HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey everyone!

I have two medium sized hermies who have a Fluker’s medium sized water bowl in their tank, which I fill with saltwater. I am curious how often two crabs go through that amount of saltwater each day. They’ve been in the tank for a week now, and since I’ve replenished the bowl no less than 4 times per day. They hardly are touching the freshwater. Is this normal? TIA!

It sounds like there is a leak/crack in the dish, or they are spilling it somehow. Can you give the dish a quick check and see if there are any holes or cracks?

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Alrighty, I just cleaned and dried the dish, then placed it on dry paper towels with water in it. Now we wait!

Problem solved! It appears that those little rascals had been kicking all the water out. I moved the water dish and it has not needed to be refilled yet!

Beccajean87 wrote:Problem solved! It appears that those little rascals had been kicking all the water out. I moved the water dish and it has not needed to be refilled yet!

Yay! I thought the water was disappearing too fast. Glad you found the issue!

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That is a ton of water that spilled! Have you checked your tank to make sure it isn't flooded at the bottom? I'm concerned you'll either have standing water now, or that your tank is going to be super dry going foward without that extra water daily.

Also, salt doesn't evaporate - it just keeps building up. That much salt going into the substrate could potentially cause issues. It causes chemical burns when they are soft from shedding, which stay until their following molt. If you mixed your substrate with saltwater and that much extra was going in, the salt concentration is probably too high. Some substrate should be swapped out or more should be added to thin the salt out. If you used freshwater to mix your substrate you may still be okay, but don't use any saltwater to spray in the future.