HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Huh weird. I copied in the complete text again, you should see it all now. I apologize for the many links that no longer work, though. An update is in progress.

The description of how i's supposed to work it very vague. Colloids are not some type of mollecule, they are a variety of substances, contained in another substance. Milk for example (fat in water, basically) is a colloid. So until I find a more exact description of what it contains, I would assume ...

Rose of Sharon = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_syriacus ? That name is used for a few different plants If you mean the Hibiscus, then I think it's safe. It can be eaten by humans in any case and so far I couldn't find anything about it that would make it unsafe for the crabs.

I'll look into it, it's been years since I updated this. Thanks for letting me know.

It's safe, but my crabs at least never seem to go for it as much as they go for hazel or oak.

I would stay away from the redwood. They all have stuff in them that serve as insect repellents/insecticides.

Oak and maple are a favourite here, too. Willow didn't go over that well, but they loved hazel and birch.

Yes, it's safe. They can have citrus fruits, the acid doesn't harm them.

I think that they were added to the list because of their toxicity to other animals/mammals. I'm not sure if the protoanemonin that makes them toxic would harm the crabs, but I think it might affect their mouthparts and their digestive tract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoanemonin Mike120, the m...

They are safe when dried, though.

Stems are safe, the whole plant is

Good luck with the predatory mites! I've used those for a mite infestation in my assassin bug tank and it worked great.

I would rule out two-spotted mites by the way, as far as I know they don't feed on other invertebrates at any stage of their life cycle.

Re Ca:P ratio: It doesn't make a difference because the absorption of calcium does not depend on the digestive system. It's a simple chemical process, not depending on the kind of animal that eats the plant. Crabs won't be harmed by the calcium oxalates that are produced when oxalic acids absorp cal...

Many plants with a lot of calcium also have a high content of oxalic acids, which binds calcium in the body. Parsley for example, with 1.7g oxalic acids per 100g. Calcium:phosphorus ratio is also important for the same reason, although most vegetables have a good ratio. Fruits often contain a lot mo...

Silverfish definitely need high humidity (80-90% are ideal), they are not a common pest found in books and such unless you have a damp/mold problem anyway. They do feed on paper and other weird stuff. As crabitat pests, I would say they are much less common than mites, fruitflies, gnats, booklice an...

suebee, booklice can't jump. They walk and many species even have wings (but it seems that the species most common in crabitats don't).