Hermit Crab or Goldfish- My Sister Says She's Getting My Son One or the Other

he asked for the crab and she already bought it. I would let him have it with parental supervision. Teach him about the respobsibility and safety precautions.
Then, if it's not going so well, maybe when school starts back up you can donate it as a class pet.

didn't read the other posts....sorry, Mamas!

We've had both: hated the hermit crab.....BORING!

Fish are fun, but a pain to keep clean. What about a beta fish with the peace lily plant combo....they last longer than the goldfish

ugh neither! hermit crabs can pinch and goldfish are freaking high maintenance if you care for them properly. I had goldfish before and they were literally the bane of my existence. You have to clean the tank every week or so and really scrub it down so the green stuff doesn't grow in there and you have to transport the fish elsewhere while you clean and it's just all gross. and they don't even interact with you =P aquariums are pretty but trust me, you don't wnat one in your home unless someone else is going to be cleaning them. if your son wants a hermit crab, a goldfish would be a letdown anyway. maybe she can do something else for him entirely? or how abou turtles? are they low mainteannce?

UPDATE: maybe the people who are saying goldfish are low maintenance are the ones who kept them in a bowl? that's much easier but if you want the goldfish to have a high quality of life (lol), you need to get them a decent sized aquarium with the running water and such.

I've killed all sorts of fish even though the pet store tells me they are "so easy" to take care of. So, I've forever banned fish in my house and would go with the hermit crab. It's not like he's going to take it out of the cage and play with it like it's one of the dogs....well, at least I think he wouldn't;)

Goldfish! Hermit crabs can pinch you and its not easy to get them loose! Ask my sister, not fun!

i had hermit crabs when i was little. when picking at the store, make sure it's one that is somewhat active, and will come out of shell when you keep him still on your hand. teach your son to be gentle with it, and that to hold it, you place it on your flat, stretched-out hand and let it crawl from hand to hand.. the only way they CAN pinch is if there is loose skin to pinch to, and most are very docile and would never pinch anyway! they are great pets

We have three hermit crabs right now. I've had a lot of fish in the past. Both can die quickly if you don't provide the proper environment for them to live in and feed and care for them regularly.

Hermit crabs need a real glass terrarium that will help keep the humidity level at the proper level - no plastic boxes. The need things to climb on and to hide in. They need to have a supply of shells to move into as they grow. You can take them out of their terrarium and "play" with them, but gently. They like to crawl around my daughters arms and clothing.

I think they take a bit more care than fish, but similar in that you need to occasionally clean their terrarium and replace their sand. Their environment needs to be kept within a certain temp and humidity range, but no heat lights! They need to be fed and watered (fresh and salt) daily.

The one sort of annoying thing they do is molt. We bought really little crabs and in the first year they have molted about three or four times. When they molt, they bury themselves in the sand and need to be left alone, undisturbed until they come out. This can take 2 - 3 weeks. Ours are now twice as big as when we got them. The bigger they get, the less frequently they molt.

If your son is interested in science, as my daughter is, owning hermit crabs will be interesting for him. If not, then maybe fish are a better choice.

Goldfish are rather hardy if you take care of the tank. Hermit crabs stink! They really do. If you can avoid one I think you'll be a lot happier :)

M.

If your son wants hermit crabs, I'm not sure he'll be happy with a Goldfish, at least at first. We had hermit crabs when the kids were in elementary school. They were pretty boring, and the kids lost interest in them fairly quickly. Guess who ended up taking care of them?

If you decide to go the fish route, Goldfish can be amazingly hardy. In fact, aquarium enthusiasts will usually buy them as starters for a new tank because they help to set up the biotic environment for more delicate freshwater tropicals. I don't usually keep them past the set up stage, but right now I have two that I inherited from a friend who was moving away, that I've actually grown quite fond of. They'll come to the front of the tank when I pass by and "beg", and will allow themselves to be hand fed (like, right from my fingertips or off of a spoon).

As with any fish, the trick is to make sure the tank is the right size for the fish and has a good filtration and temperature system. People try to keep Goldfish in little bowls, which do not provide enough oxygen exchange for the fish to survive. The rule of thumb is that you need 1 gal water/ small fish. Right now, mine are housed in my 30 gal tank with some large Gouramis, a 9" Peacock Eel, and a few small community fish, including a bushy-nosed Pleco who keeps down the algae and a couple of different types of Loaches who keep the snail population down. They're definitely holding they're own, and because of the size of the tank they're in, have grown to be quite large (about 4" long, each). They're about 3 years old and originally were won at a carnival, showing that these fish can survive very well if you take proper care of them.

