HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I finally moved my two new little guys into the main tank last night. First I gave them a quick bath (their first and probably last). I sectioned off a quarter of the tank with a CD jewel case to quarantine my molter who's dug under in the corner, then cleaned out the substrate on the other 3/4 of the tank. I have play sand with a bit of EE mixed in, and approx. 4"x6" section of all EE. Put their cave from ISO in the main tank, newly cleaned shells/dishes with water and food. Once I put them in they went wild! I think maybe part of it was stressful, but then really they seemed to be enjoying themselves exploring every square inch, checked out all the new shells, and my teeny was trying to figure out a way to scale the CD case. I literally sat there for an hour watching them, and interestingly it seemed like they were hanging their shells this way and that, I was wondering if they were trying to get the remaining bath water out of their shell? The teeny climbed up a cool piece of wood I have and hung there almost upside down for 5 minutes, and the small dug a little trench and sat there on a diagonal facing down for about 10 minutes. Then they both took turns munching coconut and moss, then seemed to settle down. This hermit crab ownership is so much fun, so rewarding too. I love it.

Anyway, my ISO, a 2.5 gallon critter keeper, is empty now except for substrate of 90% sand/10% EE. What's the best way to store it? I was thinking of taking off the lid and letting it dry out, then just put it in a cool, dark, dry place? I want it "at the ready" for the next time I need it.

I nuke mine to dry it out and kill anything that might be in it. Once I am sure it's completly dry, I drop it in a few freezer bags and seal it so no insects find it and make it a home. Then I store the dishes and bedding all together in my closet until it's needed again.

This will not work if you have had mites. You need to dump your bedding then and start over.

With my 10 gallon ISO I clean out any organic matter, sift the sand, empty the water dishes and let everything dry out.

Basically I set it up so that next time I have a crab needing it, all I have to do is add water to the dishes, add food, and either mist like heck or moisten a section of the sand to sand-castle consistency to bring the humidity up to par. Takes about 5 minutes to prep the ISO.

With winter coming up it will take a bit more prep time since I'll need to warm it up as well.

I'm planning on connecting mine to my main tank when I'm done with it - but then, I have two kk's and am therefore short on space... but there may be a way to do it with regular glass tanks, too, if you have space.