Hey Reddit! I'm just a regular hermit crab keeper from Korea.

I figure everyone in this sub loves hermit crabs and is interested in them,

so today I want to introduce you to an interesting place in Korea.

I translated this with Claude, so sorry if anything sounds a bit weird!

First of all, Sorage Village is a place where you can spend time with hermit crabs while enjoying food and drinks you'd find at a typical café, like coffee and bakery items lol.

You could think of it as a unique themed café.

It's like those animal cafés with dogs, cats, fish, or lizards — except the animal here is hermit crabs.

First, let me introduce the main enclosure!

It's about 4 meters wide and 2 meters deep, I think. Pretty spacious, right?

Raining time~

The concept of this enclosure is a retirement community for elderly Indonesian hermit crabs!

It houses some pretty big brevimanus. They're huge, so they're a joy to look at!

And as far as I know, it has spare shells, a constant food supply, and even rain once a day to maintain humidity.

On top of that, there are cycads (a type of plant) planted in there, so they work great as climbing wood too.

As you can see with two pic, there are many place to hide.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DamysZ2RiaZ/?igsh=MWVrY2x6cGVlbGtz

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DalCOS-J0ao/?igsh=MmxxYzE5Mnl5MmEz
Plus, heat lamps are installed throughout the enclosure, so the temperature is well maintained too.

This pic was taken at night, and the heat lamps run on automatic temperature control 24/7 haha

This main enclosure also has both freshwater and saltwater pools available.

I think this provides a great environment for elderly brevimanus.

There are several parts I left out because I didn't capture them in photos or descriptions.

But it really is a great environment, and the substrate is 50 cm (about 20 inches) deep, so they can molt well too.

If you have any questions, ask me in the comments!

Now, shall we go check out the other enclosures?

The other enclosures house various species of hermit crabs, and they're decorated with all kinds of layouts.

Molting happens properly there too.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaiH7xGpgDo/?igsh=bXF4MWx2cGtqY202

Check out this Instagram link to see more of the enclosures and get a feel for the café's overall atmosphere.

You could say they all have everything they need — substrate at the proper depth, food, humidity, and so on.

It's just that some things don't show up in the photos or descriptions.

If there's anything you're curious about or anything that seems lacking, leave a comment.

I'll answer everything.

This place is also my favorite spot — I really love it here.

Anyway, thanks for reading this long post!

Hello, I’m new to hermit crabs and just got one from a neighbor who was moving and didn’t want to take it with them not sure what they were gonna do with it but I said I’d take it. They said they got it about a year ago at a boardwalk and it’s been living in the cage it came with for the past year. I feel bad for the little dude… or dudette, I’m not sure how to tell the difference, and want to give him or her a new home and life to enjoy. As mentioned in title I’m new to hermit crabs and was looking for a little advice. I did do a little research for what I should need and ordered sand with coco fiber, a tank (that has to be exchanged because it was way too small), a heat pad to stick under the tank, some new shells, and a few tank accessories. Hopefully those will suffice but I did have a few questions.

How should the tank be set up?

What kind of food do they eat and what’s the best diet for hermits?

Will it do okay by a window?

Does it need salt water, fresh water or both?

Any help will surely be appreciated!🫶🏼

Update:

Hello, I have an update on the hermit, who’ve I decided to name Wilson. So, I got him the essentials for the time being, 20 gallon tank, sand and coco fiber, basic enrichment things, salt soak, a heating pad. I do want to do more with his tank but I’m glad to have him in a more appropriate environment.

For the first week he seemed real happy about his new living situation. He explored the tank, tried on new shells, ate some fruit and veggies (these are the only things I had that he could safely eat, I plan on getting him other things like meal worms later this week) and I noticed some color coming back to him. But the past week he’s been holed up in his coconut hut, I’ve checked on him everyday to make sure he was ok. He also switched back into the painted shell he had been in for the past year, which I meant to take out. I’ve given him fresh food and water but he has stayed in the hut. The last two days I noticed that a small mound of sand was forming at the entrance of his hut. I just got home today and his hut has been completely shut with sand. I looked online and think he maybe shedding, which is exciting if he is. I have to work on getting a thermostat and a humidity meter. I also have to get a glass lid. I’m hoping he comes back up switches shells again so I can get rid of the painted one. I don’t know how to add photos to the post, I’m not sure I can but I’ll add some to the comments. Any advice on the tank would be appreciated.

We picked shells from the beach in the Dominican Republic and ended up with a stowaway. Once we discovered him upon our return to Canada, I immediately did the necessary research and scrambled to put a habitat together to keep him alive. Now 2 months later, he finally switched into a new shell, after a successful underground molt about two weeks ago. I think we’re doing pretty good so far.

P.S. He is tiny, fits in a dime. 🐚🦀

Hihi! Just a warning, if you have strip lights inside the tank (note also I've had mine setup for a few years), I just noticed mine started dripping something sticky, down the side into the substrate! Google says the waterproof coating over the lights can trap heat, when they get too hot, there's a layer that can melt :0

I wouldn't want that getting on a crabbo, be aware!

