HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I was reading on the crab street journal information, and they advised me personally to not moisten my substrate, and just put it in as is from the package. They said the humidity in the tank should be enough to moisten the substrate to sandcastle consistency, and that only confused me because the humidity in the crabitat comes from the substrate being moist!

My substrate is mixed with freshwater to sand castle consistency, and they said I will suffer bacterial blooms because of that.

Thoughts?

The HCA and CSJ are 2 separate entities. Everyone has their own ways of doing things. I'm not at justice to say what's right or wrong. I can only tell you what my hubby and I do. We go by the 5:1 ratio with play sand and Eco Earth. We have 5 tanks. Some are mixed with dcsw, others with dcfw. We make sure that tunnels won't collapse and harm the crabbies. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, that's just what we do.

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I decided when I got my crabs that I would stick to one site for all my info an advice. I have used only information from the HCA, and have had my crabs for almost 9 years now.
Logistically, I think that much of the humidity in my tank comes from the moistened substrate, I am not sure where it would come from if my sub was dry.

We have friends in both groups. At the end of the day, all the crabbies are loved and well cared for.

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So, I've only been at this for a couple weeks, but recently set up a 29 gallon tank with play sand I purchased at HomeDepot. It came out of the (unripped) bag more or less already at sandcastle consistency (and didn't smell or otherwise look "bad" or "off") and other than misting the top occasionally, I've not had to add any additional water other than that in my water dishes and my humidity has stayed up around 75-80%. Maybe this is what they are assuming people are using?

I know a few members from there. There methodologies are different from HCA (and many other care groups) regarding moistened substrate, since many groups do suggest doing so!

Are they wrong, I dont think so. Most bags of playsand I've used have been slightly moist that after a couple of weeks, they hit the nice spot of saturation. Even then, humidity, spraying, changing the water bowls and general maintainence is likely to water the substrate from slightly moist to sandcastle consistency in a few weeks.

One member I know it keep their substrate bone dry, where the crabs actually moisten the substrate before moulting. Its certainly fascinating to hear, and last time I checked they have been at it for 10-15 years! So it's working for them!

Imo, do what works best for you and your crabs. If you find the bag of playsand is already moist (or you mixed a batch of EE that's a little too soupy) then you're likely not to need to add much water and allow water from any source to water the substrate to the right consistency.

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Xenocrab wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:49 pm

We make sure that tunnels won't collapse and harm the crabbies.

How do you go about doing this? My biggest worry about owning a hermie is that my substrate consistency won't be right and it will cave in on him DDD:

MauiMama wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 28, 2019 12:13 am

How do you go about doing this? My biggest worry about owning a hermie is that my substrate consistency won't be right and it will cave in on him DDD:

By mixing the substrate with dfw or dsw to sandcastle consistancy. When you squeeze it, it holds its shape. But if it drips water it's too wet so just add more substrate.

Hermiesguardian wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 28, 2019 12:43 am

By mixing the substrate with dfw or dsw to sandcastle consistancy. When you squeeze it, it holds its shape. But if it drips water it's too wet so just add more substrate.

Ahh, I see. I thought maybe you dug test tunnels or something XD

If you put a chopstick in, and it holds, it's good. If it fills with water, you have a flood.

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I have used the chopstick method too. If you have any crabs underneath, just be sure to push the chopstick right along the glass where you can see it, LOL.

Awesome, this is the quality content I signed up for. I love these tips, you can only get them from a community of experienced crabbers. You don't find that on an average Google search.

Will the chopstick tip over if it's too dry?

When you do the chopstick test you pull it back out and if the hole doesn’t keep it’s shape it’s too dry, if it fills with water it’s too wet. If it just holds the shape it’s perfect.

Yes1 Sorry, I should have given more details!
Thank you for clarifying that, P&S!