HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello all.

I posted awhile back that my favorite big crab had been attacked and I was hand feeding him. He died and I rehomed my other crabs. I was not going to get anymore, but now I find myself in the possession of a "killer" crab. He has been owned by the same owner and kept in semi-good conditions. He was fed store bought stuff, but also had chicken and krill to eat. She said he has either dug up molters and killed/eaten them or pulled any smaller crabs from the shells and killed them outright.

I know they do better in groups, but I would be just fine keeping a single one. He seems very interested in humans and quite friendly. The substrate in there is I *think* calcisand. There is at least 2 inches. He needs more than that and I wonder if it IS calcisand, can I mix in play sand and be ok? I hate the thought of wasting it since she said she just changed it all. I always used Eco Earth.

Thanks!

I have always used a blended mixture of the coconut fiber and play sand moistened with salt water. I heard the calcisand can get moldy. Honestly I would clean all the calcisand out and go with what you normally use. I know it seems like wasting, but because the calcisand can mold and put your crabs at a health risk, your not wasting, your doing what is best for the health your crabs.

There's a lot of negative opinions about calci sand here on this forum. Personally, I had very good luck with it. In my first tank I used a 50/50 mix of calci sand and regular sand and I had many successful molts.

I've never before heard anything about calci sand molding. The so-called problems with calci sand are that it can become hard and that it stinks. Neither of those things ever happened in my crabitat while I was using calci sand. I stopped using calci sand because I switched my tank to 100% coco fiber as substrate.

Thanks for the clarification Sugar. I have never used it myself because it was not recommended. I heard about the bad smell and hardening and also mold, guess they were misinformed about the mold part. In any case it is not recommeded or preferred for hermit crabs. Just as you have found, I also noticed that my crabs prefer the eco earth coconut fiber for easy digging.

My first set up had EE on one side and calcisand on the other. My calcisand did not stink but it did get sticky/hard/weird. When I switched to a mix of EE and playsand I did just mix in the calcisand with the added playsand. I didn't have any problems but it was only one small package worth of calcisand. Not sure if larger quantities would have more of an effect.

I would try to offer more high protein foods for your crab and here are two great links with info about substrate that are very worth reading. Calci sand will mold is usually dyed or chemically treated and does stick inside the shells of the crabs making a crab become shell bound.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... highlight=
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... ht=#704403

After changing substrate many people that had unexplained molting problems or unexplained deaths really figured out the problems..