can I.................?

[kevin lassonde]

is it posible to collect local hermit crabs from the ct shore and put them in an established tank or is this not advisable?

 

[jacksonpt]

it is certainly possible to do so, however most hermits are not considered reef safe. Also, there are a lot of risks associated with adding 'wild' stock--there's no telling what kinds of contaminents you could potentially introduce to your system.
I strongly recommend against it.

 

[ebeckels]

I wouldn't try it...the climates are much different too!!

 

[kevin lassonde]

alright thank you for the advise i just thought that they were kinda cool and would like to try them so maybe someday i will have a larger tank that i can set up and chill for them as well as other locals
does anyone think that that would work??

 

[royce]

as stated above, it probably is not a good idea unless your whole tank is to be set up to match local conditions - you know, cloudy brown water, pollution, etc just kidding. some people do have tanks filled with local fauna, but you would then have to match the temp., salinity, etc.
Where in CT are you? I am in New London

 

[kevin lassonde]

im in northern ct from around enfield i do realize i would have to match all the conditions an am willing to in the future more than likely because there are many locals i am interested in keeping

 

[royce]

I realized that when I saw your post about chilling - we were typing at the same time. I do admit to picking up a few local hermits and snails for my FO tank many years ago before I knew any better. They lived for a while, but eventually they did all die.

 

[kris walker]

I picked up some local snails and a hermit from my region (CA). The water here is usually colder than up in CT. The snails are doing great still (its been 2 months). The crab turned out not to be reef friendly (he bullied the other hermits I had at the time), so I brought him back to the shore. I bet he's now the local story teller at the hermit bar.
I too would advise against it for reasons mentioned above (and the fact that my snails are plain ugly).
sam