Safe to Use?

[piratetoothgir]

Do you think using mesh paper, from a grocery store would be safe to use as a burrowing material in a moss container?
It's brown, and it looks like a bee hive. I would probably shred it up, and put it in a little container to hide in.

[curlysister]

Hmmm....can you attach a photo of what you mean? Is it made from paper or plastic?

[jesdannyand5hermies]

I recently found a nice little metal cage in my junk office, I'm not sure of the type of metal but it looks great for climbing on. It's been painted over but there are two things I'm unsure of the type of metal and the type of paint. I'm not dying to use it but I do think it would be a nice change up in the crabitat. What would be the necessary precautions to take? Sanding cage and repainting it? Ditching the idea?

[Hermias_mom]

I recently found a nice little metal cage in my junk office, I'm not sure of the type of metal but it looks great for climbing on. It's been painted over but there are two things I'm unsure of the type of metal and the type of paint. I'm not dying to use it but I do think it would be a nice change up in the crabitat. What would be the necessary precautions to take? Sanding cage and repainting it? Ditching the idea?

I'd recommend that if you don't know the type of metal or paint, that you don't use it. If you have powder-coated metal (metal with a well-adhered plastic sprayed/cooked onto it -the plastic can't be peeled off easily, and is actually a flexible epoxy), then it's probably okay to use as long as you don't go burying the cut ends with exposed metal in the wet substrate, and the coating stays intact. Paints have all sorts of additives depending on the color. Lead is an obvious one to avoid, but copper, zinc, and chromium oxide can also be paint additives, among others. Iron, and iron oxide I would generally consider okay. People are not nearly as sensitive as crabs, so things in paint that wouldn't bother us could still hurt your crabs.

Moisture in the substrate and marine salt in the substrate or habitat can combine with metal to form corrosion products that could be harmful to crabs. One common way of protecting metal fencing that is commonly used for animal enclosures (the 1/4" square opening aluminum-looking fence fabric) is hot dip galvanizing, which deposits a layer of zinc on top of aluminum fencing material. The aluminum is fine for crabs, but the zinc coating is toxic. If they're climbing on a dry piece of fencing, they get whatever exposure comes from rubbing on their legs, which is probably minimal if the crab climbs around once or twice. It's the repeat exposure that could cause issues, in my opinion. If the fencing or whatever rubbed off onto the crab gets wet, the zinc reacts with moisture in the air and substrate to form zinc oxide at the least, probably other compounds too, especially if there's marine saltwater present, which has a variety of dissolved minerals. Over time, this could build up in the substrate, and could lead to a bad outcome for your crab. It's one of those subtle things, that really, how would you know that's what happened unless you test your substrate for mineral and heavy metal content? So in my opinion the best course is to use a plastic mesh or grating instead. Polyethylene especially is inert in the crabitat and is not going to break down or react and hurt your crabs, but PVC works too.

[LadyJinglyJones]

Do you think using mesh paper, from a grocery store would be safe to use as a burrowing material in a moss container?
It's brown, and it looks like a bee hive. I would probably shred it up, and put it in a little container to hide in.

I think I know what you're talking about... and I imagine that stuff would get soggy pretty quickly in a crab tank. It probably isn't ideal.