Post by tigermoon89 on Dec 7, 2010 18:31:26 GMT -5
This was posted by an Member of the HCA who lives in Australia and I just wanted to get everyones opinion here as well:
Quote tnt4eva, "A while back there was a thread about Aussie crabs and the line of thought that their access to salt water needs to be restricting in captivity or they gouge on it.
There was some discussion of what their natural conditions were in relation to how near they live to the salt water.
There has been some information circulating about them from one of the hermit crab wholesalers who maintains that they live inland and that they only need access to salt every few weeks. I have a suspicion that the latter stemmed from either the wholesaler being too lazy to provide the right conditions and seeking to justify it (he doesn't look after his crabs correctly in the least) or trying to make hermit crabs appear lower maintenance than they really are, which he does with every aspect of their care (he use to say they never pooped!!!)
Wodesorel (misspelled that awful but I fixeded it ) said something the prompted me to go looking for info on the other wholesalers/harvesters and I came across a Department of Fisheries article outlining the collection of hermit crabs, impact on the environment etc.
It states the following: "Coenobita variabilis is distributed across northern Australia, from Exmouth Gulf to northern Queensland
(Jones and Morgan 1994). Individuals occur in the intertidal zone and up to 100 m from the shoreline.
They are common in mangroves, but also occur in sandy and rocky areas."
100m is about 320 ft, which is a pretty average span of sand on a beach here.
Here is the link -quoted text is from pg 42
www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/esd/esd008/esd0008.pdf
(The bit about the mangroves makes me wonder if they'd like some mangrove mud but man o man that stuff smells so bad...)
I don't believe that their salt water access needs to be restricted. (I most certainly do however respect the choices of other crabbers in this regard)
We don't know a massive amount about their biology and I don't see the need to restrict their access in captivity to something they have free access to in their natural habitat. That was on reason I found that article interesting, because it indicates that salt water is found within their natural habitat and that it's not a great distance away from them.
Also, I'm yet so see my Aussies gouge on their salt water. Generally they meander through it and the only time I've seen them seemingly seek it out is when I bought a new one home the other day. He found the pond, his antennas went nuts and he climbed in for a brief amount of time - but he didn't have access to salt water at the pet shop and he'd been there at least a week.
And, as of yet I haven't heard of any first hand accounts of Aussies gouging.
So....um...sorry - that was kinda long winded. Short answer - I don't think this disproves it in itself, but it's an important thing to consider along with other evidence". End Quote.
What do you think?
Quote tnt4eva, "A while back there was a thread about Aussie crabs and the line of thought that their access to salt water needs to be restricting in captivity or they gouge on it.
There was some discussion of what their natural conditions were in relation to how near they live to the salt water.
There has been some information circulating about them from one of the hermit crab wholesalers who maintains that they live inland and that they only need access to salt every few weeks. I have a suspicion that the latter stemmed from either the wholesaler being too lazy to provide the right conditions and seeking to justify it (he doesn't look after his crabs correctly in the least) or trying to make hermit crabs appear lower maintenance than they really are, which he does with every aspect of their care (he use to say they never pooped!!!)
Wodesorel (misspelled that awful but I fixeded it ) said something the prompted me to go looking for info on the other wholesalers/harvesters and I came across a Department of Fisheries article outlining the collection of hermit crabs, impact on the environment etc.
It states the following: "Coenobita variabilis is distributed across northern Australia, from Exmouth Gulf to northern Queensland
(Jones and Morgan 1994). Individuals occur in the intertidal zone and up to 100 m from the shoreline.
They are common in mangroves, but also occur in sandy and rocky areas."
100m is about 320 ft, which is a pretty average span of sand on a beach here.
Here is the link -quoted text is from pg 42
www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/esd/esd008/esd0008.pdf
(The bit about the mangroves makes me wonder if they'd like some mangrove mud but man o man that stuff smells so bad...)
I don't believe that their salt water access needs to be restricted. (I most certainly do however respect the choices of other crabbers in this regard)
We don't know a massive amount about their biology and I don't see the need to restrict their access in captivity to something they have free access to in their natural habitat. That was on reason I found that article interesting, because it indicates that salt water is found within their natural habitat and that it's not a great distance away from them.
Also, I'm yet so see my Aussies gouge on their salt water. Generally they meander through it and the only time I've seen them seemingly seek it out is when I bought a new one home the other day. He found the pond, his antennas went nuts and he climbed in for a brief amount of time - but he didn't have access to salt water at the pet shop and he'd been there at least a week.
And, as of yet I haven't heard of any first hand accounts of Aussies gouging.
So....um...sorry - that was kinda long winded. Short answer - I don't think this disproves it in itself, but it's an important thing to consider along with other evidence". End Quote.
What do you think?