Most Goldfish are cold-water fish, so you don't need a heater unless your house gets below 60 degrees. You should get a good filter, though. The best best for a good filter is an over the side of the tank type with a magnetic impeller that drives the water through 3 types of filtration (particle, carbon, and biotic). You can get a decent one for a 10 - 30 gal tank for about $30 at PetSmart or PetCo. Other than that, it's worth keeping a couple of live plants in the tank planted in gravel or aquarium sand. If you don't want to deal with snails, make sure you buy plants that are guaranteed to be snail clean (they usually come packed in plastic tubes.) The filter will keep the tank clean for several months before you really have to clean it and the tank, although it's better to do a 25% water change of the tank every couple of weeks, at a minimum.

It is important to NOT overfeed the fish. You can use flakes, which are fine, but only feed a small amount at a time, so that you don't get a lot of decaying food at the bottom of the tank. Feed only as much as you notice the fish will eat in 5 minutes, and you really only need to feed every other day. I feed mine frozen (defrosted) bloodworms, mainly because there are other fish in the tank that need this type of food and the Goldfish gobble it up, too. In any case, I figure that wild Goldfish don't eat flakes. They eat worms, algae, and small bugs, so it's better to feed them what they would eat naturally.

Keep in mind that Goldfish are schooling fish, and are not particularly territorial. They're actually fairly social, and do better when there are at least two of them in a tank. Mine hang together or swim with the Gouramis, but take off if the Gouramis start picking at each other.

Starting with Goldfish is a great way to develop an interest in aquatic life, and can serve as an introduction to keeping tropical fish as a hobby. I love my aquaria (I have four, ranging from 10 - 65 gal). Watching the fish is very calming a soothing, and observing their behavior can be very interesting.

I loved my hermit crab as a child, as an adult they freak me out. It didn't last long either, maybe it knew it bothered me (I did keep it fed, watered and clean, but not much holding going on). Fish we have done, but we are currently taking a break from. We have done both goldfish and betas, either are low maintance and from my recent experience last longer than the crab. We have had 5 Nemo's...

Gold fish are very low maintenance. We do care for ours properly but I don't consider cleaning the tank regularly and feeding them high maintenance. Hermit crabs are a pain and the temp in their tank needs to be regulated (my SD has had many and hasn't had much luck with them - at her moms). Definitely go with the fish!

Goldfish!! I had hermit crabs once, very hard to care for when thry outgrow their shell, plus I got pinched by one once, took all I had to get it off!! HURT!!!

Goldfish are gross. My son loves his but man does it stink! They dirty up the bowl very quickly. Unfortunately my son is not old enough to really clean it on his own, the bowl is too heavy. We have had the goldfish since September and it seems to be thriving. I believe 1 fish needs at least 1 gallon of water, so the bowl will need to be fairly large. The bowl needs to be cleaned 2-3 times a week.

We have had African Dwarf Frogs ( small little swimming frogs) and they were extremely easy to care for. They do not need much water (it needs to be fairly shallow, maybe 3-4 inches deep) and they do not dirty the water quickly. We had 2 in a smallish container and I only had to clean it out maybe every 3-4 weeks, and it never smelled. Ours lasted about 1 year which seems fine for a small aquatic animal.

I have never had a hermit crab but did have a crayfish at one point and that was disgusting as well. It smelled awful. I am really just not a pet person! Good luck with whatever you decide.

We had a goldfish for my son. NEVER AGAIN! They are so dirty, the tank had to be cleaned very often and it would stink pretty bad. I thought goldfish died pretty quickly, his lasted 6 months. I know nothing about hermit crabs so I can't help you there!

Guppies are much more hardy that gold fish. they also breed so if something happens, you have babies...

Hermit crabs don't bite, but they are boring. I'd go with the goldfish, they are more interesting, and if they die, it's really cheap to replace them. My teenager wins carnival goldfish and has had some that have lasted a year. Beta fish tend to live longer than goldfish, maybe he'd like a beta.

Get the goldfish. Yes, it will die soon (usually weeks, not days), so you get a nice lesson about death. I know many families who get a fish for this very reason. (I even know of a woman who bought a beta for her kid, and it hasn't died yet--it's almost 4 years old.)

Also, I nannied for a family who kept hermit crabs and they *stink*. Go for the goldfish.

