Gathering local wild hermit crabs?
I live on Prince Edward Island, on the east coast of Canada. We have three species of hermit crabs here - "the Acadian hermit crab, the hairy hermit crab, and the long-wristed hermit crab", according to https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-hermit-crabs-beach-finds-1.6954577 They are extremely abundant - you can see thousands of them milling about on the south shore, so they're far from endangered. I have a freshwater aquarium for neocaridina shrimp and snails, and I would like to try a saltwater tank too. I thought that a tank for local hermit crabs and snails could be a good way to dip my toes into the world of saltwater tanks. I know that taking animals from the wild is often frowned upon, but since I live near the beach, I could really recrate their habitat well - I could use the sand, rocks, macroalgae, and even the water from their natural habitat. The temperature in my apartment should always be within the ranges they naturally experience. The local species are tiny, so I could keep a group (they seem kinda social!). And they're about as abundant as mosquitoes, so taking a few shouldn't have much impact on the ecosystem. Also, I am obsessive about giving my pets the best possible conditions in which to live. What are your thoughts on this? Would it be ethical? Would it be a good way to get into salt water tanks? And do you know anything about the care needs of these paticular species that I mentioned?