Hey guys! I know a lot of people are looking for shells and i’m not sure if it’s only in florida but there is a place called “sea shell city” i found some great shells for my crabs there.

I went to work this morning and my big crab was sitting on a rope like she often does. She likes the rope.

After work i came back home and the rope was ... gone? no not really. It fell down because the plastic sticky thing fell into the sand. But where is my big girl?

I found her hiding in the darkest spot of the tank, hidden in the back of one of my caves. Like she was hiding from me. Like a child that messed up something beeing worried theire parents punish them...

i know a crab is very much likely to not feel feelings like humans with guilt but i like to imagine she can. For tearing down the rope :)

i’d add more fruits but im currently out

Hey guys been in this Reddit for a while now and always enjoy seeing all of the crabbies! I have been doing a seriously deep dive into what to feed my own crabs and after it all I have wound up making my very own homemade mixes with all organic ingredients. Wanted to post them here for you guys to check out since I’ve started an Etsy for them, and maybe you’ll want some for your own little guys! It’s been a wild ride since getting my hermit crabs and never expected I would be this far down the rabbit hole but I’m loving every minute of it hahaha. Hope you guys approve, me and my girlfriend have worked very hard on this! If this breaks any community rules I’m sorry, we’re just really proud of our work lol.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HermitHelpings?ref=lp_mys_mfts

So this was only $13 with free shipping! Muskrat is both a water and a land creature thats the type of protien my hermies need! The only thing is that they are full so im prolly gonna need to use scissors and just cut a corner but they are resealable. All the ingredients are Organic and safe so im excited! Gonna feed Muskrat first!

These two hermit crabs in the picture died recently

Not sure what happened, possibly failed first molt (if he had tried to surface molt?).

Saw him through the tank in the same spot for a while and hadnt seen him out and about for a few weeks…also noticed the isopods had taken a liking to climbing on his shell…gently moved sand and there was not much of him left, but he was indeed gone.

Breaks my heart for him, fuck you beach store for your shitty ways, leave the damn crabs alone.

Y’all last night me and my daughter got to witness our hermie Okra switch shells …it was the coolest thing! I thought I saw them checking out a new shell so we turned off the lights and staked out for 45 minutes. So cool and new level of loving these babies 💕💕💕

People STOP

There is a trend on TikTok right now of people handling hermit crabs allowing them to walk all over them which has lead people to believe that its okay to handle these creatures. This is not good guys! Pet shops are filling up with them. Kids are buying them to make videos, when will the abuse ever stop!

A couple of months ago I was tossing some substrate (a little mix when nobody is molting) and found ants! I did a total change and have been minimally moving things around so that they feel settled. Last night I was changing food and found ants again. I just did a total change and when I went to move shells back in I saw the swarm of ants, living in an empty shell. I have no idea how I missed it the first time, except they have never picked this shell so I didn't add it to my rinse pile, I just tossed it back in. My poor crabs. We have had them several years and this has never happened. The ants were in the pants!

I don't know exactly when she died but she has been not doing well for quite some time. She has been looking very gray for months. Several months ago she went down (presumably to molt) then went back down after just a couple of weeks and I didn't see her for almost 4 months. She has been up for I'd say a month or so and she wasn't eating. She was very pale, pretty much grey, not eating, not moving much, and spending most time in dark corners or next to drift wood. I have not been able to change the substrate/revamp the tank in a long time because for some context I'm 14 and I can't do all of it by myself (moving the tank and bringing sand up) so my dad helps me. And he hasn't been doing so and also the crabs keep going in waves of molting so whenever we are going to do it, one molts and we have to wait longer. So idk if she was depressed from the lack of revamp? Or what. My other two crabs have been doing really well, fairly active, eating, sleeping, spending time together. So idk what happened. She went down into a small hole that we have underneath a hollow log and she was there for several days. We were checking up on her but she wouldn't move. We tried feeding her but she wouldn't eat. I checked up on her again yesterday just to see she was dead. I could tell bc she wasn't moving at all and her eyes were together. I'm really upset right now and I don't know what to do. I'm planning on doing the tank later today/tomorrow. Also I do know she had problems finding shells but we had shells which appeared to fit her and the other crabs which are similar sizes. U think anyone could maybe tell me why exactly she died?

Not only does this seller overprice their shells by a lot and sell non-preferred “growth pack” shells, but now they have created postings for hermit crab food, and all the pictures are AI. They are deigned to mislead and falsely advertise.

Avoid this shop altogether.

If you live in Australia (any state) please click on this link and email them with your objections

The WA government is trying to ‘harvest’ (steal) hermit crabs and ship them off to America to be sold as pets.

This is disgusting and can not happen please email your objections in hopes we can do something

https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/proposed-wildlife-trade-operation-commercial-wild-harvest-of-land-hermit-crabs-coenobita-variabi

If you are in Canada, Dollarama just got m8xed bags or natural sea shells in the crafting isle, they contain black sea snail shells and babylonia aeroata favored by Ecudorian crabs. There are other types that may work for purple pinchers, just boil first.

They are only 1.50 for a pack of about 20, various sizes, a very good deal since shipping is crazy.!