HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Now I understand that I need to get precise measurments for a rectangular piece of plexiglass to make a pool. With the plexiglass at about 45 degree angle, I was going to attach it with aquarium sealant. My question is this: Since this pool will be for Straws that I plan to acquire, how do any of you clean the pool since it cannot be taken out of the tank?

you would either need a filter .. or siphon the water out every couple of days and replace it with fresh

What about using a wet/dry vac to get the old water out?

well.. yeah.. that would basically be siphoning it out... not sure how your hermies would feel about that though! lol

Well I'd probably take them out, the ones that weren't buried anyway. Also, you have to remember that there is minimal noise from the hose, it mostly comes from the unit which would be several feet away.

lol.. then yours is in better shape than my brothers... gods his sounded like a lawnmower!

We have a shop vac, too, and the last time we had a flood in our basment, that thing scared our cat to no end! To your question, I have an idea. Using extra plexi glass, you can cut a base for the pool, and if it is to be kind of like in a triangular shape, use some more plexi to create an extra side. Don't glue the pool onto the botom of the tank. The weight of the water combined with the sand around it should hold it in place. This way, you can remove it when need be.

Another idea is to have a bubbler. I got one for my fresh water dish, and it works great, letting the water circulate, rather than get stale. It only cost about ten dollars for the air pump, about two dollars for the hosing (depending on length), and not even a dollar for the air stone.

Hope this helps!

what about a syinge or turkey baster to suck it out ?

Yeah, that could work too. Mine evaporates, so if yours does, when you add fresh water, that could be OK.

You could always use an aquarium hose. Those work even in shallow water, I use them in my 1 gallon pools now I've seen them at Walmart super cheap.

Can the crab climb on the smooth glass? I had a crab which died drowning....He lost his pinchers so I think he cant climb anything. But there is a stair in the water dish to climb out.....

crab_boy123 wrote:Can the crab climb on the smooth glass? I had a crab which died drowning....He lost his pinchers so I think he cant climb anything. But there is a stair in the water dish to climb out.....

What I've seen a few people do is use aquarium sealant to glue aquarium gravel to the plexiglass ramp. The aquarium sealant is safe, and the rocks make a great grip for them to pull themselves up with.

I used broken scallop shells for mine. One word of caution: They're harder to break than you would think

In my tank(link below) I use a filtration sytem(a waterfall too), so that I never have to take the water out. And I have all small micro hermies. A word of cation is that big hermies(straws are the worse) will rip at the silicoine and make holes in it.

My pool, which I might add took a while to make. But, it is removable....as I had read here how it was hard to clean them properly and someone here had told me for future reference to make it removal. I have made mine where the pool is one peice that I can lift out for thorough cleans and otherwise will siphon out for routine maintenance. I will take pictures soon. I stay so busy.....I have not had time to take pictures or get my new crabitat together. Tomorrow is another day. I made the final leak test and so far so good. I would not want my pool to flood my tat, even with a slow leak. I have the pool divided into two halves with smooth small marbles on it, that have flat back for gluing them in place well. At first, I will not fill the pools too much....as the crabby mom will worry, until she sees tha her babies can climb out. If the have problems, then I will have to make adjustments to assist them.