So you have your pet hermit crabs and you’re thinking of buying snake to compliment the crab in the same cage or tank. You might be wondering if these two creatures could be able to coexist without any of them harming the other. If you’re seeking for information about hermit crabs cohabitating with snakes in the same tank or cage, then you will find them in this article.
Can hermit crabs live with snakes? Hermit crabs and Snakes cannot live together because they have different habitats and different foods. They will hurt and eat each other if they stay together.
Now you know some of the reasons these two animals can’t live together.
I will explain some other reasons why they can’t cohabitate in this article.
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Before you think of having a pet, first of all, think about the behavior of the the pet etc and try to find out which other pets out there could be suitable for your pet in terms of behavior and nature etc.
So when it comes to snakes, they are very cool and gentle, although could be very violent when they want.
Snakes are carnivores and do eat anything they can, including far more bigger animals such as Buffalo, even cows etc.
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The fact is, their whole body is elastic, including their mouth.
They can swallow anything they could eat.
On the other hand, Hermit crabs are social, but could be troublesome if they want.
They can pinch anything with their strong claws, little wonder why they could be able to kill and eat some fish.
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Hermit crabs are omnivores. That’s means they could eat both vegetables, plants, fruits and even some animals they could kill.
If you watch the nature and the behaviors of these two different animals, you will come to the conclusion that, they are not in anyway compatible and can’t be together in the same environment, no matter what.
Why Hermit crabs and Snakes can’t live Together
As I have elaborated some of the natures of these two different animals above. You can see that their nature differs in every way you can think of.
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If you’re not still convinced or you’re still interested to learn how they differ or why it’s impossible for them to live together, then here are some of the reasons they can’t live together:
Environmental Differences
Snakes live in hot environment while Hermit crabs live in humid environment.
Talking about why hermit crabs and Snakes can’t be able to cohabitate, this is one of the greatest reasons they can’t.
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You might say that snakes could also go inside water and swim, well, that’s true, but naturally, they live in hot environment and can’t stay in neither water, cold nor humid environment for a long time, or they will be too cold and might be sick.
But on the other hand, hermit crabs can’t stay in a dry land, even to talk of staying in a hot environment.
They can only survive in water or in an environment where there is much humidity and also where the temperature is between 70 – 85°F, which snakes can’t tolerate.
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The fact is, if hermit crab stays in a temperature less than 70°F or in a non humid environment, or in an environment that has less humidity in the air, they won’t be able to get enough oxygen/air to breath, and will suffocate.
Hence they only make use of gills instead of lungs.
Habitat Differences
Apart from having different environments which they could live in and survive, also theirs habitat differs too.
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Majority of snakes love to habitat or stay in grasses, stones and trees, and even thick forests.
Even snakes in captivity require those things for them to be happy.
If you live in tropical areas where the weather is hot such as in parts of Africa, South America, Asia and Some parts of Europe, you will realize that when ever the sun is hot, snakes are likely to stay in grasses, on top of rocks and even trees. This is because they love staying in those places and many of them live there too.
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When it comes to hermit Crab, there are two main species of hermit crab.
One is aquatic based, the other is land based.
The water based hermit crabs completely lives in the water and dislike being on the surface and on land, and the other specie although can swim and stay inside water, but prefer staying on the land.
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So let’s say you want to keep them together with snakes, how do you go about it?
I mean how do you bring out the water specie or the land specie of hermit crab and keep them with snakes that love living in hot places?
So you see, both differs in many ways and can’t inhabit the same environment.
Food Differences
Talking about why snakes and hermit crabs can’t live together.
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One of the reasons they can’t coexist is food differences.
We know that snakes are carnivores and does not eat anything else than flesh of other animals.
on the other hand, Hermit Crabs are omnivores. They could eat both plants, fruits, vegetables, and even other animals too.
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The fact is, snakes could eat any animal that they could be able to kill, including far more bigger animals such as cows etc, because they have elastic body and mouth which they enlarge as they swallow their preys.
They eat various animals such as fish, crustaceans, etc, but their favorite it mice, rats, rodents.
So if you have a pet snake, you will need to feed it with mice or rats, wether dead or alive. They love them
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Hermit Crabs being omnivores could eat vegetables and fruits such as mangoes, apples etc. And animals such as some fish and smaller animals.
It’s very dangerous to keep snakes with crabs because one of snakes meals is crustaceans, which crabs fall into.
Even if the hermit crab is bigger than the snake, it will one day eat the crab.
So they can’t cohabitate.
Water Differences
Although snakes are not aquatic animals, despite that they could swim, they don’t live in water.
Crabs do live in water and so the two animals have different tastes when it comes to water.
It has been scientifically proven that snakes don’t care about water so much, and they drink freshwater when they want to drink.
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Hermit Crabs live in water, and prefer to drink salty water.
The thing is, judging from how both animals see water and how they drink it and the type of water they drink, you will see that it’s impossible for both to cohabitate.
I mean, if you were to keep them together, how do you go about settling or solving their water differences? so they can’t cohabitate.
Behavioral Differences
We have seen other factors why snakes can’t coexist with hermit crabs, but one of the most important factors is their differences in behavior.
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Like I mentioned above, snakes are very gentle, although very violence when they choose to.
Hermit Crabs are very social animals, and loves messing about with their tank or cage mates.
Although they could be easily stressed too.
Now let’s assume you succeeded in keeping them together, what will happen is, the crabs will be messing about with the snakes by pinching them with their claws.
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Hermit Crabs can also eat snake’s skin, and so might try to do that which will inturn provoke the snake, or might even kill it.
On the other hand, snakes can eat crabs and will love to eat your hermit if it comes closer to him.
Again, snakes being very violent will try going after your crab once it set it’s eyes on your hermit crab.
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So with their differences in behavior, they can’t live together without any one of them wounding or killing the other.
Will Snakes Eat Crabs?
It’s too obvious that snakes and crabs are not good mates and can’t stay together, so what if they do? will Snakes eat them?
Will Snakes eat crabs? Yes, snakes will eat crabs if they have the chance to. Most snakes known as Homalopsid eats nothing but crustaceans. They eat crabs by swallowing them.
As you might have known, snakes don’t have teeth for chewing foods, they only eat by swallowing their foods as a whole.
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So they could be able to swallow anything they can kill, if not, how in the world could a snake be able to eat animals with shell such as hermit crabs.
What Snake Eats Crabs?
As you have learned that snakes and hermit crabs can’t live together, and also snakes do feed on crabs. You might be interested to know the type of snakes that do eat crabs.
What Snake eats crabs? The white – bellied mangrove snake (Fordonia leucobalia) and Cantor’s water snake (Cantoria violacea) eats crustaceans by swallowing them.
These two species of snakes I mentioned above are known to be ferocious crustacean eaters.
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Although they could eat other things, but they love eating crustaceans like crabs, shrimps and crayfish.
Don’t get it twisted. Other types of snakes can also eat crabs too.
Infact all snakes can eat crabs when they’re hungry, depending on the size of the snake and it’s taste.
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So all snakes could eat crabs if they get the chance and exposure to.
Conclusion
Snakes and hermit Crabs can’t live nor cohabitate because they are dangerous to each other and they will end up killing and eating each other.
Again the same environment can’t suitable for both of them.
I hope this article is helpful and have answered some of your questions.
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