County Fair crabs

[Wlfwo]

My grandson went to the county fair and brought home 2 crabs, painted shells (bad, I know). Next day I went to town and grabbed salt water, food, eco dirt and a stick on heater. Housing them initially in a 5g left over from bettas. They are lively and eating well. I ordered a stand, then picked up a 20g tank and screen lid and covered that with bubble wrap. Currently it's has one brick of eco dirt (yes, it needs more) and the water bowls while I wait and see what the humidity is going to do. Going to town to get more eco and another heater which I want to put on there so as I can get it back off and/or move it should it be necessary. Question: Can I cover the back in foil and then use tape or do I have to get the special foil tape? These guys were expensive to get hit with on a limited income and at the beginning of the school year when we have to get supplies and pay for school. But, they are neat and I couldn't say no, didn't say no to the snake either. LOL

I've been reading and have the place to get new shells, still need to measure the little guys or gals so as to get the right size and some larger as I'm hoping they do well and make it, so far so good. I'm also going to be ordering food as locally the brands seem to suck, so they'll have better food and treats as soon as the check gets here. Only treat they have now is zucchini out of the garden. As for climbing wood, we had a maple limb come down, can I get pieces off of that for them? I also bought moss, it was zoo med, was the only kind I found.

I bought 2.5" deep glass dog bowls about 6" around for them, I put cross stitch plastic on the bottom and will glue (aquarium glue) some rocks together to form a ramp, I have tons of stones that have been in my aquariums over the years. I am on well water so no chlorine, but I still use a couple of drops of Prime just because of iron in the water.

I was planning on making it deeper towards the back and more shallow in the front and later on seeing about adding something as a 2nd level. Would this work? Or should I make one end deeper?

We currently have 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bird, 1 tank of fish, 1 garter snake about 22" long and 2 newly acquired hermit crabs.

[GotButterflies]

Hello!

Aluminum foil is fine. If you have a zoomed heaters do not put aluminum foil over those. You would have to go around them.

Make sure salt is marine salt, and not bottle salt or hermit crab salt- those are junk.

Substrate depth should be minimum of 6" or three times the depth of the largest crab whichever is deeper- all around the tank, and then you can change it up.

Eco earth should be mixed with dechlorinated marine salt water to prevent mold growth- only moisten it to be sand castle consistency

Check out the safe food list- crabs can eat a lot of the foods we do- stay away from pesticides & fertilizers ~ buy organic when possible


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[Wlfwo]

[quote="GotButterflies"]Hello!

Aluminum foil is fine. If you have a zoomed heaters do not put aluminum foil over those. You would have to go around them.

Make sure salt is marine salt, and not bottle salt or hermit crab salt- those are junk.

Substrate depth should be minimum of 6" or three times the depth of the largest crab whichever is deeper- all around the tank, and then you can change it up.

Eco earth should be mixed with dechlorinated marine salt water to prevent mold growth- only moisten it to be sand castle consistency

Check out the safe food list- crabs can eat a lot of the foods we do- stay away from pesticides & fertilizers ~ buy organic when possible

So tape around it, got it.
I bought instant ocean and mixed my own.
Maybe I'll make rock hills then or wood ones. Somewhere I have an old coconut hut, need to find that and see if the baggie I put it in is still good.
I mixed the eco with instant ocean water.
We grow a lot of our veggies, plenty of room to do that. We do a lot of hoeing, LOL
Thanks bunches

[GotButterflies]

Awesome!


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