I had a lot of misfortune with land hermit crabs nearly a year ago, which actually led me to adopt a beautiful leopard gecko. I now own three healthy, happy lizards (although one will see a vet fairly soon about his shedding problem that I feel he can't fix himself due to his reluctance to rub off the old skin.) Because I feel I now have enough experience to care for critters that need a tropical environment, I've adopted land hermit crabs again.
I originally bought two, but one of them didn't survive the transition from nature to wholesaler to store to fair booth to new home. The quarantine tank is large enough to house two crabs for a few weeks until I can set up a fantastic crabitat (I'm getting paid on the 7th.) Since the survivor became reclusive and shy rather than his previously friendly self, I bought him a small, healthy and happy friend today. The company and bath seem to have already done him a lot of good, since he came out of his shell again, ate a little bit, and moved out of his too large painted shell into a smaller natural shell.
The store the new guy came from is pretty decent, as the management hired some new employees a few weeks ago who actually seem to know what they're doing. He's in a natural shell that fits him like a glove and is just a little bundle of energy when he's awake. He actually tried to pry open the flaps of the box he came home in!
Hopefully my experience with reptiles, tropical fish, and various feeder insects will help me to have more success with crabs this time around. I'd been thinking about trying them again for several weeks, and when I ended up with an empty 20 gallon tank (my two geckos moved out of it) I thought, why not now?
Wish me luck!
