jason henry
New member
Can I take cold water hermit crabs and put them in my reef tank?
Cold crabs/Warm crabs
- Thread starter jason henry
- Start date
stevelkaneval
New member
why not? if you acclimatized them properly it could be done. it wouldnt be like a 5 hour thing you would have to do it slowly over like a month or two. just think i live in WI and can wear shorts when its 40 deg outside, but the guy that lives in florida would be puting a snowsuit on at 40 deg. and if we switched places it would only take a month or two and it would be switched, we wouldnt die.
OnoIgotICH
In Memoriam
if your talkin about those atlantic blue crabs. i put them in one of my tanks.
i cleaned it off with RO water first nd just put him in.
lasted 2 months died, spoiled my water.
i cleaned it off with RO water first nd just put him in.
lasted 2 months died, spoiled my water.
stevelkaneval
New member
yea i looked into it more and it seems that crustations do not adjust well, but my dad has some muskie and walley in a 180 and its maybe 76deg. when the muskie and walley come from water around 50-65 deg.
greenbean36191
Premium Member
The difference in wearing shorts for you and the Floridian is one of perception, not physiology. You're warm blooded, so all of your metabolic reactions still happen at the same temperature and while he may feel more uncomfortable he's no more likely to get hypothermia.
With cold blooded animals like crabs, the outside temperature causes real internal changes. The proteins that make up their bodies and the enzymes that make their metabolism work are specifically designed for certain temp ranges. Outside of those ranges things start to literally fall apart. Within certain limits the types of proteins can be changed to shift the working range, but usually not a whole lot. Most animals also have mechanisms that allow them to deal with periods of unusually hot or cold temperatures, but eventually those will be overwhelmed if things don't go back to normal. Long term acclimation can help ramp up the repair mechanisms but it still doesn't provide a long term solution to drastically warmer temperatures. That has to come through evolution.
When you put coldblooded animals in unnaturally warm conditions you ask their bodies to work harder while they're less able to do so.
With cold blooded animals like crabs, the outside temperature causes real internal changes. The proteins that make up their bodies and the enzymes that make their metabolism work are specifically designed for certain temp ranges. Outside of those ranges things start to literally fall apart. Within certain limits the types of proteins can be changed to shift the working range, but usually not a whole lot. Most animals also have mechanisms that allow them to deal with periods of unusually hot or cold temperatures, but eventually those will be overwhelmed if things don't go back to normal. Long term acclimation can help ramp up the repair mechanisms but it still doesn't provide a long term solution to drastically warmer temperatures. That has to come through evolution.
When you put coldblooded animals in unnaturally warm conditions you ask their bodies to work harder while they're less able to do so.
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