Hands-off or hands-on? I'd like to bring a thought to the table

[angelbear]

I am a bit in the middle, but still more hands on than most.

Day to day they are left mostly alone except when I am adding or removing dishes or other small items.

But on the weekend when I am doing the minor mantince (water bowls, poop scoop, food scavenge, wipe down the walls) I tend to do a gental health check of anyone on the surface I discover. I dont activly move things and look for them but if I do see them I give them a little once over.

I tend to do a population count once a month (I dont dig down and disturb molters) just to get a general idea of who is up or down. I might change up some of the lay out for stimulation purpose. (I am actually looking in to doing an enrichment study with my small colony)

Then yearly i tend to choose a time every one I currently am sure is actually alive is up and carefully remove larger things to sterilize and lightly fluff the substrate and ad more.

I came up with this mostly because I do live with someone that has COPD abd Astmah and I am always consious about mold or decaying matter so as not to bother them. And keeping it clean is propbably good for them too.

[aussieJJDude]

I’ve gotten to the point I don’t even like opening the lid letting in 65 degree air. So I try to limit it to once a day when I add food and water the moss on the wood which will never becomes established with crabs snacking on it. Although they seem to prefer one variety in particular unless they just liked the location. They’ve finished that variety and haven’t done much to the others. But am I just paranoid? I’m thinking of my fish keeping days, being very cautious when doing water changes to add water of the same temperature. My tank is about 80°F and usually over 80% humidity and sometimes over 90% after I water the moss. My basement, where the crabs reside is 65° and 45% humidity. Wouldn’t that be a shock? Or just a minute or two is ok? I’m not sure the health of my two bigger (golf ball size) crabs. They don’t seem very perky. If they’re stressed I don’t want to cause more.


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A minute or two will not kill them and the humidity/heat will likely not drop more than a couple of degrees. In fact, opening up the tank a little is probably preferred, since many crabbers nowdays keep their tanks well sealed that it reduces airflow. Opening it up allows airflow!


My fishtanks are pretty lax, a little too lax. Doing waterchanges, i do straight from the tap outside, where it can regularly dip into the high 60F (high 10's C) if I'm not paying attention during winter. The fish do fine, and after a couple of hours the tank is warm again (high 20s C, high 70s F). Animals are robust, and in the wild would be exposed to changes in temp more extreme than 65F. True it usually happens over a matter of hours, but no one is keeping the beaches where hermies live (or forests!) at a constant 80F.

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[Gangrene]

I'm pretty hands off and mostly observe them. I handle them briefly in the acclimation phase to their new enclosure... or if I see a behavior issue while feeding I might move one to the back of the tank. I'd have to get my whole arm soaked to get one out though or move them so I'm less likely. I really don't have a compulsion to hold them though. I really like watching them, taking pictures, and making videos though. I find their behaviors and interactions very interesting.

Having them in a controlled environment makes opening the enclosure of little concern. Thank goodness it's a fully working, self maintaining, ecosystem. I'm all about the aquatics. The terrestrial ones seem to be tons of nonstop work to keep the conditions ideal.

[Anondotco]

I usually rearrange my tank when my whole colony is up from a moot or all but one or maybe two and they usually get pretty excited to come out they seem to know what's going on, because our routine is they go into a plastic bin or a box with some dirt and a towel and they get misted every other minute and they get all kinds of excited about that and will actually climb my arm to get out and will climb right into their box and the box sits in my mom's lap. I think they like her more than me, even though that's really the most she has to do with them but I think they can tell she's as excited as they are and I think that's why they get so excited I have one or two that are NEVER thrill about change. So they don't really dig rearrange day but they like my mom checking them out I've got one that's so fast and he makes me nervous when I hold him and can tell my nervousness makes him nervous