Large Hermit Crabs

[hermitcrab3]

My son recently acquired 3 very large wild caught marine hermit crabs (Clibanarius vittatus i think... the biggest is in a shell about 4 inches long) http://bit.ly/QsyVr I have always been a salt water enthusiast and plan on setting up a reef tank when i get the Funds... For now i'm just trying to get a setup to keep these guys alive any suggestions?

They are rather large so probably won't move them to a reef tank, but any suggestions on keeping these hermit crabs alive and what might be compatible to put them with?

 

[hermitcrab3]

No replies, did i say something taboo? I feel like the new fish in the aquarium

I love crustaceans, and the bigger the better! Would you recommend putting these large hermit crabs into a reef tank or should it just be a FOWLR tank for these guys?

Comments guys? You won't hurt my feelings! I'm open minded!

 

[Tomoko Schum]

No reply sometimes mean that no one in this group has an answer.

Large crustaceans can be troublesome. They tend to eat their neighbors. I suspect that a big hermit crab will eat fish if it can catch one. I would not dare putting it in my reef tank unless I know it's reef safe.

 

[shirley386]

If it's those that you can pick up in the bays along the Gulf Coast I wouldn't try to put them with anything you don't want them to eat or destroy.

 

[hermitcrab3]

Thanks for the replies!

That's what I suspected but also found conflicting answers that they were reef safe but got to large... Couldn't find much info on them and one site called them reef safe and others did not (if i even have the right species that is... they were given to my son)