We had a goldfish that lived for 5 years and a couple of others that lived for at least 3 - 4 years each. Once a week, I had to change and clean the tank (a horrible job). They grow BIG and they need 2 gallons for every inch they are, so if yours grows to be 5 inches (that's mouth to end of tail, not just body), you need a 10 gallon tank (which can get big and expensive, you'll need filters, water conditioners and cleaners, etc). All in all, a goldfish is NOT low maintenance, in my experience. Hermit crabs, on the other hand, are easy. We had three, one died a few months ago and the other two actually just died yesterday. My kids got them last August and we were told they only live a few weeks or months. Well, here we are 10 months later and they were still doing fine (until last night, of course). The kids did everything themselves, I had to do NOTHING. There was no issue with them biting, but make sure they've got something to climb in the tank (a tree branch, whatever) but keep a lid on so they don't escape (which they will). I'm actually not a big fan of either goldfish OR hermit crabs (I MUCH prefer betta fish, which are practically NO maintenance), but if I *had* to choose one, I'd go for the hermit crab.

You have a lot of good answers, and I don't know much about hermit crabs, but I've been a "fish M." for a long time, and I wanted to throw in my 2 cents about maintenance. A lot of folks consider fish "throwaway" pets, which drives me nuts - if we're going to take them on, we owe them proper care.

As far as fish go, there a quite a few other fish that are much lower maintenance. The main appeal of the goldfish is that they are inexpensive, and there are quite a few varieties that are considered pretty by a lot of people.

As someone else mentioned, they are cold water fish. Do not set up the tank next to a window. Heat or cold from a window makes the water temperature hard to regulate, and natural sunlight is very encouraging for algae growth. (You'll still get algae, but in sunlight, it'll be worse.)

All fish secrete slime, but goldfish do it more than other fish do, and it makes the water very cloudy, which is why they are higher maintenance than other fishes. You will need to perform weekly water changes (at the least) - and not all of the water, but around 20% - even with a mechanical filter. You need a gallon/inch of fish; if you have a tank smaller than that, you will need an air pump, and increased filtration (ie, get a filter rated for much bigger than your tank). You will need a siphon hose (most are self-starting now).

Assuming perfect care, goldfish have a surprising lifespan. The record is 43 years. Generally, though, you can get 15 out of them in a pond or large tank, or 5-10 years in a small tank.

It is a myth, by the way, that they stop growing when they run out of room. They will grow slower, but they don't stop. Usually what happens, is the goldfish gets too big for the water quality to support it, and they are poisoned by their own waste products and die. Check the maximum size of the species you're interested in, before you buy a tank.

____@____.com experience w/ Hermits...but goldfish!
Man, they are a lot of work! If you want it to die you put it in a bowl.
If you want it to live you buy it a big ol' tank for it to live for years and grow to the size of dinner. ;)

I love Black Moors (they are so funny)-but I will never undertake caring for them again.

I have had the best of luck w/ Betta's. Buy them a nice little 1-2 gallon tank and they are as happy as can be. Live for a nice couple of years and get excited when you come in the room. Or maybe they want to fight, IDK. ;)
But I like to think that our little fishy is happy to see me.

GL!

Hermite crabs are very hard to care for properly! My M. got them for my girl last summer. They lived a month! They also stink! My girls loved them, and were very sad when they died. We have had Beta fish, and they are very easy! I put ours in a large vase I got at Wal-Mart. Then get a Peace Lily plant (also at W.M.) and a clear plastic plant pot liner (Garden section at W.M.)Buy the liner when you buy the vase, and get the size that will fit in the vase to the neck part only. Cut a small hole in the middle of the liner. Wash all the dirt off the plant, gently pull the plants roots through the hole, and place the liner in the vase. The plant feeds the fish, and keeps the water clean. The fish waste feeds the plant. It's it's own little eco system! You only have to change part of the water about once a month or less. Also if you go away no one needs to feed the fish! He can live off the plant for a while. You can put pretty rocks or gravel in the bottom too. I didn't have a chance to read the other responces, so sorry if I duplicated! :)

It just depends on the fish. I had a goldfish, from the fair, and it lived for like 5 years. My M. hated that fish. She did all the maintance. If you have a tank wouldn't be as bad. And petsmart if you have one near year, garentees the fish and stuff for I think 10 days.

Just the other day my friend referred to their two hermit crabs as "the most boring pet on Earth." They stay hidden all the time and aren't exactly interesting to watch. If you just have to choose, I'd take the fish, but another friend who knows a lot about fish says that pet-store goldfish etc. are not healthy or hardy animals and end up dying quickly. If she really wants to get him a fish that might last, I'd tell her to take hiim on a field trip to a specialist fish store, not a chain pet store. She might change her mind when she sees the cost!