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[Greetings, and welcome to the Epicurean Hermit! The ORIGINAL land hermit crab food site. You must have joined us because you're interested in the best and widest diet to feed your crabs. To get you started, there is a comprehensive food list of hermit safe human-grade foods on this site. I recommend you buy organic, for your crabs' health. The food list is long, but there are always new foods being added, so check back in the Articles section frequently.This site is for diet and nutrition. If you wish to email me to answer any questions for you, please keep this in mind. I do not answer general crabbing questions. If you have a question about your crabs not related to diet or nutrition please visit EH's General board or http://www.hermitcrabaddiction.net/forum]

Greetings, and welcome to the Epicurean Hermit! The ORIGINAL land hermit crab food site.
You must have joined us because you're interested in the best and widest diet to feed your crabs. To get you started, there is a comprehensive food list of hermit safe human-grade foods on this site. I recommend you buy organic, for your crabs' health.

The food list is long, but there are always new foods being added, so check back in the Articles section frequently.
This site is for diet and nutrition. If you wish to email me to answer any questions for you, please keep this in mind. I do not answer general crabbing questions. If you have a question about your crabs not related to diet or nutrition please visit EH's General board
 or http://www.hermitcrabaddiction.net/forum

The information on this site is copyrighted and not to be used in whole or in part without express written permission of the site owner. Any infringement of this policy will result in legal action.
Thank you for your cooperation.


Bon appetit!
Julia Crab

[KaliyugaTea]

Hello,

I recently used some pieces of wood in my freshwater container to give my tiny PPs' additional puchase to get out.  It quickly turned my water brown (to my dismay), but noticed that all 4 of my hermies going to drink 3 - 4 times a day!  My largest even soaked in it (but now worried because I know it is in his shell water)!  I have on very (and I do mean VERY) few occasions seen then drink, and never seen any soak!  I even let the water go for 3 days without changing it because they DID love it so much.

I did a search on tannins and quickly found it full of good and bad benefits, but the bad was too bad, so I took it out.  One branch was grapewood, and the other might be Mopani (still not sure).

Nobody dropped dead, but my largest (half-dollar) who soaked (a first!) has started showing signs that he wants to molt (my first with him...so I am very preocupied emotionally right now).

Does anyone know or have access to a website descibing the PP's of Florida's habitat?
Could this be a good thing to offer once a month (providing it is done with sources found in their natural environment?) since it does have some beneficial aspects?
Could it be a case of "eat my seaveggies vs eating "Ben and Jerry's" foods? meaning bad.

This took place over a 6 - 7 day period before I took the wood out because I was scared of the source of tannin in type of wood, and it being too much of a good thing.

It's beyond my brain's education of biology (none!), and hope someone who knows what their ecological niche (for Florida PP's) is like to shed a little light on why they attacked it.
Otherwise they LOVED it!
Thanks,
C

[Wizkidsmom]

Usually, when the hermies are constantly drinking it means a molt is soon. At least that is my experience.

I'd watch them for a while longer before using the wood in the water again. Those woods are safe, but as you are doing.. caution is needed.

[KaliyugaTea]

I do agree about the moulting, but this was different in the fact that each crab drank from it 2-3 (at least) times a day! 

As soon as I decided it might not be safe, and stopped...they stopped drinking like they did. 

I have watched them closely...they are fine.  I would think they would be sick, or show signs of illness by now.

Would anyone else be willing to try it?  I recommend only grapewood (or corkbark...I didn't think of that), and a piece that is nice and brown. 

I'm still curious as to why they went so crazy for it.

[vckums]

Would the water be considered brackish since it wasn't fresh? I'd think in the wild they'd come in contact with fresh water if they found a puddle, but salt water at the beach would be in supply more. *shrugs*

I'd be willing to try it, I dont think I have any grapevine pieces at the moment.

[KaliyugaTea]

Actually, it was in my FW pool.

Yes, you descibe my thoughts about this.  What is the composition of the water found inland of a beach?  Where does the water puddle?  I would guess in a spot rich with decaying plant matter (just a big fat guess here!) with very little water movement.  Tannins would be leached into the water. 

The little I read about tannins said that is a natural astringent.  Most of us know that cork bark is a favorite munchy of hermit crabs, and contains tannins.  I can only speak for PPs about this.  I don't own any other species.

Do other species eat cork as well?

I am going to try an soak some cork (if I can manage to anchor it down) in FW and see if it leaches anything into the water (turns brown), and place it in crabitat along with regular FW and see what happens.  I am anxious to understand why they found it so wonderful to drink and sit in.

An added note for safety:  The source of tannins is fairly large, and some can be harmful!  So, please use caution. 

I will post again on this when after I experiment with it.  I'm just throwing this out there because I noticed they went crazy for it.  It was kinda cool to see them so interested.   Kinda like myself, when I see chocolate mousse at Whole Foods...I go back again and again for it.   

[jedediah]

I think I may try this with elder cones, they will colour a glass of water dark brown in hours and are often used in fish tanks, especialy with fish that like brakish water.

[vckums]

I got cork bark, should be getting some grapevine too.

[Danse Macabre]

I know this is an old post, but I'd like to add Hiawatha Moss from the Addiction to the list. I microwaved the moss like the instructions say to and let it cool in the bowl of dechlor water while I put a new shower caddy in the crabitat. I happened to put it right over a plastic rock formation that has an indented pool in the top. The moss was still really wet when I put it in and the water from the moss drained out of the caddy and collected into the pool. It wasn't too long before the crabs were taking turns either drinking the water or picking things out of it. They loved it! I agree with vckums on this one...they must come across pools like this in wild....