Hermit crab food question

Question
Dear Expert,

My name is Mark and I am 5 years old. I live in Malaysia and I brought two hermit crabs home from a weekend at the beach. The crabs were small: 1.5 cm. I fed them banana and carrot. In their home my dad and me gave them salt and fresh water and sea shells. However after two days they died. Do you know what we did wrong? Anything wrong with the food?

Thank you for your time.

Best regards

Mark

Answer
Mark, you are very well spoken for a five year old.

The reason your crabs did not make it was because it was a marine hermit crab which needs to live under water. They come out and feed in the tide pools but spend much of their lives underwater. So if they aren't placed in a salt water fish tank, they will die. This is common mistake. Most people don't know that there is a difference between Marine hermit crabs and Land hermit crabs.