HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My name is Allie and I've been preparing my tank. I haven't bought my crabs yet because I wanted to be prepared for them for when I bring them home. I have a problem. My tank is only ten gallon. (I intend to get much bigger ones during the summer).. I have two small food storage plastic containers and they fit the tank.. But I read somewhere online that the crabs prefer "pools".. So I went and got two mini paint tray (with ramps) and the tank can only fit one.. I don't know what should I do ? Should i only use one pool ? Or use the two small plastic containers (which I would have to build a ramp for) ? The pet stores doesnt know very well about how to properly take care of crabs.. So I didn't know who to turn to. I came here instead. Please no criticism thank you..

Hi Allie, welcome to the HCA! You are doing all the right things getting your set up first, researching and asking questions before bringing your new crabs home.

Small dishes, one for fresh and one for salt water will be fine for your 10 gallon until you have a bigger tank to upgrade to. I find that a deeper dish with a way to climb out is more important than the overall size/width of the "pool". You want it deep enough that your crabs can climb down and in to swish the water in/out of their shells. A small but deeper tupperware container works well. You can use tank decorations such as plastic plants to hang in the bowl so little crabs can climb in/out.

If you can not fit two small tupperware that are deep enough, then one "pool" for salt would be good, and a small dish of fresh dechlorinated water to drink for the other. You want to make sure your crabs have enough room to move around beyond the water dishes, and that your substrate is deep enough for digging and molting. You can get Playsand from Home Depot for very cheap (about $4 for 50lbs bag which you can save for your larger tank over the summer). Try not to buy any of the sand mixes from the pet store as they are not appropriate for hermits!

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Hi !

Thank you for your advices.. I do already have play sand from Home Depot.. And I'm not sure exactly how deep the dishes are. I'm assuming probably one inch..but the paint tray is much deeper..I intend on getting 3 small hermit crabs.. I'm still adding on to my tank and should be finish in April or May. I'm trying to post pictures on here. How do I do that ?

Procress of the tank ..

I did it !! I posted the picture !

Good to see that you have a net and vine for climbing. As much as crabs like to burrow, they equally love to climb and really appreciate nets, vines, branches, etc. You'll want to add a hide of some sort; plastic margarine or yogurt containers make great hides: cut out a door on one side, flip it over and the hide is ready!

Where are your temperature and humidity gauges?

I plan on buying a hideaway through petco.com and will be getting aqua salt,fake plants for the containers,filters,soap dish with suction.. There will be moss in it along with shells of all sizes. . Still trying to figure out what to use for a ramp for the containers.. As for temp and humidity gauges .. I did look online through petco and pet smart.....their reviews stated that the numbers of the gauge were often incorrect.. I don't know where else to buy them (with great reviews) for reasonable prices..I would appericate it if anyone has ideas of where to buy them ?

Thank you..

Hi Allie! Tank looks good so far! I agree you will want to add more things for climbing! You can go to a dollar store and usually find some more fake plants really cheap, just be sure to rinse them off well before putting in the tank. Plastic butter containers rinsed out with cut out doors upside down also work great. You can usually find cheap terra cotta planting pots at the dollar store as well, if you break them in half they make a more natural looking cave/hut. Fake plants will also help with decorating any plastic dish hides you use!

You can get a digital thermometer/hygrometer at Walmart (or maybe even a dollar store). Digital is much more accurate, here is a cheap one from Walmart that has a sensor/probe you can hang in the tank: http://www.walmart.com/ip/INSTEN-White- ... r/34896352

I have this same brand (without the probe though) and it has been very accurate compared to other sensors I have used. It also has held up well with crabs climbing all over it. Since your tank is smaller, I would get the one with the probe I linked above, you can sit the actual unit on a desk/stand outside the tank to save on space for your crabs!

First off, welcome to HCA! I really hope you like it here.

Just here to say (as everyone has answered/asked what is needed) that your substrate looks incredibly dry, has it been moisten to the sandcastle consistency with helps support them with their tunneling behaviour. By wetting it you're also helping out your humidity too, so that means it less work for you - and hopefully saves you for going all out trying to get the humidity up, when all you needed was moist substrate.

I'm also new to crabbies. Wondering where you got the climbing rope. Thanks.

Colleen

Thank you everyone ! I am buying some things online and should get them by next week. The temp and humidity gauge I will look at dollar store.. If not I will buy it off Walmart.

For moisting the tank/sand I will do that few days before I adopt hermit crabs.

I have a question :.. Do you think I should add more sand ? It's currently around 5inches..

As for the hemp climbing rope.. I bought it online through etsy.com. I couldn't find one in any pet stores. Here the link.. https://www.etsy.com/listing/197392511/ ... tural-hemp?

The price ranges from 4-10 dollars..

For that question, I say it doesn't hurt to add more to around 6 - 7 inches, but is no deal breaker. Just try looking for smaller hermies so that way substrate depth isn't that much of an issue - for now, until they start going... But by then your moved on to a 100g tank, so no need to worry!

Still need to get couple more things.. such as humidity gauge and temp.. Filter., another heat lamp for night time bulb., wait do I need another heat lamp or I can use only one ?

Your tanks looks really nice! I love your shell shop/moss pit combo hangout. I might need to figure out how to make a hemp net from all the macrame stuff I have hanging around...heh. Did you make sure to clean it? Hemp can be pretty dirty and they might try to munch on it some, so perhaps boiling it a few times in salt water wouldn't be a bad idea. As for the lamps, you could buy another lamp for nighttime heat or do a lightbulb shuffle with the one you have (this will wear out your bulbs a little faster-also burnt hands), or I would personally recommend you to get a 7x11 Ultratherm UTH and slap it on the back of your tank with a light dimmer attached to it, which will suffice for both nighttime heat and daytime heat and probably cost as much or less than another lamp+heat bulb. The lamp you've got, as long as it doesn't get to hot (you'll probably need to switch out the bulb), you could still use for getting in your day-night light cycles. Additionally, I've had some serious troubles keeping humidity decent in a 10gal when I used a light, but until you have you gauges in there it may be hard to know for sure how your setup will react.
Why are you getting a filter? It seems to me like your pools aren't large enough to warrant one, and as long as you do daily water changes you should be all good. Also I noticed you were having some trouble figuring out what to use as a ramp in the pools, I use plastic canvas from a crafts store. It comes cheap in sheets sort of sized like A5 papers which I cut out ramps from, and I have some glass stones in the water dishes to help it stay down.