HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My granddaughter won a hermit crab at the fair a couple weeks ago and we are just now able to get all the stuff we need to make a habitat for it. my main question is it is very dark all the time in the room that the habitat will be in so there will be no "natural" daytime and night time cycle. I was wondering if using an LED grow light like you would use for plants on the outside of the habitat can be set for red light and blue light or both. I am not trying to use it as a heat source just a light source due to lack of natural light. The light is 10 watts but since it is LED I am not sure if it will just emit the light or if it will also emit heat. Any help on this subject is greatly appreciated.

I actually have no clue but I’m replying just to help bump it up so maybe someone else sees it. I’d think maybe it would be okay!


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Hi!

In my experience, LEDs don't give off much heat, which is why I like using them for nightlights and what not. If you want to use that as their daylight lamp, I'm sure that would work fine. I used to use an led desk lamp with clamp a while back for my crabs. It has a 3/6/12 hour timer and dimmer. I use it for a bedside lamp now.

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I don't use any lights, the room with my tank has a window. But there is a whole care sheet all about lights, be sure to give it a read through.

The room ours is in has a window also but the way our house is situated on the block it never really gets a lot of light as it is on the side of our house that is shaded 100% of the time. This is the only room I can put it in due to lack of space in the rest of our tiny home. Any other areas in our house that have windows that get sunlight also get rather cold due to us only having window type a/c units and my husband thinks he is a polar bear who needs sub zero temperatures when he comes home from working outside all day LOL.

lol my mom is like that it’s 62 degrees in her house all the time I swear. I’d say LEDs are safe since a lot of people use them. If it bothers you maybe look for just a regular house lamp and try that out?


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You may find the grow light will emmit the wrong colour temperature, and while it's unlikely to cause much harm to the crabs, for my own viewing pleasure (without everything looking like some shady purple/magenta) I'd suggest looking into a broad spectrum light (white light) which closely mimics daylight.