salt water

Question
which species of hermit crabs need saltwater and how can you tell what kind of species they are without the tag to tell you?

Answer
All species of hermit crabs need salt water, some use it for more than others but even the common crab (purple pincher) needs it although many pet stores will tell you that they do not.

Determining species can be hard. There are two commonly sold hermit crabs, the Purple Pincher and the Ecuadorian. It's easy to tell the difference between these two, the other species get to be more difficult.

Here's a neat site with lots of crabby pictures. At the bottom you will find albums of different species and their photos.

Oops, forgot the link.
www.crabstreetjournalphotos.com