HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Trying to make a second layer to my tank but having serious trouble finding the right materials or the right sizes. Any help with suggestions is greatly appreciated

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Usually, members here use straw hammocks.
You can also contain moss and shells by using a shower caddy, which doubles as a second level space.

Unless you want to go DIY with ledges, you'd be unable to do that with crabs, because the materials needed to attach them are fatal to crabs.

Just_saving_crabs wrote:Trying to make a second layer to my tank but having serious trouble finding the right materials or the right sizes. Any help with suggestions is greatly appreciated

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Here are a couple of pics that might help. The 2nd pic is a ladder attached to a shelf. The 3rd pic is just a basket turned over with the side cut out for through access.

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I forgot to mention that I have two caddies in my crabitat and an upside down bush that the crabs can climb inside of.

You have a lot of space to fill!

For my 135, I used branches as supports. A whole tree actually, trimmed to size, and then additional branches as highways for them. You can see it better in the last photo which was when I set the display case up. Best of all it was totally free!

For second levels I found colored Sterilite containers and zip tied them to the branches. The tank was 4 feet by 21 inches by about three feet tall so there was a lot of empty space to work with. I think the containers were 7qt and 16qt. I did moss, and leaves, and crushed coral and shells. All got used heavily. At any given time there were 21 crabs in the moss pit like clockwork.

Towards the end I got sick of them burying their water dishes and moved them up top, using an old slate roofing tile on a flat level. That made life a lot easier when it came to changing them!

wodesorel wrote:You have a lot of space to fill!

For my 135, I used branches as supports. A whole tree actually, trimmed to size, and then additional branches as highways for them. You can see it better in the last photo which was when I set the display case up. Best of all it was totally free!

For second levels I found colored Sterilite containers and zip tied them to the branches. The tank was 4 feet by 21 inches by about three feet tall so there was a lot of empty space to work with. I think the containers were 7qt and 16qt. I did moss, and leaves, and crushed coral and shells. All got used heavily. At any given time there were 21 crabs in the moss pit like clockwork.

Towards the end I got sick of them burying their water dishes and moved them up top, using an old slate roofing tile on a flat level. That made life a lot easier when it came to changing them!

Unique! But why do I only see a tiny amount of substrate?

It had 8 inches. The entire bottom was filled.

Walmart has a variety of show caddies that you can get.
I use them in my crabitat, not that the crabs ever go to the second stories that I know of though lol

How are the crabs doing today?

wrswrs2 wrote:Walmart has a variety of show caddies that you can get.
I use them in my crabitat, not that the crabs ever go to the second stories that I know of though lol

I looked everywhere for them and can't seem to find them.

StellaCrab wrote:How are the crabs doing today?

Everyone is still alive so far. They seem to have made a tunnel system that they are enjoying. Plan to go out and get a few more things for them today.

Shower caddies are with the toilet seats in DIY. It took a few trips before I found them, too! I doubt they would have anything large enough for jumbos though.

wodesorel wrote:Shower caddies are with the toilet seats in DIY. It took a few trips before I found them, too! I doubt they would have anything large enough for jumbos though.

Thats what I was afraid of thank you. It seems alot of things that can be used for the smaller guys doesnt really work well for mine.

Just_saving_crabs wrote:

StellaCrab wrote:How are the crabs doing today?

Everyone is still alive so far. They seem to have made a tunnel system that they are enjoying. Plan to go out and get a few more things for them today.

Great, that is awesome
I just need to take the time to praise you, you've done so well.

I find it so amazing that you went to the largest of tanks, and stepped right up like it was nothing.
You've done so much so far, and gone extremely creative with your ideas on decorations, and making the crabs feel good.
For instance, I have never seen anyone use the turtle pool water dish for moss, that's so nice!

It's really awesome how you were super creative to make these decorations, things work properly and create a nice home for jumbos

wodesorel wrote:You have a lot of space to fill!

For my 135, I used branches as supports. A whole tree actually, trimmed to size, and then additional branches as highways for them. You can see it better in the last photo which was when I set the display case up. Best of all it was totally free!

For second levels I found colored Sterilite containers and zip tied them to the branches. The tank was 4 feet by 21 inches by about three feet tall so there was a lot of empty space to work with. I think the containers were 7qt and 16qt. I did moss, and leaves, and crushed coral and shells. All got used heavily. At any given time there were 21 crabs in the moss pit like clockwork.

Towards the end I got sick of them burying their water dishes and moved them up top, using an old slate roofing tile on a flat level. That made life a lot easier when it came to changing them!

What kind of tree branches are in the crabitat?

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