HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, I know that pine products and such are harmful to crabs, and that cyprus fits into that category. But I've looked around and there seems to be a disagreement on if all cyprus is bad or if a certain type will not hurt them.I currently have a cyprus substrate in my tank, from T-Rex, which I've heard has some good products for hermies. There was a hermit crab right on the bag, so I'm really confused. I've since thrown the bag away, so I don't have a lot of details, but this is what I found in the ad for it at Petsmart.com:Cypress Bed® Premium Substrate Twice-Milled Cypress MulchIdeal for hermit crabs and small reptiles like the green anole, ball python, crested gecko, red footed tortoise, white's tree frog, red-tailed boa, blue-tongue skink, green tree frog, garter snake, pac man frog, rainbow boa, fat-tail gecko, day gecko, and iguana. * Twice milled cypress for softness and cleanliness * Recommended for high humidity habitats * Manufactured from a renewable source * Emulates natural decor * Resist mold and decay * Breeder tested and recommendedAvailable in a 1 dry quart (1.1. liter) package.Can someone clear this up for me? I've heard both sides of it and don't know what to do really...

Most plants referred to as Cypress are of the conifer family, which means that they will have the resins that other aromatics (such as pine and cedar) have. The aromatic resins are the part that can be hard on any small creature's system- especially when they are living directly in the substrate.I know that there have been studies on small mammals that made me decide as a rodent breeder not to use cedar or pine or any other resinous type of wood shavings. I am not sure how that translates to hermit crabs, though.Do the Cypress shavings allow for you to keep a moist substrate? Can the crabs actually make a burrow that will hold up for molting? I just don't have any personal experience with Cypress mulch.

quote:Originally posted by Nicole:I'm asking someone about this; I'm a little unclear myself about cypress. I was under the impression that certain kinds of cypress were safe for crab use but I want to check on this. From this post of JMT's:"Next I looked at Cypress Mulch. Real cypress is harmful to crabs, but swap cypress, or Taxodium Distichum, is safe for crabs. However, I could not find any info anywhere about whether the cypress mulch sold as reptile substrates was real cypress or swamp cypress, so I wasn't going to risk that until someone can e-mail the manufactures and maybe get an answer."I doubt that helps you any but I thought I'd share it.(Edited to fix link)

I found this websitehttp://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FR079That seems to imply that the cypress mulch sold in the states is from swamp cypress:"Cypress mulch is produced from two species of cypress trees (baldcypress, Taxodium distichum [L.] Rich. and pondcypress, Taxodium distichum var. nutans [Ait.] Sweet). Cypress mulch is composed of both wood and bark. These trees grow in the 3.6 million acres of oak-gum-cypress wetlands in Florida ( Figure 2 ). Cypress trees are also harvested for lumber used in fencing, siding, flooring, paneling, furniture and several other products. Mulch is often produced from the waste wood in the production of these products; however, recently mulch may also be produced from whole trees."However, on a different note completely from crab safety, is environmental safety. If you search the web for cypress mulch, you'll find plenty of environmentalists angry that their cypress swamps are being destroyed for mulch when there are many other more quickly renewable sources of mulch.The wikipedia entry lists all the different types of cypress:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CypressBald cypress (taxodium species, also includes pond cypress) is the only cypress on that list that's in the Epicurean's "safe wood" list.I have no idea about the other dozen or so.