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? ):
"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.
"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.