Research Before You Buy!

[AK77]

I saw these rather attractive hermit crabs for sale on eBay. The vendor claims that his tank has just finished cycling and is moving over to a FO tank with fish that could potentially harm the hermits and so has offered them for sale.

They were very nice looking and thought one or two would make a nice addition to the tank. I liked the white spots on the orange body and the stocky appearance. I was tempted to buy a couple then and there but, a little voice said inside my head.... "No, lets find out what they are first, you moron".

Well after 10 minutes googling I found a picture and description of the hermits. These cute little fellows don't stay little for long. They grow up to 8", are aggressive to other hermits and will eat fish, fan worms, molluscs... anything they can get hold of.

You can read more on this species here

A valueable lesson reinforced today. Don't be tempted to buy something because it looks nice. Identify it, research it and find out if its compatible with your tank and its inhabitants.

 

[Danno]

Holy crap dude!

I've never seen one of those before. Now I know not to get a hermit looking like that!

 

[AK77]

Me either. I thought it looked awesome. I was so tempted to get them but decided to ID them and find out what they were all about. I am SOOOOO glad I did lol. Shame cos they look damn cool, but Id rather have a nice reef than a bare tank with an 8" crab in it.

 

[Donya]

They arn't kidding with the size quotes. I saw one of those in a store once that was inhabiting a full-size queen conch shell. Awsome crabs but definitely a species tank addition

 

[AK77]

I did message the seller on ebay and gave him the information on these crabs. It wouldn't surprise me if thats the reason why he's selling them lol. Found out what they were, thought bugger it... let someone else have the the hassle.

I pity the poor newbie that buys them as one by one his other tank inhabitants disappear lol

 

[littleme1969]

LOL.. you know you have a problem when it says *supplement diet with earth worms*..PMSL One attractive hairy little guy though

 

[shibby]

we have one about that size in our shop its keeping a smallish picasso trigger company!

described as a medium!!! i was shocked, apparently we once had a large in that was like twice as big

 

[AK77]

Well it looks like the seller removed the listing and most likely has decided to keep them with his new large aggressive fish species. I'm certain that virtually all of these would have gone to unsuspecting newbies who wouldnt have researched before buying and caused some minor upset.

Just in case anyone comes across these again they are commonly known as "Red hairy hermit" crabs, Latin name - Dardanus megistos.