Decorating Ideas

This is where you discuss the conditions of your crabitat -- temperature, humidity, substrate, decorating, etc.
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Cal
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Location: Florida

Decorating Ideas

Post by Cal » Sun Mar 08, 2020 10:56 am

I *finally* finished setting up my crabitat today!! I spent over 12 hours yesterday cleaning, boiling, baking, and setting up so that this time there won’t be mites Image The crabs are ecstatic, and they’re running around all over the tank lol.
My tank right now is pretty bare, and I was wondering what decorations everyone tends to use! I want to go on amazon and buy a bunch of stuff for them lol (including a new uth and thermometer/hygrometer). Also, does anyone know of any good places to buy shells? On amazon they don’t have the right size for my two bigger crabs pretty much anywhere :/ Image
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Proud parent of 3 purple pinchers: Dr. Schmibbs, Tiger, and Cerulean :)
RIP to Marcel the Shell, Perry, and Sam

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Hermiesguardian
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Re: Decorating Ideas

Post by Hermiesguardian » Sun Mar 08, 2020 11:55 am

You can put more foliage in. A 2nd level.
raising son's dog, Dante. Husky/hound.
Raising daughter's hermit crabs, Shelder, Paras and Derek. Added 2 more of my own (of course) Pete and Stryper. Former mommy to 2 guinea pigs and beloved cat, Nissi

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DragonsFly
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Re: Decorating Ideas

Post by DragonsFly » Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:08 pm

Shells:

I've had great service from Naples Shell Company; they will listen to what you need and do their best to send you just that. It looks like you have a couple of shells in there that are not going to be used by PP's, so take a browse through the "Shells" forum and learn about which shells your crabs will like best, how to measure (opening size, not overall shell size), etc. Sadly, a LOT of pet stores sell shells "for hermit crabs" that can't be used by the crabs at ALL.

Decor:

I always recommend trying to give them as much opportunity and encouragement to move as possible (remember these are wild animals used to traveling for miles every night in the wild). Since you have a fairly small tank, that's even more important. More climbing apparatus, especially if you can encourage climbing by putting some food sources up high, will help. You can literally use sticks from the woods or your yard (if no pesticides are used); bake them for a while if you are concerned about potentially adding unwanted pests to the tank. FREE decor, and they can eat it. :)

And/or check out yard sales for other possible things--in my 120 high, I have a huge plastic "castle" that was made as a piece of fish tank decor; it was thrown in for free with an absolutely filthy 55 gallon high fish tank they were selling cheap (I scrubbed it out and sold it for more than I paid for it, and kept the castle!). It is hollow inside for "hidey" space, and has a rough surface with lots of "stonework," so it is easy to climb. There are several places with flat areas where I will put bits of particularly attractive food every two or three days, to encourage them to climb. In previous tanks, I've had plastic toy rocking horses and a doll's-size wicker chair for climbing on, and a hat-shaped plastic planter that I used for a moss pit. I think I paid 50 cents for those. Yard sales--a crabber's best friend. :)
--{}: Dragons Fly Farm --{}:
Resident PP's:"Major Tom" & "Billie Jean"

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
― G.K. Chesterton

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Topic author
Cal
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2020 3:05 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Decorating Ideas

Post by Cal » Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:37 pm

Hermiesguardian wrote:You can put more foliage in. A 2nd level.
Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ve always wanted a second level lol. I’ll look into how to make one!


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Proud parent of 3 purple pinchers: Dr. Schmibbs, Tiger, and Cerulean :)
RIP to Marcel the Shell, Perry, and Sam

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Topic author
Cal
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2020 3:05 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Decorating Ideas

Post by Cal » Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:40 pm

DragonsFly wrote:Shells:

I've had great service from Naples Shell Company; they will listen to what you need and do their best to send you just that. It looks like you have a couple of shells in there that are not going to be used by PP's, so take a browse through the "Shells" forum and learn about which shells your crabs will like best, how to measure (opening size, not overall shell size), etc. Sadly, a LOT of pet stores sell shells "for hermit crabs" that can't be used by the crabs at ALL.

Decor:

I always recommend trying to give them as much opportunity and encouragement to move as possible (remember these are wild animals used to traveling for miles every night in the wild). Since you have a fairly small tank, that's even more important. More climbing apparatus, especially if you can encourage climbing by putting some food sources up high, will help. You can literally use sticks from the woods or your yard (if no pesticides are used); bake them for a while if you are concerned about potentially adding unwanted pests to the tank. FREE decor, and they can eat it. :)

And/or check out yard sales for other possible things--in my 120 high, I have a huge plastic "castle" that was made as a piece of fish tank decor; it was thrown in for free with an absolutely filthy 55 gallon high fish tank they were selling cheap (I scrubbed it out and sold it for more than I paid for it, and kept the castle!). It is hollow inside for "hidey" space, and has a rough surface with lots of "stonework," so it is easy to climb. There are several places with flat areas where I will put bits of particularly attractive food every two or three days, to encourage them to climb. In previous tanks, I've had plastic toy rocking horses and a doll's-size wicker chair for climbing on, and a hat-shaped plastic planter that I used for a moss pit. I think I paid 50 cents for those. Yard sales--a crabber's best friend. :)
Those are awesome ideas! I love the idea of using sticks! And I’ll look into getting shells from Naples Shell Company. Thanks for the recommendations!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Proud parent of 3 purple pinchers: Dr. Schmibbs, Tiger, and Cerulean :)
RIP to Marcel the Shell, Perry, and Sam

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