Alex: I’m Alex Fees from Small Business Television, SBTV.com, we are on location in
Baltimore at the 2009 Pet Industry’s spring tradeshow. It is brought to you by HHbacker
associate, publishers of Pet Age magazine. During research.
Paul: Yes.
Alex: Are we off to the races here with the hermit crab?
Paul: Absolutely. We’ve been, yup, we’ve been showing this off for over 20 years. It’s been a
market and continually grows, it’s for a 5-13 year old kids. It’s done very well, it’s
hypoallergenic, the hermit crabs have no known diseases to mankind, so it’s very safe for the
children, and they have the ability to pick up various design on their shells and create various
habitats which can be carried around either the house or outside the house and to the schools.
The crabs relate very, very well and the kids just love them.
Alex: So hermit crabs as pets, right?
Paul: Absolutely.
Alex: Paul walk back there, show me what you’re talking about.
Paul: Well the kids can take little crabs like this and hold them in their hand, sure it doesn’t take
that much to house them. Of course like any creature, the larger the home the better, but the
crabs will move in and out of shells at will. As the hermit crab grows, it takes a larger shell, so as
a pet owner you would have spare shells for the hermit crab.
Alex: Show me a football helmet Paul. So these are other types of homes that the crabs will
crawl in.
Paul: Absolutely, but what we’ve done here is we put the shell inside the championship helmet
there, with the Pittsburg Steelers, and of course the kids, kids like it, something different. I think
parents really like it more than the children only because their base, you know, with their special
team, so that’s it. Yes sir?
Alex: Paul, what about the notion of hermit crabs as pets, is that new?
Paul: No, it’s not new. No, hermit crabs have been on the market, really since the ‘60’s, with the
advent of salmonella in turtles, the hermit crab displaced the turtle as a small pet for children, so
that’s how it developed. Again, hermit crabs have no known diseases; they’re hypoallergenic, so
any children, any child can have them. I think the one detrimental thing, if possibly, was the
hermit crab has a defensive device here has a big pincher. If that latches on to you it does, you
know that you are being held by a hermit crab, but that’s the worst. As long as you keep your
hand tot, the crab will not bother you. Or you can hold it from behind, they're very shy, they’ll go
into the shell at a touch, so they’re not aggressive, they won't come after you.
Alex: How big can they get, Paul?
Paul: They can be as large as, oh we can say a softball. So they, we have known them to be this
large, it’s not a viable item for children, but it’s something that is sold in the market place.
Alex: What’s your biggest one here in your arena? Do you know?
Paul: Basically, what we have here now is probably little bigger than a, about a baseball size.
Again, you can let him run around the house.
Alex: Yeah.
Paul: It feel more comfortable that way.
Alex: Paul, what does a hermit crab eat?
Paul: Hermit crab food, they’re scavengers, we’ve developed a great food, we have both fruit,
excuse me, we have a fruit base product that’s all natural fruits. The crabs love that, we have a
grain base product, so we give them a variety of diet. We tell people to feed them table scraps,
they love table scraps, fruit loops, rice crispies, they’ll eat pop corn, peanut butter, so you can
have a lot, kids can have a lot of fun. They all have discerning taste, so they can try anything off
the table to see how much they like it.
Alex: And Paul where can people go to get more information about Florida Marine Research?
Paul: Absolutely go to your independent pet shops, most of them carry hermit crabs, if not, they
can tell you enough about them to keep, to keep the hobby going or create a good hobby, a
hobby for the pet, so, that’s it.
Alex: Alright, thank you very much sir.
Paul: You’re welcome.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services