HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Usually the top of my substrate has never had a......dryer feel to it. I recently replaced my entire substrate (formerly used Hermit Crab Patch substrate) to a different mix (playsand and coconut fiber I mixed myself) and I've noticed the surface of it is much dryer than it ever was in the tank before. Is this uncommon? When I push my finger down in the sand it leaves a hole so the lower layers are wet enough. Is it necessary to have a moist surface as well or is it alright so long as the substrate beneath is suitable for crabs burying?

Hi! I noticed that when I used playsand in my old hermit crab tank, no matter how many times a day I sprayed it, it was always dry on the top layer. I soon figured out that it was my heat lamp and light that was drying out the top layer of the sand. Do you have any heat lamps or lights that might be positioned above the sand that could be drying it out? In saying this, if your substrate is moist enough for your crabs to make tunnels in, I personally wouldn't worry about it too much


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do! There's a heat lamp a bit above the top of the tank so it is warm enough (and a heating pad on one side which of course has dry sand near it so I'm not worried about that) they can definitely make tunnels so that's good then!

kfinnz wrote:I do! There's a heat lamp a bit above the top of the tank so it is warm enough (and a heating pad on one side which of course has dry sand near it so I'm not worried about that) they can definitely make tunnels so that's good then!

Sounds great! If at any point the sand was dry all the way down to the bottom of the tank (as long as you don't have any molting hermies) you can get some dechlorinated water and pour it in the sand and mix it around so that it becomes sand castle consistency again. Hope this helps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back when I had a 10 gallon I had a grate type lid that didn’t keep humidity in and I used a heat lamp and my sub was always dry on top. Since I’ve updated I’ve had no issues but I also keep my humidity closer to 90% than 80%. I really wouldn’t recommend a heat lamp because they can dry up your humidity drastically. Do you do daily mistings?

The substrate will keep drying out, so if it is dry on top you need to keep up with misting it!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk