Fiddler Crabs Vs. Hermit Crabs

The only similarity between fiddler crabs and hermit crabs is that their name both contains crab in it. They are completely different from one another. The main part is that fiddler crabs need to have water and air to live and the water needs to be salt water. Hermit crabs cannot live in the water because they will drowned. Hermit crabs need to be in a tank with a lot of humidity and a water dish versus a fiddler crab that lives in the water and therefore doesn’t need humidity.

Fiddler crabs do not have a shell that they live inside of, their body is their shell. Hermit crabs need to switch into different shells as their body grows. Hermit crabs will also shed their skin while switching into a new shell. Fiddler crabs and hermit crabs both have one large claw but the fiddler crabs claw is much bigger than a hermit crabs claw. Hermit crabs can also get very large, sometimes as large as a big baseball or larger. They will also live for a very long time. Some hermit crabs live to be well over five years old.

Fiddler crabs only reach about two inches in length. You won’t have to worry about them outgrowing the tank that you place them in. If you purchase one hermit crab and place it in a ten gallon tank it might outgrow that tank depending on how big the crab gets. Hermit crabs need two water dishes, one to drink from and one to soak itself in salt. Fiddler crabs must live in saltwater or they will become weak and they will eventually die with time.

Fiddler crabs cannot hide inside of their shells like hermit crabs will. Hermit crabs will spend most of their time buried in substrate and the fiddler crab will spend most of it’s time soaking in the water or sitting on some rocks in the tank. You can purchase items for hermit crabs and fiddler crabs at any local pet store. Both of the crabs are fairly inexpensive and their habitat is inexpensive as well. Hermit crab food will only cost you several dollars every other month. It’s more difficult finding fiddler crab food because hermit crabs are very popular and you usually find just hermit crab food. Fiddler crabs like to pick through things floating in the water and eat the debris.

Hermit crabs and fiddler crabs both make good pets and both crabs have a wonderful sense of humor. You can place more fiddler crabs in a tank that you can hermit crabs because hermit crabs get a lot larger than fiddler crabs.