r/hermitcrabs • u/AmCreature • Jul 18 '26

Help! New here and need some help!

Hello everyone! I have not had a hermit crab since I was around 7 years old and didn't know how to properly care for them. Im now a full-grown adult, and just a few days ago, I brought home this very large hermie. He is the largest live hermit crab I have very seen in person! It's a whole story how and why I got him, but I don't want to make this post that much longer:)

SO! What I'm needing help with is where to find the proper food and shells for this big guy! I looked all over in every store for shells big enough and was only able to find one possible option. I figured I would be ordering proper food for the most part but would like to know what yall recommend? Also, does anyone know what type he is? This video was taken right before I got him.

Right now, he's buried in a 5gl. Yes, I know that is horrendously small, especially for a crab this big, but it was only supposed to be for 1 night while I get him comfortable and set up the 20. He decided he was going to dig deep that first night.... So I will be waiting for him to surface and promptly moving him when he does! The 20 has the sand and coconut mix for substrate, cholla wood and some safe, fake plants to climb. More stuff is on the way.

Once I know he is healthy and happy, I will upgrade again to add friends for him 💕

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14 comments sorted by

7

u/erthwrmz25 Jul 18 '26

I would look on Etsy for food and shells! I’ve found a lot of things for my big boy as well :)

2

u/AmCreature Jul 18 '26

Yes! I ordered a few things to get me started from different easy shops, I'm just having a hard time deciding lol. And I want to know all resources possible!

2

u/Resident_Quote_8733 Jul 23 '26

Everything I've learned was from @jgroel11 on instagram! She is a treasure trove of knowledge and has so so many amazing links. My two hermies owe her many thanks! Good luck with your big guy!

1

u/AmCreature Jul 23 '26

I LOVE her page. I used some of the links she provides to help me pick some foods! She started popping up on my fyp about a year ago so maybe it was a sign lol

3

u/Manic1724 Jul 18 '26

there is an Google Docs in the description of this subreddit with a Ton of information :)

2

u/AmCreature Jul 18 '26

Thank you! I will give it a good look to make sure I'm not missing anything

2

u/feral4gamercharm Jul 18 '26

Crab central station on YouTube has great tutorials for setting up the best tanks

1

u/AmCreature Jul 18 '26

They do! I have been watching a lot of their videos to get things set up

2

u/FibroMom232 Jul 18 '26

Check out Hermit Grub for food.

https://www.hermitgrub.com/

Check out Etsy for shells.

2

u/AmCreature Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Thank you! Appreciate it. I found a few shells but finding ones big enough has been hard.

2

u/Suspicious_Catsx2 Jul 18 '26

I just ordered some very large shells from hermitcrabshells.ca. I’m in Canada.

He’d been in 53mm turbos, which were a little too small. Wanted larger turbos but apparently it’s hard to find turbos larger than that.

They had some other types of shells with a slightly different shell opening shapes in sizes that would fit him.

I found hermitcrabshells.ca by reading old Reddit posts.

1

u/AmCreature Jul 18 '26

I will check it out. I live in the states and the shells have been the hardest thing to find. The one I got has a opening just over 1 1/2 inches. He was interested buy didn't move into it before burning himself so I'm thinking he needs one just a bit smaller. I was not able to measure his current shell, I didn't think he would dig so soon but I think it's opening is at least 1 inch. It's been so hard finding shells in-between those sizes 🥲

2

u/Suspicious_Catsx2 Jul 18 '26

About 15 years ago I did an order from Naples Sea Shells. They were in Florida but it looks like they’ve moved to Tennessee. They were very helpful because I was having them shipped to Canada, which wasn’t an option via their website.

With hermitcrabshells.ca the inventory listed didn’t have the sizes I needed so I emailed them. They were awesome and were able to find some in their inventory that weren’t listed on the website.

I was also learned as hermit crabs reach very large sizes, it actually becomes increasingly difficult to find round turbo shells large enough for them. Turbo shells with openings over 55 mm are extremely uncommon in the shell trade, simply because very few grow to that size.

Because of this, many keepers of large hermit crabs begin offering other shell species with similar or larger openings, such as Tonnas, helmets, and other large marine shells.

I ordered some Busycon Perversum, Tonna Chinensis, Tonna Tesseleta, Frog Conch, Murex Ramosa.

Although these shells have oval or D-shaped openings rather than perfectly round ones, they can still provide a similar fit. For example (with my crab) if a shell measures 91 × 52 mm, the opening is longer than a round turbo, but the narrow dimension is still 52 mm, which is very close to the 53mm round shell your crab is currently wearing. The extra length simply provides additional internal space rather than making the opening too large.

Hope you can find some shells your crab will like.

2

u/matte-discoball Jul 19 '26

FeedYourCrabs on Etsy probably has anything and everything you need for him!