Conversation About Mold by KyMart

[KyMart]

I have been reading some stuff from Crab Street journal recently, and I noticed a big difference between CSJ and HCA, CSJ says, " Mold is harmful to humans and animals and does not provide a nutritional benefit that outweighs the potential risk to the animal and the known risk to you. ", and they very strong think that mold is harmful for hermit crabs, and I kind of agree with them. I have seen many people here at HCA say, "Mold is not harmful to hermit crabs", and I would love you guys to share your opinions on why you think mold is not harmful to hermit crabs.

Here is the link to the article "Hermit Crabs and Mold" from Crab Street Journal (for reference):
https://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2021 ... -and-mold/

[myllkti]

I dont have a strong opinion either way, but it boils down to the fact that no one really knows. LHCOS openly adopts a "better safe than sorry" stance while the HCA's stance is "based on anecdotal proof, there doesn't seem to be urgent risks" (both paraphrased ofc lol), but neither group claims to have hard scientific data on what effects mold has on land hermit crabs. It has been a while since I looked closely at either policy though tbh so maybe i am misremembering details.

I think both are fully valid as long as the crabber either a) is willing to trust the group guidelines if they dont feel the need for individual research or b) has been provided with the arguments for both views and can make a decision for themself. This is opposed to something like "calcium sand is okay" of course, where there are concrete reasons why it's harmful and is thus not a controversy in any reputable crab keeping group. Due to the current state of crab keeping, you will find many similar controversies where even reputable groups disagree