How Much does it Cost to Purchase & Raise Hermit Crabs?

When I first bought my hermit crabs, I thought they would be an easy pet to take care of. The plastic container I bought them in was a bit overpriced, but everything’s overpriced at any boardwalk.

On the way home after buying my hermit crabs, I was in for a surprise. It turns out that hermit crabs can become a bit pricy, granted that you provide them with a suitable environment. I was so curious, and a bit bored, that I did the math and found exactly how much a hermit crab costs its pet owners.

Four pet hermit crabs will cost $X in total, considering they live for 15 years. This takes into count the cost of an average-sized hermit crab enclosure ($Y), the cost of 4 hermit crabs from a pet store ($18), and the cost of maintaining your pets ($A every month).

I love my little guys, but they’re more expensive then they look! I can’t complain though- the cumulative cost of buying & raising a dog is upwards of $15,000! (Source)

Let’s get more into detail on the total cost of hermit crabs. I’ll share some secrets on what to buy and what to save your money on, all while giving your hermit crabs a happy environment.

Calculating the Cost

To find out how much hermit crabs cost as a pet, we need to figure out three things: the cost of her hermit crab enclosure, the cost of your hermit crabs, and finally the monthly cost of caring for your crabs.

Average Hermit Crab Price

Most often, hermit crabs are sold at pet stores for $3 to $20 dollars, depending on their size. Larger and older crustaceans will go for much more than teeny ones.

While this is rarely the case, sometimes the crab’s species comes into play when negotiating a price. In the United States, a more exotic crab such as a Viola (found along the coast from Bangledesh to China) will go for much more than the more common Purple Pincher (found in the Carribean).

If you are to buy a hermit crab, I would buy three that are medium-sized. This ensures that your crabs are never lonely, and gives you plenty of time to get to know them as they grow.

A small to medium hermit crab costs just about $6 each. You’ll find that to be the case at most pet stores, at least where I live. I will be using that as a reference in calculating the pet’s entire cost.

Adopt a Hermit Crab for Free!

On the other hand, consider adopting hermit crabs instead of buying them. If I knew that the hermit crabs I saw along the boardwalk were taken from the wild, I would have instead adopted my crabs. It’s much better than supporting such a cruel industry.

There are plenty of crab owners who cannot care for their pets and need a place to take them. Hermit crabs raised in captivity can’t be released in the wild. Hermitcrabassociation.com has a spot in their forum dedicated to hermit crab adoptions. If you’re interested in getting hermit crabs as pets, I highly recommend checking if there are any crabs in need of adoption in your area. It’s free and truly helps an animal in need.

Hermit Crab Enclosure Cost

Aquarium

Setting up a trusty hermit crab enclosure should be done BEFORE buying your hermit crabs. Sadly, this is rarely the case given that the animal is most often a throw-away pet.

If you’re serious about taking care of your crabs, keep them in a humid, stress-free environment with plenty of food, water, and substrate until their environment is complete.

The first thing you need to do is to buy your crabs an aquarium. This is the perfect enclosure for keeping humidity in, preventing your crabs from escaping, and withstanding the pressure of 6-8 inches of substrate.

What size aquarium you buy depends entirely on how many hermit crabs you plan on/already own. You need enough floor space for your crabs to roam while fitting a food bowl, water bowls, etc. (more on this later)

I’m not an expert when it comes to how many hermit crabs can fit in a tank, but a few of our friends at Hermitcrabassociation.com are. Click here to check out JMT’s Crabs Per Tank Guidelines.

JMT found that by measuring the size of your crab’s shell, you can find out how many crabs of that size can fit in an aquarium. Reference the measurements below to make finding your hermit crab size a breeze.

Teeny = marble
Small = quarter-50c piece
Medium = 50c piece-golf ball
Large = golf ball-tennis ball
Jumbo = baseball

Once your crabs are measured, you can find out how many will fit in each tank. Each number that does not label tank size is the maximum amount of a certain size that can fit in a tank. For example, with a 10-gallon tank, you can house 8 teenies, OR 6 smalls, OR 4 mediums and so on.

