HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have two pools made from stacked 16oz Tupperware bowls. One salt water and one Prime fresh. I use a small stone bottom and have bubblers in both. Should I be doing complete water changes due to the size of my dish; or partial ones? If so, what percentage and how often?

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NovaBelle wrote:I have two pools made from stacked 16oz Tupperware bowls. One salt water and one Prime fresh. I use a small stone bottom and have bubblers in both. Should I be doing complete water changes due to the size of my dish; or partial ones? If so, what percentage and how often?

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You should change out the entire bowl, whenever you feel it’s necessary to do it, usually whenever they get really dirty.

If the crabs drag in EcoEarth, you need to change them whenever that occurs, because it builds up, creating bad water for the crabs.

I would also rexommend changing them out completely as often as possible. If they are not being maintained as aquariums (bacterial and physical filter, water testing) then the water can go south pretty quick.

I also wanted to mention that Prime should be used for both water pools. One should be dechlorinated fresh water, and one should be dechlorinated marine saltwater. (For example Instant Ocean or Red Sea) Bottled hermit crab water, sea salt sold for people, regular salt, hermit crab salt mixture, and aquarium salt are not sufficient. (This is mentioned for everyone that reads the posts).

I agree with above, I would change them everyday, completely. Use Prime conditioner.
It's an easy, and well recommended conditioner.

Change the bowls as soon as you can if they drag substrate in the pools.

I'm jumping in with some questions if thats okay!

So, I have a bubbler in my fresh water bowl but not my salt water bowl. Every few days i have to add water to my fresh water because it evaporates out, and i change it about once a week, sometimes more when it gets dirty. My two crabs dont dirty the water near as much as i thought. Anyway, my boyfriend says i shouldn't add a bubbler to my salt water bowl because the water would evaporate leaving salt in the bowl and make it "too salty" for the crabs when i add more salt water. Is this true? I read many of yall have bubblers in both bowls. I feel like it would be better to have one in both because it seems that my salt water gets "stale" just sitting there so i end up changing it every other day.

I had small rocks in the bowls to help the crabs crawl in and out but i swapped it for tiny gravel that's meant in the bottom of a fish tank. Has anyone else ever used this kind?

Your boyfriend is right - evaporating the water leaves the salt behind. Instead of topping off with saltwater, use fresh and it will bring it back to normal levels. Save the saltwater for when you clean and replace the bowls.

As far as the gravel, you can certainly use the smaller kind so long as it doesn't slip down and leave them trapped. They always need a way to get back out or they will drown.

wodesorel wrote:As far as the gravel, you can certainly use the smaller kind so long as it doesn't slip down and leave them trapped. They always need a way to get back out or they will drown.

What do you mean "slip down"? the rocks filled less than halfway, but i filled the bowls almost to the top with the smaller gravel. it packed it a decent amount to make sure it filled the bowl. is that right?

Most people just use a pile in one corner or one side as a ladder, so that their crabs can fully submerge.

wodesorel wrote:Most people just use a pile in one corner or one side as a ladder, so that their crabs can fully submerge.

Oh! Okay I see what you mean. Thank you so much!