HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Medium crab is def. over 1" to top of shell. Would a 2" deep dish with 1.5" of water in it be a good starting point?

I have an idea for building some water dishes for our tank, but would like to know what you guys think is the ideal dish and water depth for a collection of small to medium boardwalk purple pinchers. I'm figuring dish should be 1/2" deeper than ideal water depth, but need a depth to aim for, prefera...

Edis' tank has pretty large pools (as you saw in the video) and I believed they are cycled/filtered. With deep pools you do not have to change the water daily. Mine are 2.5 quarts a piece and I go every 4 days to a week depending on how much junk the crabs have dragged in. Whether daily, or once/tw...

Watched the video last night, and thought it was pretty cool. However, having been lectured here about frequent (daily) changing of all water, I have to ask how you manage that on this rig?

Which thermostat do you like? Might be a better way to go, if it works for small tanks.


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10-gal is 20"W x 10"D x 12"H, so with 6" of substrate, a 6" x 20" would cover back wall of tank above sub.

I'm thinking a good plan might be go with two 6" x 8" heaters, so I can run one or both to keep tank temperature in the happy range, with varying seasonal house temperatures. Thoughts?

Could someone recommend an UTH size (watts or inches) for a 10-gallon tank with 6" of substrate? Room temp in winter will vary 65 - 70F, and heat would be taped to wall of tank above substrate.

Thanks!

Thanks for the info. Yes, I can see how a 10 gal tank can get too small fast. I was planning to add another level, to give them more room, before finally upgrading to a larger tank. Thanks for the reasoning on the water. Looks like I better get them some deeper dishes, ASAP. Biggest challenge is pro...

Was going to pick up an adhesive tank heater mat to stick to the back or end wall (mostly above substrate), but might have to rethink that if doing the back wall in cork.


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Looking to make some improvements in our first crabitat, and thinking this "cork tile" might make a good back wall for our 10-gallon tank. Our tank is the typical 20"W x 10"D x 12"H, filled 6" with sand/Eco Earth mix. I was thinking the 12" x 12" cork could be cut to two 6" swaths to cover the part ...

Been reading more, and the more I read, the more conflicting information I find. Almost all commercial dishes made for hermit crabs are 3/4" deep, so likely designed to hold 1/2" depth of water. Most guides say to keep water at this depth or less, and to provide a sponge, while those on this forum s...

They're probably good depth for the two small crabs, but maybe a little shallow for the medium crab. We haven't seen him since we set up the crabitat, tho. Thinking he went down to mold on day 1


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Obtained and boiled a nice assortment of natural shells.




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A lip on the dish doesn't matter. If it's no taller than they are, they will go sideways and hook a leg on it to pull themselves up. They climb trees in the wild, a dish is not an obstacle. :) However, like the others have said the dishes are too shallow. I didn't see anyone else say that. I haven'...

How do you change the water without making a mess of things?


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