Painted Hermit Crabs - My dilemma
June 20th, 2010 | 
Author: I have a dilemma. Its sort of amoral dilemma, but not a life or death moral dilemma. Or it might be a life or death moral dilemma if you think about it.
(Do I win any kind of award for the blog entry with the most uses of the term moral dilemma?)
See, my nephew Jonathan was visiting today, and he brought along his pet hermit crab (which he named Stevie). I’ve always been a little fond of hermies and thought it would be neat to have one as a pet, but have never gotten one. I have my dogs and my rats and usually a betta fish and that seemed like enough to care for.
Well, since the horrific and sudden death of my most recent betta fish I was thinking about taking a break from bettas, and then Jon showed up with Stevie.
Stevie was the most active happy little hermie I’ve ever seen. He just scooted around all over the place, even climbed up my shirt a couple of times and tried to climb DOWN it once. I thought I’d like to have a happy little scootie hermit crab like that.
This is where the dilemma comes in.
The only place in town that sells hermit crabs has them in painted shells. Due to the crazy popularity of painted crab shells it seems to be all you can find in most places.
Stevie had a painted shell too….black with a pirate skull on it. And even though Stevie was a happy and energetic little crab I KNOW that its BAD to buy crabs with painted shells. The paint is not good for them, and the process of being forced into the shell can be super stressful.
Of course, the FIRST thing I did was check petfinder, but it showed no hermit crabs for adoption in my area.
So, if I decide to bring home a pair of painted hermit crabs then does that make me a bad person for having purchased a pair of painted hermit crabs? I mean, I do plan to offer them only natural shells to go INTO and ditch the painted ones as soon as they move. But I’d still be supporting the trade of painted hermits by bringing them home.
Then again, I’m supporting the trade of live rats as snake food every time I buy a pair of “feeder” rats to bring home as pets, but I think it is very much worth to to save the lives of those two rats. Part of me feels it will be offering the same “better” life to the hermits I bring home, even though their situation isn’t as immediately life or death as the rats.
Posted in Animals
June 20th, 2010 7:08 pm
It doesn’t make you a bad person to buy crabs in painted shells. You can easily purchase natural shells for them to move into, and chances are, they will move out of those painted shells pretty quickly (although some crabs in painted shells may take a bit longer).
If you do decide to pick up some crabs, please make sure you have all they need set up ahead of time. There is a LOT of bad info on the net, as well as the info that most pet stores have about them. Pet stores are the worst offenders for giving bad care info. I highly suggest you read this article which will outline their basic needs:
http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=136&keywords=essentials
Please note that the article is two years old so needs a little updating. Playsand is not a recommended substrate any longer as more and more crabbers have complications related to it.
I also recommend joining a forum such as http://www.hermitcrabparadise.com and/or http://crabstreetjournal.com
There are crab owners there who have had their crabs for 10+ years, and have not lost any to death in at least 8 yrs (earlier deaths were due to bad information, or lack of information, on care).
Best of luck to you, hope to see you on the forums!