabs! Better known to us as hermit crabs, these wonderful creatures come in all sorts of colours from white and cream to orange and deep reds, and they make for an inexpensive, easy to look after pet.
There are 15 known species of terrestrial shell carrying land hermit crabs, and are native to the northern parts of Australia. They live near the salt water and generally only move about 500m inland. Fully grown they are 6-7cm across or about as big as a tennis ball, and can live for up to 20 years.
Far less demanding than a cat or dog, they can be a very good educational tool for teaching responsibility to an older child. Crazy Crabs are easy to look after, but have some specific requirements to keep them happy and healthy.
Here are my 10 top tips for keeping Crazy Crabs:
1. Create a 'crabarium' (crab tank). A great activity for kids to do with their parents. You need be able to control the temperature and humidity, and have a place for the Crazy Crabs to dig and take a bath.
2. Have a bunch of crabs, not just one. Crazy Crabs are social creatures and are best kept in groups.
3. Keep them active with things to do. Add some driftwood and hollow logs or coco huts to your crab tank for your Crazy Crabs to climb on, and munch on occasionally. They are very good climbers so watch out that they do not escape!
4. Keep them warm. Crazy Crabs like warmth and are most active when kept at 28-30°C, but they do not like to get cold. Keep them in the 'crabarium' whenever the temperature is less than 20°C, and use an under tank heater, hot rock or reptile type heater to keep them warm.
5. Humidity needs to be kept high. Your Crazy Crab must be kept moist to breath, with the ideal being 60% humidity in the air. Add a moist sea sponge and keep a lid on the tank to increase humidity.
6. Salt water pool. A salt water pool is compulsory for keeping Crazy Crabs as they cannot survive without it. They use it to flush their shell and maintain their salt balance. Make it deep enough so they can submerge their shell, with a ramp or stairs so they can climb out. Collect seawater and store it for use in a light proof container, or make up synthetic sea water as per instructions from your local pet store. Make sure you change the water in the salt pool regularly.
7. Fresh water pool. Provide a second shallow dish of non-chlorinated fresh water that the crabs can climb in and out of easily. They use this for drinking.
8. Provide shells to grow into. Spare shells are required to allow your crab to grow and replace damaged ones. Shells like Tonna, Nautica and Babylonias are tough but not to heavy. Snail shells can be used but they are light and not very strong. Paint and decorate the shells to add interest and easily identify each crab. Watch out, if you do not provide enough shells the crabs will attack and kill each other in order to steal a new shell.
9. Vary their diet. Feed your Crazy Crabs an alternating diet of lettuce, coconut, breakfast cereal, fruit and the occasional small piece of meat. Feed small portions and always remove any old stale food.
10. Substrate on the base of the tank. Crazy Crabs bury themselves depending on the conditions (e.g. to keep warm or moist). The substrate on the bottom of the tank needs to be deep enough so they can cover themselves and can be sand, coco fibre, saw dust, wood shavings, straw or chaff. Coarse material works best and is ideally located at the other end of the 'crabarium' from the water bowls.
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