HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi I am a new owner of 4 PP's. 2 small and 2 medium. I have pretty much all the necessities except surplus food and appropriate substrate. I have filled my 15Gal tank up with Eco Earth Coco Fiber that goes up about 3-4 inches. I have also put in some water in there and mixed up the Coco Fiber before letting my crabs in. Everything is nice and all but I woke up today and the tank was a mess... When the crabs went to eat/drink, the coco fiber got in the bowls and it absorbed the water/made it dirty. My saltwater bowl was engulfed in coco fiber so much that it was dry. My freshwater bowl was a little bit better but had a lot of coco fiber in it. The food bowl was empty to the eye and was littered with coco fiber. My question is, what do I do/change to fix this problem?

Most people don't use 100% coconut fiber. Generally 100% play sand is used or a mix of play sand and coconut fiber. Some people use a mix of both to maintain humidity or for the looks. For most people it comes down to preference.

If the mess is bothering you, try getting some play sand, moistening it with marine aquarium salt water until it's a sand castle-like consistency and mixing that with the coconut fiber.

I use 100% coconut fiber. It works well for me and many others.

The problem you have wouldn't be solved by adding sand because any type of substrate that gets into the water dishes, whether it be coco fiber, sand, or a mix, is going to wick out the water if enough of it it gets kicked into the dishes. My advice would be to make sure you have deep dishes with high sides so it's more difficult for the crabs to get the substrate into the water dishes. You could also try to put cholla logs (or other wood) around your water dishes so the crabs have to climb over them to get to the water. Climbing over the wood would knock some of the substrate off their legs before they enter the water dishes plus it would form a barricade so substrate couldn't be kicked into the dishes so easily.

As for the substrate tracked through the food dish and the general mess made, it's pretty much something you just have to get used to. Hermit crabs are nicknamed "tank trashers" for a reason.

Add sand lots of it i dont think you will have as many problems.. my suggestion 5 parts sand to one part Eco earth.. i would never use more eco earth then that with my crabs.

You may want to take a look at this thread. It details some effects of EE on crabs and shells. EE is more acidic and can leach the color out of the shells.
I've heard that E's have a harder time molting EE.
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... ht=#704403
and
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... highlight=

Because of this it's recommended to use a 5:1 ratio of sand and EE. (5cups sand, one cup EE).


As for the substrate getting into the dishes you can also try: placing shells around the dishes so they have to climb over those, using aquarium pebbles placed around the pools, or moss.

For the food dishes- you can raise them off the substrate by using aquarium pebbles or placing moss under the dishes and surrounding them.

Hmmm... That's odd that some people claim to have problems with coco fiber. I've been using it for three years with great results.

EE as substrate seems to be the biggest thing in my records showing loss of compress crabs. The only compressus ive lost i believe were due to a shell fight and when i decided to add more coir aka coco nut fiber or EE to the tank.. When i added more coco nut fiber aka EE i had 3 compressus go down for molt and all of them seemed to melt during molt. I changed back to 5 parts sand and 1 part EE, i now use even less EE then that but i have some moss and worm casting as well as crushed oyster shell mixed into my substrate. . I no longer have any problems keeping compressus. I also no longer have shells with white stains or dull shells, crabs with dull exos or any unexplained loss of molters. My opinion is that the switch to more EE killed my crabs..

And I've had the exact opposite results. My crabs did horribly on sand so I switched to all coco fiber. Since then my colony has been exceptionally happy and healthy. I've had 9 Ecuadorians over the past three years and I've only lost one in all that time (and she was a pity purchase who was deformed and sick).

I'm sorry for your loss Sugar! What do you think caused them to have more trouble with the sand substrate?

I had 100% EE at one point, and the problems I had was with tunnel collapse. I switched to sand EE mixed together (I'm not sure of the proportions; 1 brick of EE and the rest was sand. I had a depth of 5-6 inches in a 20 long) and it seemed to do the trick.
As was mentioned, any type of substrate will get into your water dishes. I used glass cereal bowls from the dollar store. I had about 1 inch of the bowl above the substrate with shells and decorative rocks (cleaned and boiled of course) piled around it to allow my crabs access to the water. Inside the bowls, I used aquarium sealant to adhere more shells and rocks to allow my crabs to climb out of the water bowls without issues.

I agree that you're crabbies are going to wreck the tank even if you use sand or more sand. I've got 100% sand, and they just get it everywhere! Constant tidying is the only thing that will leave it looking perfect, and at some point I just gave up and now just think of sand in the water bowl as them being happy.

I've used both products, EE and sand, and I didn't find there to be much difference except in how easy it was to keep up the humidity levels with the EE. I use straight sand now since it's delightfully cheap and easier for me to keep clean.

When I first started crabbing I used 100% moist sterilized playsand. After a few months I slowly realized that I was having many molting difficulties, and even a few deaths when molting crabs were attacked by other crabs.

My conditions and their diet were o.k. according to our standards here, so I decided to change the substrate and began going with Eco Earth. Currently I use 100% EE and have not had any molting difficulties whatsoever, for over 3 years, during which I have had the same 2 Purple Pinchers.

Now, I don't mean to say the molting difficulties were necessarily related to the choice of substrate, however it certainly seemed that way at the time!!

If we look to hermit crabs in the wild for an answer, we'll see that they spend time both on the sandy beaches AND deeper inland where trees grow, often going so far as to climb them therefore I don't doubt that some crabs choose to molt either in sand or in the earth. As to which is better, I really think its up to us all to experiment and see how our individual crabs react to different substrates.

I've never experimented with a sand-EE mixture before, but I've heard good things indeed about it. However, I'm reluctant to change my crabs' substrate at this point because apparently, they have no qualm with it whatsoever and if I change it, it could affect them negatively so in my eyes, its not worth the risk.

Sugarselections, what brand of coco fiber are you using? Honestly, I liked it better, but the crabs did not. I found it easier to maintain and it kept the sand at a better consistency. I just figured I'd ditch it if they didn't like it, but maybe it was the brand.

I use the T-Rex Forest Bed. I find it to be softer and finer than Eco Earth, plus it comes in gigantic supersized bricks. I can fill my entire 90 gallon with just two of them.

I, also, have a question about straight playsand. I just removed all of the calci-sand in the tank and filled 3 inches of playsand. Added dechlorinated water to make all of the sand just shy of sandcastle consistancy. The top layer was crusty and hard on the top layer. Is this the way the sand is supposed to be or should I be spraying it and stirring it up to keep it soft.

We added plastic vines and some driftwood for climbing on. Larger, deep water bowls w/small rocks for getting in and out. However, do we need sponges for hermies to drink from or chew on? Can we eliminate the sponges as long as we have the rocks in the water?

Humidity drops to about 50. We spray moss in the morning, after school, and before bed, if needed. Is this okay? Should we be spraying the sand, too? Any ideas are very much appreciated. We have a one piece screen top w/a towel on it to keep in the humidity. I have read about plexiglass lid, but how do you get in fresh air for the hermie? I've also heard alot about foggers. Any opinions for use with a screen lid?

I know, I have alot of questions, but we don't want to loose another hermie. We did lose Munchkin after all & we feel terrible! So, if we can get it right, we would like to add more.

Any input is very much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who helped w/Munchkin. We got thru, but my daughter is still upset wondering what she did wrong.

Thank you so much & have a really great night!