Why so destructive?

[72mm]

Now, I know that most tats for hermits are void of real plant-life and that the reason none seams to build planted tanks for crabs is that they tend to wreck anything you put in there. My question is why? Is this normal eating behavior or something else? Maybe they go bananas on the interior instead of roaming around larger areas like they would in the wild?

Is there anyone that have ever tried to have hermits in a planted terrarium/paludarium? Maybe its their constant digging and re-arranging that makes that impossible?

[aussieJJDude]

Yes a few people... Take a look at a person's crabitat here: http://naali.de/einsiedler/. She is a german crabber that has awesome planted tank setups... Another person that has a similar setup is Curlz: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 67&t=88646
The reason why many people don't have planted tanks as it takes extra work to keep the plants living. THis can be due to not having the correct conditions for the plants or just having really destructive hermies where the plants can't keep up with them.
A good idea is to contain the plants in pots & limit the access to the pots - eg, stones - so they crabs can't harm to roots. It also a good idea to have back up plants where you can swap them out so if one plant isn't doing well, swap it out, let it recover before putting it back in.

[wodesorel]

curious_kitty made a giant built-in crabitat, mailed ordered a ton of specialty plants from a frog supplier that were guaranteed to be pesticide and fertilizer free, and the crabs completely destroyed every single one within three months.

This is her topic: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 54&t=74449

[jarteta97]

Woo! I thought I had lost that thread, thanks Wode Her's is one of my favorite tats

[hermieluv1]

I just planted (in pots, then into sub) a download and a young orchid. They were on sale at home Depot for $5. We will see how they do! So far, no crab has bothered either one.

[72mm]

Wow, thanks for the links. Cool, unusual tats!