Bad information out there

[anniehorsekrab]

I looked on all the links. I can't believe it! Where the HECK do these guys get their info from????? Disgusting!!!!!

[mamaturtle2000]

I'm new to both crabbing and the site, so I have been on here for days reading every thread that catches my eye. I came upon this one tonight.

Just so you guys know, I visited the links posted.....and nothing has changed. All of the original complaints (and as far as I can tell) pictures are the same as they were when you guys visited them a year ago. The tanks with water for the floor....the discussion on 10 gallon tanks being a good choice....the spraying them in their faces, all of that is still on there.

[Wai]

As for all the bad information out there, most of it is written by people who merely think in their head what is appropriate without actually trying to see if it is suitable for hermit crabs. Most people working in pet stores have never had hermit crabs themselves and they have only been trained to take care of mammals, birds and fish (but even still, some of them suck at that).

Take calci-sand for example. A person who has never examined or had hermit crabs before would think "Calcium is essential for their diet, so it can only be a good thing." However, people like us who have been warned by those who have had bad experiences with it know that it solidifies to a cement-like substance that can potentially trap your hermit crabs inside their shells.

Common (rough and chunky) gravel is claimed to be a good substrate because it is mess-free for owners. True, gravel doesn't stick to our hands, but hermit crabs can't make burrows in it to moult and the pieces of gravel may slip inside their shells and puncture their abdomens.

Don't get me started on painted shells either.

[Lisarias]

I was randomly searching for a good shell picture today, when I came across this ... article... I nearly fell off my chair
http://www.abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/make/hermit.htm

I have sent them an email letting them know they should not encourage children to do this to their pets and my worry for the hermies, and sent them a link to this site in hopes someone may actually do some real research. I was just horrified that a national television station would let such horrible misinformation out without checking some facts first ... where on earth did they get this little gem??

"Land hermit crabs are very fussy about how their shell looks. And scientists have discovered that Hermit Crabs much prefer brightly painted and coloured decorated shells."

Someone jsut made that up, either that or there is a scientist out there that needs to loose their job If anyone else emailed a friendly hint that they have their information very wrong it may help the cause

[Wai]

they should not encourage children to do this to their pets

Not just children; no-one should be encouraged to do that to their hermit crabs! I've seen that article before too, but since that article has been online for a long time, I guess they don't care (assuming that they've been hassled many times by people like us in the past).

[CrabbyJo]

I would not doubt, and highly suspect, that the article is just a cheap attempt to promote painted shells by someone who sells them. I've recently seen some bad articles promoting painted shells, as well as pointing you to a "great online book" about hermit crab care. One free lesson! I signed up for it to see what kind of info they were promoting, and lo and behold, the "first free lesson" was NOTHING but an advertisement for their online book that you can download for $12 or some-such.
Now I'm seeing more and more awful articles with very little info in them, as if they were someone who just loves animals, and oh look, they found this great book you should check out! and it directs you to this horrid "one free lesson" book thing.
I have NO idea if there is any good info in it, but it frightens me that some scumbag is promoting this to naive new crab owners, and many will probably be sucked in.
Their blogs also only allow comments that are moderated, so there's no posting warnings. Unfortunately.