HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Help!!

Hey all, I just got myself some hermit crabs, i’ve had them for 5 days and i’m struggling to get the humidity right. I ordered a humidity gauge and it got lost in the post so i’m waiting to get another one. I’ve got a Krabooz cribz tank, vents closed, substrate on one side, sand on the other. I have a fresh water bowl, a salt water bowl and their food. In the salt water i have a sea sponge. The heat pad is place on the boot i’m as per Krabooz instructions and i just can’t see humidity building a whole heap. The sides are a little foggy, but not much at all. I think this has caused the crabs to hide as i haven’t seen them since saturday and i haven’t seen signs of them being out and about in the tank. How do i build humidity in this tank fast. I’ve sprayed with warm water (clean obvs) and it just doesn’t seem to work. any tips??
Lots of love my two crab, Iggy and Pop

If you don't have a hygrometer yet, you won't know what your humidity is, or how much you need to increase it. What is your temperature?
That said, I'm pretty sure your tank is not suitable for having crabs long term - it seems pretty tiny. I'm not sure where they said to put the heat mat, but it should not be on the bottom. Many places don't know about proper crab care. You don't need the sponge, it will just harbor bacteria. And be sure you are using proper dechlorinator and marine salt.

Here is our 'basics' care sheet that outlines everything you need for a basic tank:

viewtopic.php?f=120&t=119273

Hey, welcome! (I LOVE your crab names, Iggy and Pop by the way!) I definitely recommend grabbing an actual tank because hermit crabs need to bury in the sand and molt in order to survive and it doesn't look like the Krabooz Cribz tank offers much digging room. Depending on how small or large your crabs are, you could start with just a 10g tank for now if the crabs are on the smaller size. I always reccommend the bigger the better, so if you really want to make the crabs happy, then get a 20g. But if you can at least get them in a 10, that would be better for them for now.

The sand needs to be 3x's as deep as your largest crab -- So if your largest crab is 1.5inches, then you'd need 4.5 inches of sand minimum. 6 inches is actually the minimum reccomendation. You can get a 50lb bag of play sand at a hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot for under $7. In a ten gallon tank, you will only need to use about half of it.

As for humidity, the glass tank will help. You can spray the tank throughout the day and when you wet the sand when you put that in your tank (because the sand should be sand castle consistancy in order for the crabs to be able to dig, then the wet sand will help with the humidity as well).

Like Curly said above, make sure to use dechlorinated water (not tap water), and marine sea salt (I like to use the brand 'Instant Ocean'. But there are many others out there.) But you CANNOT use table salt.

I really reccommend reading the care guides as far as everything else, and they will go over in more detail all of things I discussed here as well. It may seem overwhelming at first, but I promise once you get them set up and understand it all, hermit crabs are some of the easiest pets to care for (as well as very cool!). You can make their tanks vry beautiful, similar to an aquarium and I love watching them climb around.

Let me know if you have anymore questions, and best luck to you and Iggy & Pop