HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I'm a preschool teacher who recently inherited some hermit crabs from another class that no longer wanted to care for them. We have three fairly tiny guys (1" at most). Two are unnamed but the class voted to name the first one Crabigail! We've been working to make sure the tank we have for them is actually supportive of their needs and have settled on this lil configuration (would love thoughts from more experienced people to make sure we're doing our best to give them a good crabitat!) Also, apologies for the blurriness of some of the pics, we'd just sprayed the tank down so the walls are a bit misty.

Wow. That looks amazing! Great job so far- welcome to the HCA!
everything looks good just make sure the heating is 75-83degrees!
I only say this as the heat pad looks a bit small, but it should work. Great job! I would love to see pics of the crabs!

It looks really good, I like it! Maybe consider some greenery to give it more of their natural tropical vibe? Mine seem to enjoy their moss pit quite a bit! I’ll share my tank with you bc I remember when I first started, I got a lot of ideas from looking at other tanks. Also, you should check out the care sheets on this forum, they’re super informative...in case you’re not sure about something! Would love to see pics of the little guys too!


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You are off to a great start!!

As a suggestion, I would really add lots of fake climbing vines and plants. Caribbean hermit crabs (also known as “Purple Pinchers” naturally live in tropical areas where the trees meet the beach/shore, and are often referred to as “tree crabs” because they love to hang out in the tops of trees and plants!

I know my hermies really love a lot of lush fake plants and climbing vines! They provide the crabs with lots of places to hide, as well as climb!

I would also recommend a UVB light for the crabs, as many of us crabbers have noticed their activity increases with UVB light!! This will help your students get to see them out and about more often!!


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I'm loving all this good info! Thanks guys. One thing we're finding tricky (and that, based on what I've seen online, seems to be the forever problem) is keeping the humidity up in the tank overnight so that we're not showing up in the morning to 60%. Our lid setup is mesh that's been mostly taped shut, save for a sliver in the back for airflow. I was wondering if putting a wet towel over that sliver over night might be a good way to keep moisture up overnight? I know we don't want to cut off airflow, and the towel would be taken off in the morning (it'd be on for less than twelve hours). Otherwise I'd love some tips on how to keep that good good moisture up.

Yes you can dampen a towel and cover the air holes. And we actually recommend glass tops a lot that stay completely closed! You can duct tape your whole screen, or Saran Wrap your whole screen as well. Don’t worry - the crabs will get enough air flow just from your daily clean up routine (removing uneaten food, straightening up the mess they make, etc.) and be just fine! .

Some additional and more long term ways to keep the humidity up and constant are: larger water pools, bubblers in your pools, and moss pits. You can use un-dyed Sphagnum moss, which you mist until moist with either Prime treated fresh water or salt water. Also, nice and deep, sand castle consistency substrate helps keep it up effortlessly. From personal experience, you want to try to avoid misting the enclosure, as misting too much can cause flooding in the bottom of the tank, bacterial blooms, and mold on your woods/decor.

My moss pit helped tremendously with humidity! I change it out every couple weeks, but I spray it with dechlorinated water every few days. I use the Sphagnum moss as well and aside from it helping with humidity, my crabs also love hanging out in it!


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Thanks so much for the suggestions! We just added in a little moss pit today, and another UTH on the side and we've managed to keep her temp and humidity up for a few days now! So exciting. And she's been scuttling about all happy and encouraged so that's definitely brought a big smile to my face ^_^

So glad they all helped!!


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Oh yay!


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One thing to keep an eye on is the calibration of your humidity gage. They are very easy to calibrate and would be a fun little "experiment" for your students.

You just need a sealable container (I use zip lock baggies), a small cup (I use a shot glass - you'll probably need something else lol), and some salt (either table salt or the hermit crab water salt should work). You just get about an ounce (by volume) of salt in your cup moist (think sand castle consistency) with tap water and seal it in in a bag with your gage. In 1-8 hours depending on how well it is sealed and the size of the bag you sealed it in, the humidity should stabilize at almost exactly 75% RH. If it stabilizes at a different humidity on the gage, you know your gage is off by that amount.

This may seem like overkill, but I've opened brand new gages and found them off by 22% RH.


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