HCA: Hermit Crab Association

After my bacterial bloom we had to redo the entire tank. About 300 pounds of sand out then mixed up another 300 pounds to put back in. Not to mention a thorough scrub too.

I didn't mist very often, pretty much just the moss in the moss pit. I can to the conclusion that the water at the bottom of the tank had to be coming from the bubblers.

I followed aussieJJDudes suggestion and added tray under the water pools to collect water in them rather at the bottom of the tank.

I decide to go one step further and add roofs to the pools. My thoughts are the roofs will collect a lot of the water and allow it to run back into the pools.

This is my first attempt at the crabby cabanas as we call them. I only have the salt water one in operation now. I drilled a hole in the roof for an air line, and holes on the side to secure the airline. I also added two holes on the roof to hang a zip tie down to allow the water to drip back into the pool easier.

Once I see how well these work I will make two more and decorate them to give the crabs some more things to climb on.

I'm still not sure if the crabs found or will use them. Only time will tell

Here are a few pictures.



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That's cute! I like it

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Cool!

Looks rather good! Hopefully it all works out well for you!


What did you end up using for the trays?

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We rummaged everything at Wal Mart after I picked the new pools. Our final decision was dish pans that gave the most coverage. We cut the top half off to make them lower. They were only $0.97 each compared to $3-$4 for other similar sized containers.

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When and if I get any free time I want to decorate the tops with stones and fake plants siliconed on the cabanas. I think that will make them a lot more appealing to the eye and also give the crabs more climbing area inside the tank.

With having to tend to an injured crab he is taking up all the free time I have.

With having to rebuild the entire tank in a hurry I couldn't take my time planning how I normally do with the set up. When I had and idea and threw it together and got it done.

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Very cool!

I am very curious as to why the bubblers would have drawn that much water into your substrate, because I have ran an air stone on both of my pools for almost two years now and never had a flood.

I am thinking my air pump is too powerful. I bought one with a high rate of cc's per minute. Even with the dial on pump way down it still bubbles a lot. If my food dish was within six inches of the pools it would have a layer of water in each compartment. My old pools held 48 oz of water each. 4-5 days after a water change I would loose at least a cup of water in each. I just thought it was from the crabs in and out of it. After some thought even with 8 crabs in 1 1/8" shell openings swimming and drinking from the pools I highly doubt they could use that much water in that little bit of time. I doubt that much would evaporate that quickly either.

The humidity in the tank has always been stable between 82-86% there was no need to mist the substrate. I do mist the moss pit once or twice a week. I sealed the slotted vents in the bottom except for a few small holes to help hold water in that.

With the working cabana I did notice the water level drop an inch or two since Sunday. You can see how much condensation build up on the inside in 2-3 days. Since then I added an inline air flow valve to slow the bubbles more. I will have to see how that works in the next few days.

Here is some of the progress I made with one of the cabanas. I have been using aquarium silicone to glue all the stones in place.

So far I have see a few crabs on the edge of the cabanas but did not see them go in yet. When I add the finished top I am going to redo the crab mesh entering the water.

Finished cabana. Krusty approves!




One of my guys checking out an unfinished cabana.


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Awww! That's so cute!

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They turned out great! I thought they were pretty cool before, with the stones and plants they really look soo awesome! You are definitely king of crabby-construction!

Wow those are so amazing!!!!!! I love em!

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Wow, that looks fancy. Good work!


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These actually look awesome, great job!