HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi, my crabs carried off some food and I guess because of the humidity it started some mold. Do I have to take out all the substrate? What else should I do?

Mold isn't harmful to the crabs. If you are allergic to it then just scrape off the mold. Is the mold on the surface? Do you think it could be a bacterial bloom instead?

Mold isn’t a bacterial bloom. Bacterial blooms are caused by the build up of anaerobic bacteria in the bottom of the substrate. You can just remove the mold yourself, it’s not harmful to the crabs but can be for humans.

It's like a white fuzz on the surface. I removed it, we'll see if it comes back I guess. Also, ive had the 5 crabs we own in a much larger tank with deeper substrate for about a month now and since we put them in there we rarely see any of them. 2 of them I havent seen since the 1stday we moved them over. There's evidence of moving and digging at night. Is this all i reallyhave to look forward to with them? My kids are already bored with them.

Crabs are mostly nocturnal. And a hands off pet. Alot of us have installed a camera in our tanks so we can watch their nighttime antics.

If you mix your substrate with salt water initially it will help prevent mold.

Cottman26 wrote:Also, ive had the 5 crabs we own in a much larger tank with deeper substrate for about a month now and since we put them in there we rarely see any of them. 2 of them I havent seen since the 1stday we moved them over.

If the substrate wasn’t as deep erode as it is now, they may have went down for a moly right away. Mine did the same thing and where gone for about almost 2 months. In just the last 2 weeks I’ve seen activity in the surface of my tank. They don’t stay under dirt forever. Just be patient with them.


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Mama of 4 PP’s: Crabby, Hermie, Mr. Crabs, & Squidward

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