Holy smokes what a lucky find!! I visited an Indian grocery store today after work and was thrilled to find mangrove root! The crabbies will love this I’m sure. Mangrove is a staple of their diet, especially cavipes. I am going to try to get some of it to sprout and see if I can get it growing.
Hi, Stacy!
I stumbled upon your great website while researching on herrmit crabs and what they eat. I have two C. cavipes at home. One was collected from a Mangrove forest, the other was found in our garden (a runnaway pet??)
The roots you found at shop looks a lot like Tumeric used in cooking spicy indian/asian dishes. Its a rhizome, much like ginger. Try cutting one open, if its bright orange inside, its Tumeric. Not sure if the hermits would eat it though, Tumeric is rather strong smelling. Mangrove roots are woody. Some mangrove species have spongy roots (air roots) but they look like upright pencils pushing up from the mud into the air.
Thanks for the comment and welcome! I will respond there as well but I broke open one of those roots and it’s not orange inside. It’s actually the same color inside as my ginger root. It does have a unusual odor. The crabs carried off one piece of it but I’m definitely interested in determining what it really is. Now that you say that, I remember buying some dried root and it was more stringy.
For additional information on food for hermit crabs please visit my sister sites:
http://www.hermitcrabcuisine.com
http://www.hermitcrabfoodtrials.blogspot.com
http://www.thehappyhermitcrab.com