Hermit Crabs In Brackish

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Had an interesting one at work today. A customer asked the question 'Can hermit crabs live in brackish water?' - for the first time in a while I was stumped. What's more, nobody in the shop knew (or 3 other shops I tried!) So I figured it was question for here! I notice that CFC is keeping blue-legged hermit crabs in with mono's, gobies etc. but don't know the exact details. I think it's a brilliant question from the customer though.
 
I dont have any hermits left after i added a pair of Topaz puffers that i took a fancy too and they ate the ones i had left but they survived a good half a year at least in varying salinities from 1.008 to 1.016 before the addittion of the puffers.

My personal take on things like this is you have to look where the animals live in the wild, if they are regularly found in mangroves, tide pools or river mouths then they should be suited to life in a constantly changing enviroment and so should be brackish safe.
 
Thanks for your reply CFC. How are you finding having a pair of Topaz Puffers? I've never managed to keep a pair, only an aggressive trio or single. I've not got any Topaz (aka Ceylon) Puffers at the moment but am currently setting up another tank for them (I keep mine in full marine).

Anyway, back on subject. It's true what your saying about the varying situations they live in. Also, if you had them for half a year or so then I would suggest they would be fine long term in brackish waters. Cheers CFC.
 
I've heard of people keeping them their entire lives in brackish. Never thought it could go as low as 1.008 though.
 
Thanks for your reply CFC. How are you finding having a pair of Topaz Puffers? I've never managed to keep a pair, only an aggressive trio or single. I've not got any Topaz (aka Ceylon) Puffers at the moment but am currently setting up another tank for them (I keep mine in full marine).

Anyway, back on subject. It's true what your saying about the varying situations they live in. Also, if you had them for half a year or so then I would suggest they would be fine long term in brackish waters. Cheers CFC.

I was really enjoying having the puffers, they were very gentle with each other and where one went the other would follow and showed signs of breeding by cleaning a patch of rock in the back corner of the tank. Unfortunately one night my large toad fish ate one of the puffers and the other one was never the same again, over the next couple of weeks it faded away and eventually died. Who says fish are unintellegent :(
 
I kept blue-leg hermits in my mid-range brackish tank for about 3 months. Eventually they all died off, but mostly from fighting. It's important to note that I use treated tap water rather than RODI water in my tanks. This makes a big difference for a lot of marine inverts. My hogchoker sole took a pretty big interest in them, and I think I may have lost one or two to him when they we're switching shells.
 
I was really enjoying having the puffers, they were very gentle with each other and where one went the other would follow and showed signs of breeding by cleaning a patch of rock in the back corner of the tank. Unfortunately one night my large toad fish ate one of the puffers and the other one was never the same again, over the next couple of weeks it faded away and eventually died. Who says fish are unintellegent :(

How old were the topaz? It's possible they were old enough to need full marine. They are one of the tetradon species that migrate to marine shores at a relatively young age. At about 2-3" I normally put them into full marine and they thrive. Although the loss of a mate will affect a puffer, I doubt very much it will have caused it's death.
 
I was really enjoying having the puffers, they were very gentle with each other and where one went the other would follow and showed signs of breeding by cleaning a patch of rock in the back corner of the tank. Unfortunately one night my large toad fish ate one of the puffers and the other one was never the same again, over the next couple of weeks it faded away and eventually died. Who says fish are unintellegent :(

How old were the topaz? It's possible they were old enough to need full marine. They are one of the tetradon species that migrate to marine shores at a relatively young age. At about 2-3" I normally put them into full marine and they thrive. Although the loss of a mate will affect a puffer, I doubt very much it will have caused it's death.


Topaz puffers, Tetraodon fluviatilis are considered a brackish species, but there is little, to no evidence that they "need" marine conditions as they get older. They benefit from marine conditions because it helps maintain water quality, such as low nitrates, but as a brackish water fish it can handle, and in the wild would travel, through a varying amount of salinities. the majority of brackish water fish travel through varying salinities their entire lives, however fish like the common european eel would migrate to the sea to spawn, which is very different to the behaviour of a Tetraodon fluviatilis.
 
I was really enjoying having the puffers, they were very gentle with each other and where one went the other would follow and showed signs of breeding by cleaning a patch of rock in the back corner of the tank. Unfortunately one night my large toad fish ate one of the puffers and the other one was never the same again, over the next couple of weeks it faded away and eventually died. Who says fish are unintellegent :(

How old were the topaz? It's possible they were old enough to need full marine. They are one of the tetradon species that migrate to marine shores at a relatively young age. At about 2-3" I normally put them into full marine and they thrive. Although the loss of a mate will affect a puffer, I doubt very much it will have caused it's death.


They were fairly large fish at the 4-5" size, i bought them large as i had already lost a 3" GSP to the toad fish and thought that at the larger size they would be safe, i was wrong :(

I honestly believe that it was some kind of saddness for the loss of the mate that caused the death of the second puffer, from the day it was eaten the remaining fish never ate (that i saw) and took to just sitting on the bottom in one corner.
 
New question for an old post.
Looking for aquatic hermit crabs for my brackish tank. Any brackish estuary I’ve been to from NewEngland to Florida has had lots of hermit as well as other crabs, clams, etc. I live in newengland and have a tropical 120gal low level 1.008 brackish tank. The blue legged hermit crab is just to small and I am unable to use locally collected species. I’ve seen hermits up River in almost to full fresh water. There has to be more options for a brackish tank. I could probably raise my salinity up to 1.010 as my only slightly brackish fish are my archer fish. What I really want is a larger species of hermit crabs.
Any help would be awesome.
 

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