Realm of Knowledge

I must apologize in advance, since I'm going to briefly break the recent books rule and suggest the following old book for hermit crab enthusiasts (although I don't believe should be used as a marine starter book anyway, so that means I'm only bending the rule, right? :p ):

"Marine Hermit Crabs" by Peter Giwojna: Amazon link

I finally was able to get a copy of this book recently. I haven't ever seen another book addressing the same topics, and reading it years ago would have saved me a lot of background work in my pursuit of hermit crabs in captivity. If you're interested in marine hermit crabs seriously and want to maximize your perspectives on what other people have observed over time, I would say that this is definitely worth reading.

The downside is that this book was published in 1978, which, of course, means that it suffers from the same thing all old marine hobby books suffer from: some questionable species IDs, a few totally weird tank suggestions, and some out-dated topics that have been followed up on in journal articles addressing hermit crab behavior. There are a couple of captive care suggestions I strongly disagree with, mainly those to do with mixed species environments (Giwojna suggests that the aquarist should isolate molting individuals to avoid deaths by predation, would seem to me to be a direct side-effect of the population density and species involved in his observation tanks). However, the fact that it even addresses hermit crab behavior to begin with sets it apart from most other hobby-level publications I've seen that attempt to address hermit crabs.
 
Thanks Donya - if you are saying it is worth a read then it must be interesting :good:

Donya, what are you thoughts on Halloween hermits in an aquarium, are they a good candidate?

Seffie x
 
Thanks Donya - if you are saying it is worth a read then it must be interesting :good:

Donya, what are you thoughts on Halloween hermits in an aquarium, are they a good candidate?

Seffie x

Terrebly sorry for the lag on this. I'm going to try to hide behind the excuse of qualifying exams... :S

Anyway, I hope I won't be thread hijacking to add hermity stuff here. Prior to being hit in the face with those exams, I was about to give an iffy "yes" to Halloween hermits (assuming that means Ciliopagurus strigatus - I've seen one other type go by the name occasionally but am unsure of the genus/species) since, although I've seen little of them, I presumed the max size to be in the medium range based on everything I've seen and read (about like what I've seen of Paguristes* cadenati). However, I just saw one of them that rivaled my adult Clibanarius vittatus for size. It was sitting in what I would guess was a 4"/10cm cone snail shell, and it was having a lovely snack on some Zoanthids. There was a perfect set of other individuals in the tank for comparison showing intermediate size steps up from 1". So, definitely a species tank or at least non-reef tank for those guys, since if they're community/reef-tank safe it'll probably only be as youngsters (similar to Clibanarius vittatus). I would guess the smaller maximum size for those guys circulating in the trade is a myth due to either stunted growth or shortened lifespans in the average aquarium. On the plus side, their preference for cone snail and similarly-shaped shells may mean they're slightly less of a Turbinid snail hazard, although that's just a hypothesis of mine right now.

(* Edited to fix a genus mistype)
 

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