Tank Size	Teeny	Small	Medium	Large	Jumbo
5 Gallon	4	x	x	x	x
10 Gallon	8	6	4	2	x
20 Gallon	12	9	6	3	x
30 Gallon	16	12	8	4	x
40 Gallon	20	15	10	5	x
55 Gallon	24	18	12	6	2
75 Gallon	32	24	16	8	3
92 Gallon	40	30	20	10	4

One thing to keep in mind is that hermit crabs grow. If you start off with a 10-gallon tank and 6 small crabs, you will need to upgrade to a larger tank once they become medium-sized crabs.

Let’s say that you purchase 4 small hermit crabs from the pet store. This is a good number that keeps your hermit crabs from getting lonely. For this many, I would recommend a 20-gallon tank. At most pet stores this would cost around $25. A good rule of thumb is that an aquarium will cost however many gallons it has in dollars plus $5. For example, a 10-gallon tank will cost $15 because 10 (gallons) x 1 (dollar) = $10 then add $5.00.

Let’s say so far you’ve bought 4 crabs from the store, setting you back $24.00 ($6.00 per crab). A 20-gallon tank will cost an extra $25.00, which means that so far your crabs have cost $49.00. Now, let’s get into the interior of your hermit crab enclosure.

Interior

I’ve spent a good amount of money ordering goodies off Amazon for my hermit crabs over the years. Below is everything I have bought to setup my crabitat (hermit crab habitat).

Most hermit crab owners agree that their crabitat needs each of the following:

Plenty of substrate
2 water bowls & 1 food bowl
Aquarium Salt
Shelter
Extra shells
Decor / Climbing toys
A heat source (heat lamp or pad)
A digital hygrometer & thermometer

I get more into detail on why your hermit crabs need every one of these items and more in my article: 21 Things Every Pet Hermit Crab Needs. Here, I’m going to focus more on the cost of these items put together.

To figure out the cost of all of these items put together, I’m simply going to go through my Amazon order history. I’ll modify how much I “bought” to fit the needs of 4 hermit crabs. More hermit crabs need more shelters/hiding spots, shells, and substrate.

Keep in mind that prices change over time, these will just be a rough estimate of what you would buy for your enclosure:

Note that this is for a 20-gallon hermit crab aquarium with 4 crabs.

Item	Quantity	Cost (Per Product)	Total Cost
Substrate	2 (bags)	$11.00	$22.00
Bowls	3	$6.00	$18.00
Aquarium Salt	1	$11.00	$11.00
Shelter	1	$10.00	$10.00
Shells	12 (3/crab)	$1.50	$18.00
Decor / Climbing Toys	3	$8.00	$24.00
Heat Source	1	$12.00	$12.00
Hygrometer / Thermometer	1	$12.00	$12.00

All of these products combined cost: $127

Again, this is a rough estimate based on the prices I’ve paid to set up my tank. If you have an enclosure smaller than 20 gallons expect to pay a little less, and vise versa.

The real deciding factor in how much you need to buy is how many hermit crabs you own. For example, 5 pet hermit crabs need more living space, hiding spots, extra shells, etc. compared to just 2 hermit crabs.

This is where the bulk price of buying hermit crabs comes from. From now on, there are minuscule but reoccurring costs to owing a hermit crab.

Monthly Costs

Hermit crabs are very low-maintenance, which makes them very inexpensive to care for.

You’ll be going through hermit crab saltwater and food regularly, and two bags of Eco Earth (hermit crab substrate) every 2 to 3 months.

Food for your hermit crabs can be table scraps. The tops of strawberries, bits of lettuce and other greens, eggshells, saltless nuts, chopped ends from tomatoes, etc. will make your hermit crabs happy and healthy.

You can occasionally buy your hermit crabs treats such as dried shrimp. Let’s say that you do this once a month. That and the combined cost of feeding your crabs fresh food every day will set you back at most $10 a month.

