hermit crab questions

[MABJ]

Hey all!


I've decided I'm officially dng my first salt water tank. But I want it to be small.

The only thing I'd like to stock is one or two hermit crabs.

This is where I'll get my experience and hopefully progress from here.

A few questions.

Are they comfortable alone? Or are multiple necessary?

Will the tank go through a big cycle?

Can I keep one crab in .5 gallons to itself? Or should I go 2.5 gallons?

I'd love to start this soon, but I'm doing ample research before I buy anything. So advice: begin!

 

[iDream]

Bigger is better, even for hermits. I just stated this on another thread so I'll say it again: I'm usually the one running around telling people nanos aren't that hard and if you take the time out to work on it it's easy as a larger system. But a tank this small is aksing for trouble. Any small swing in a tank this size would be disaterous, added you'll be topping off at least once a day.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a standard 10G, it's probably the same price or cheaper than one of those smaller tanks, and it'll be way easier to maintain

 

[MABJ]

10g not an option. Lol. Its small and its gotta stay small.

But if I put a piece of live rock in there and cycled the tank, wouldn't it be fine?

I understand risks and stuff. But the things I have have lids and I'm not worried about maintenance because I work a lot around the house.

 

[MABJ]

So I guess my question would be, what fluctuations are you talking about? And would it go through a cycle? Any other opinions on this?

 

[iDream]

It would definitely go through a cycle, which you would do a fishless cycle of course. Temp and salinity fluctuations and with tops a pH flux would be my worries

 

[Flake]

The problem isn't that the tank wouldn't by cycled, but with all the evaporation, your salinity would swing rapidly over the course of the day.

I kept a 3 for a while and I literally topped off at LEAST twice a day. My hermits did fine but it was a pain to keep the tank in check for them.

 

[MABJ]

Hmm the temp is the least of the worries, and I am positive of my ability to keep salinity and water level in check!

A side note, what temp do they like?

Okay after those two issues, what is left to be concerned of?