New to hermit crabs; need advice!

[Andrulian]

Hello! I've decided over the past few weeks to begin to keep hermit crabs, and am wondering how exactly I should go about setting the tank up. I was thinking about having chicken wire (dulled down on the ends) for them to climb? I've read every care guide online I could find, but I'm not sure if chicken wire or just regular wire in general is safe for them to climb.

[Pumpkincrab]

I wouldn't recommend it, seeing as they're highly sensitive to metals.
Instead, opt for cork bark, cholla wood, mopani wood, ect.

[SilverHermits]

Hermit crabs required high humidity, that humidity will cause any metal in the tank to rust. This could harm your hermit crabs. You can use plastic egg crate instead, it's pretty cheap and hermit crabs love to climb it

[aussieJJDude]

First off, wanted to correct some misconceptions. Not all metals rust, in fact, only applicable to iron/iron based metals. Chicken wire is (usually) made of galvanised steel (iron is in it), so it does rust, but not all metals do rust.

Is rust bad? Honestly, some crabbers have had metals in their tanks without issue that its likely to be fine. The issue is, usually the chicken wire is coated (in this case, zinc) which in high concentrations can cause issues such as stomach and kidney damage in humans. Crabs are likely to pick at it, so could ingest large amounts.

JMT wrote a post on metal in the crabitat, I'll link it here.


Honestly, I would suggest avoiding chicken wire, as there's a lot of crab safe alternatives like plastic based that would be more suitable.

[aussieJJDude]

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 30&t=79277

Here is the guide!

[HermitCrabCHICA]

Okay there are some rules for hermit crabs and here are a 2 of them I thought were really important 1. No metal for hermit crabs! They are highly sensitive to metal. 2. Just thought this one was super important, please don't use calcium sand! It is toxic to the crabs and the sand will harden when wet.
In a different topic, how come calcium sand wasn't outlawed. Why do they still sell it in stores as hermit crab sand if it is toxic? Any opinion on that?
Oh and another tip for you is to not buy those stupid little "hermit crab starter kits" do some research on all of this stuff I know it really helped me out to do research because if I didn't I would've bought calcium sand! You should also watch some videos on YouTube as I did I watched videos from people like these... Hermits, Hounds, and Horsess. Crab central station, Loris Hartland, I think those were it.... One last tip, you should get cuttlebone for hermit crabs. It is a good source of protein and calcium.

[curlysister]

Okay there are some rules for hermit crabs and here are a 2 of them I thought were really important 1. No metal for hermit crabs! They are highly sensitive to metal. 2. Just thought this one was super important, please don't use calcium sand! It is toxic to the crabs and the sand will harden when wet.
In a different topic, how come calcium sand wasn't outlawed. Why do they still sell it in stores as hermit crab sand if it is toxic? Any opinion on that?
Oh and another tip for you is to not buy those stupid little "hermit crab starter kits" do some research on all of this stuff I know it really helped me out to do research because if I didn't I would've bought calcium sand! You should also watch some videos on YouTube as I did I watched videos from people like these... Hermits, Hounds, and Horsess. Crab central station, Loris Hartland, I think those were it.... One last tip, you should get cuttlebone for hermit crabs. It is a good source of protein and all that stuff.

Please see JJ's link to JMT's article about metals and rust. This is not necessarily a hard and fast rule.
There are many things that are harmful to many species, including people, that are not outlawed. Calcium sand is used for other critters, and there are even a few old school crabbers who mix a small amount into larger amounts of eco earth, and have been doing so for years without any problems. Again, not necessarily a hard and fast rule.
All the necessary information about crabs and set ups can be found in our very own Care Sheets. I have never watched any of those videos, and have no plans to. I recommend that people read through our care sheets.
Cuttle bone is a good source of calcium, not protein.