Next is your saltwater. If you buy 10 gallons worth of aquarium salt for $11 (mentioned previously), this will keep you supplied for 4 months at a time. That’s the case for me

Next is your saltwater. If you buy 10 gallons worth of aquarium salt for $11 (mentioned previously), this keeps me supplied for about 4 months at a time. So, expect to pay $2.75 a month in saltwater.

Last is the Eco Earth. Hermit crab owners regularly replace their crab’s substrate to keep it free of mites, mold, etc. It’s widely agreed that a hermit crab’s substrate should be replaced every 2 months. It takes 2 bags to replace a 20-gallon tank’s substrate, so expect to pay $11 a month in substrate.

This gives us a grand total of $23.75 per month. To be honest, that’s more than I thought.

Total Cost

Time for some simple math. The initial cost of setting up your crab’s environment being $127 in addition with $23.75 per month for 180 months gives us a grand total of $4402.

Considering that your 4 hermit crabs live the expected 15 years (180 months), they will cost $4402 in total.

What to Buy & What to DIY

Looking at that large price tag may be a turn off for some potential pet owners. Keep in mind that this is spread over a 15-year timespan. You’re only paying $1.25 a day to keep your pet hermit crabs. This is much cheaper than a dog, which costs at least $15,000 over its lifetime.

A great way to save some money while maintaining a suitable environment is by DIYing certain parts of your crab’s environment. Here are three things you can make yourself that save money and work incredibly well for your hermit crabs.

Tank Lids

My hermit crab enclosure does not have a lid. Instead, I use plastic wrap to keep the inside of my crab’s tank warm and humid.

The trick is to secure the edges and sides with just a couple pieces of clear tape, and leave a gap wherever is convenient for fresh air to enter and escape.

This hole needs to large enough to allow you to fit your tank’s bowls. This will make feeding and watering your crab’s much easier.

The only issue is that I’ll have to replace this cover every 2 months when I do a deep cleaning of my tank. Still, it’s cheaper than a $20 aquarium lid.

I do not recommend doing this method if you have a heat lamp. You could melt the plastic wrap. It’s great, however, if you use an Under The Tank Heater.

Hermit Crab Shelters

Another great way to DIY your hermit crab enclosure is to make your own shelters.

Household items can do a great job as a hermit crab shelter. Plastics or ceramics do best in a humid environment, so no wooden, cardboard, or metal objects.

I’ve seen some hermit crab owners make shelters out of legos, others out of coconuts they’ve bought from the store. The trick here is to be creative.

DIY Substrate

Processing your own substrate is another great way to DIY your crabitat. You can use soil from outside, sand from the beach, or even grind your own coconut fibers if you happen to have plenty of coconuts.

Be careful when using substrates that are not already processed. It can contain pathogens and other harmful elements to your hermit crabs.

I made an entire guide to turning beach sand into hermit crab substrate. Feel free to check it out here.

3 Hermit Crab Money Saving Hacks

Cook your substrate

A great way to save money is by cooking your substrate. This is instead of replacing it every 2 months. By cooking your substrate, it cleans it of any pathogens or elements that may harm your hermit crabs.

I do not recommend doing this for more than 5 months at a time, especially if you have a mainly organic material as your substrate (i.e coconut fibers).

Start with a larger aquarium

As mentioned before, starting with a larger aquarium can save you money in the long run.

Let’s say, for example, that you buy 4 medium-sized hermit crabs and a 10-gallon tank for them to call home. Well, according to JMT’s size chart, they will need a larger aquarium once they molt a few times and grow into larger hermit crabs.

This will set you back another $10 to $30. I’ve made this mistake and I wish I went for a larger tank in the first place. It would have saved some hassle and stress for my hermit crabs.

Skip sponges

Another great way to save a couple of bucks and give you one less thing to worry about is by not using hermit crab sponges.

If you’ve ever owned a hermit crab, you’ve seen a hermit crab sponge before. They’re small, yellow, and confuse many new hermit crab owners.

Let me put your worries to rest by telling you they are not necessary. Just as long that you have two bowls, one with saltwater and one with freshwater. This gives your crabs plenty to drink as well as increases the tank’s overall humidity.