HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi there,
Im wrapping up my 325 gal setup after some various delays. I have a 5gal tank that will serve as the saltwater pool for the crabs, but I wanted to make it as alive as possible. The whole crabitat is designed to be bioactive. Therefore, i need some advice from salt aquarium savvy people on cycling this thing. I bought some marine salt with beneficial microorganisms, and have filled the tank and added instant ocean. I have a filter and small heater for the tank as well. I want to potentially add live rock and maybe a marine hermit down the line if everything goes well. Does anyone have any good refrences for this process? Reccomendations are welcome as well
Thanks!
Samantha

sammiewunchkins wrote:Hi there,
Im wrapping up my 325 gal setup after some various delays. I have a 5gal tank that will serve as the saltwater pool for the crabs, but I wanted to make it as alive as possible. The whole crabitat is designed to be bioactive. Therefore, i need some advice from salt aquarium savvy people on cycling this thing. I bought some marine salt with beneficial microorganisms, and have filled the tank and added instant ocean. I have a filter and small heater for the tank as well. I want to potentially add live rock and maybe a marine hermit down the line if everything goes well. Does anyone have any good refrences for this process? Reccomendations are welcome as well
Thanks!
Samantha

I would say don’t do it, and this is why:

1. Marine crab in tank with land crabs- depending on species they grow rapidly. Very rapidly. A 5g tank is not adequate for any marine hermit crabs other than tiny dwarf hermits, and if they don’t have enough space they will cannibalize each other. I stopped rescuing and keeping marine crabs due to this. I just didn’t have space or funds for the amount of care and size tanks they required. Every marine crab I rescued died within 1-2 years, despite having great conditions other than space (I had two emergency thin stripes in a 20 gallon saltwater tank, and some red legged dwarf crabs).

2. Anything that is living in the water, that gets splashed around or carried out of the pool in shells ends up somewhere in the sub. Because a live marine setup has all kinds of organisms, when they die off in the tank it’s going to cause ammonia and bacterial growth from the decay. This can lead to bacterial blooms in the substrate (rotten sub that smells like sulfur due to anaerobic bacteria) that can kill your crabs.






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In addition to what Soilentgringa said, hermies will go into the water to clean their shells, which will cause an ammonia build up in the water. This would be harmful to the living organisms in there.

I have a similar setup, the best thing would be to research topics/forums of nano aquariums, and draw inspiration and knowledge on how to care for a nano aquatic system.


Tbh, if you're never had a successful aquarium in your care, I'd really suggest against trying to get a bioactive setup. It's a very steep learning curve to start with marine aquariums, no even taking into consideration in a land hermit crab setup.

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The smaller you go the easier it will be to crash your tank. Like stated, research nano aquariums. But they are hard to maintain, especially that small. That's why bigger aquariums work better, they're harder to crash once they've stabilized. And it can take weeks, sometimes months to stabilize a tank before it's suitable for living things. Saltwater is much harder than freshwater too. It's not something I'd recommend either until you've had experience running one outside the hermit crab tank (solo it). Plus your crabs can crash the tank (stated above, increase in ammonia). Substrate or food getting into a small tank can also crash it. Were you planning on a filtration system to cycle it?