Upgrading tank & Constant Molting

[girlwfreckles]

So I have been wanting to upgrade tank for awhile. I have 29 now but once I bred and added isopods I feel like it’s just not big enough. I’ve tried several things for a second floor and haven’t got anything to stay plus I had to add bubblers to help with humidity which has taken up a lot of space. But my issue is with moving tanks is 1. The isopods and 2. I seem to ALWAYS have atleast 1/4 crabs molting. Like I’m talking maybe only days in between where I could catch them all up. Any recommendations on what to do? I’ve tried making a second floor out of popsicle sticks and other various items but even with the tank/water sealant it kept falling apart due to humidity. I tried one of those like office shelf things but it was too short and the space between the bars was large so I had to keep putting cover on it with natural twineish fabric but the isopods or hermits kept eating big holes in it. I got a shelf that was like one of those things for your showers that’s like to keep soap and stuff in. That lasted for awhile but eventually I couldn’t get it to stay up anymore. I also don’t know why some of my crabs 2/4 are always seeming to be molting/dug down. When they are up they look healthy. My humidity has been consistently great since adding bubblers for a few months now. I keep all the types of foods they need in there. Change out water. So I guess that’s multiple questions. All four of my crabs are considered mediumish size if you go by shell size. They were xsmall/small when I got them. Have had them for about a year now.

[Hermiesguardian]

I can't give any advice about the isopods. It's almost impossible to have all crabs up at the same time if you have more than 2. If you can set up the new tank while keeping the old one running, then you can move them as they come up. That's what most of us do. As for a 2nd shelf. When my suction cups start failing, I clean them off with just a wet paper towel, and the glass, then dry them with dry paper towel. That gives them a longer life. You can attach craft mesh to the shelf and the isopods won't eat it.

[girlwfreckles]

I should’ve thought of the mess because I’ve use it for other stuff haha thanks! I really don’t have the room To have two set up especially if I’m switching to like a 50 but may have to figure it out when I absolutely need to. For now I think I’ll do the craft mesh and maybe rearrange stuff. Thanks! And thanks for saying that about having them all up at a time. I was worried there was something wrong but that helps. When they were little they molted so little of a time that they were up a lot together now it seems like they’re on a rotating schedule or something. Yeah isopods are continually breeding and they can be so small I might just have to do that last when switching and unfortunately maybe miss some. I was thinking about selling them because they had exploded in breeding and I still had a ton I hadn’t even put in tank but couldn’t think of a safe way to ship so I just put them in my garden after frost danger was past.

[GotButterflies]

Hello! Isopods are a pain in the rear end! They over populate in all three of my crabitats. I have a huge 50 gallon storage tote that I dump them into. I then give them away to people on here that want to inflict doom upon themselves (they have to pay for shipping), and I sell them to reptile stores. Only one of the species I have are native in my area, and there is no way I can separate them - so...I cannot release them. (I see you said you release yours - please make sure they are native in your area - especially the species you are releasing).

As previously mentioned...it is rare to have all of your crabbies up at the same time. Unfortunately that is just the way it is!

I personally use command strips to keep things up in my tank. I use the strong velcro looking kind - they work great for me. My problem with suction cups is the hermits pinch them climbing up them. Egg crate works great - branches are great - plastic shelving is great - check out other crabitats on pinterest, or in the picture section for ideas

[girlwfreckles]

Thank you! I had previously got some ideas off Pinterest for what I’ve already done but haven’t found any new ideas I liked. I might try the egg crate thing though. That’s a new idea for me. I’ll have to try the Velcro command strips the ones I previously used for my shelf lasted awhile but they were just the sticky kind. I decided to reput that up and make it a shell shop because I think that’ll help with some space issue. Also because the isopods keeping using the shells as their own personal bathrooms and I’m hoping putting them up high might help. Yeah, I wish I had looked more at the cons of having the isopods before starting to breed them. It’s not worth the tank cleanup anymore for me. I know they’re local actually because that’s where they came from (my garden) .... Well my first 30, I think that’s why they thrived so much in the fall when I just collected, sanitized and froze a ton of leaf litter from my yard and that’s literally what they ate off of all winter. I think before I released the ones in the tub I had over 100 tank and tub not including all the gazillion tiny babies. Mostly I’m not fan of them because they’ve also brought a lot little super minuscule springtails that also greatly produce. But those are pretty minimal in my hermit crab tank vs the tub I think because I don’t have the leaf litter in there and they seemed to like that a lot. I think once I do try to upgrade tanks I’m going to try to not merge over the isopods. Maybe I’ll see if anywhere on egg at that point wants any.