Walking the crab

[CrabbyLover77]

What is the meaning of "high" in "120 gallon high"? Google is not helping me here.

This might help explain long vs tall aquariums.

https://www.thesprucepets.com/does-aqua ... er-1381249

I always opt for a longer aquarium when it comes to keeping fish.

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[CrabbyLover77]

Here's another page that might help too:

http://aquariumdetective.com/articles/t ... cearea.php

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[crabocado]

DragonsFly, thank you for the background, it sounds like you have been quite resourceful! I will start keeping an eye out for new tanks at the aquarium shops and see what prices are like.

CrabbyLover77, thanks for that info, okay, it looks like "high", "tall" and "vertical" are just synonyms (I think).
(I guess I was just confused thinking maybe "high" meant it sits on a platform or something.)

[DragonsFly]

My tank is 5 feet long, 18 inches front to back, and 26 inches high, whereas a standard 120g is usually 4 feet long, 24 inches front to back and 24 inches high. The standard arrangement would give more comfortable "swimming room," but the extra two inches of height allows more depth of substrate and height for climbing apparatus, for the crabs.

If you haunt the aquarium shops, remember to ask them for second-hand tanks and "leakers." There's really no need to buy a new tank for crabs, and large new tanks are expensive!!! I highly recommend checking craigslist, OfferUp, and other kinds of online second-hand markets; it's amazing what some people are just hoping to get rid of. I got a 75g back when we lived in Arkansas; the woman just wanted it gone, said if I could pick it up and get rid of it she would just give it to me.

[crabocado]

Thanks for the tips. I sprung for a 20-gallon which offers nearly double the "floor space" for her and turned out surprisingly cheap at $32. I don't really have the option to go gigantic, at the present time.
In the 10-gallon everything is jumbled together, shells, "tree", and shelter, and the water dishes are not very deep, so this should feel like a step up. I'm sure it will look small within a few weeks but right now the empty tank looks huge!

[Quinnthescrub]

watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8NqBVTpkNs

[crabocado]

Fun idea, thanks! It's odd they never took the leashed crab out of the tank though.
Actually, I think a leash might add risks of its own, e.g. somebody might walk into it and send the crab flying...

[DragonsFly]

It looks like that hermit crab was "leashed" to prevent it escaping. I could not tell for sure, but it also looked like the kid may have tied the string to one of the crab's legs. I would definitely not recommend that. That's a way to lose a leg.

[crabocado]

Yikes, that doesn't sound good at all! I wasn't able to discern a lot from the video. Although the leash idea is cute in theory, I think it's best to just create firm barriers to where the crab can go.

On a different note - I got my 20 gallon tank set up. Actually i came close to posting a question in the "emergency" section because she started digging in the old tank, literally the day I was finishing up shopping for crab stuff for this transition! So, I wasn't sure if I should dig her up to get her into the better housing - but leaning toward leaving her be. BUT then she appeared and visited the water dish, did some climbing, etc., and I was very relieved the transition could proceed. BUT then again, she dug down at the last minute. At this point I'd had enough, since she had just recently been out I figured it was okay and as I transferred all the substrate from old cage to new, I brought her out as well. Got everything nicely set up with deeper substrate and bigger dish for fresh water, plus new shells that arrived the next day. She has not resumed any digging yet. One thing I like about the 20 gal long tank is I can pile lots of substrate on one end, and less on the other end where she mainly just has the big water dish.

[DragonsFly]

Yes, if she's been up and down very recently, it's probably not an emergency situation to go ahead and move her. She may need to go ahead and molt soon, but they can put off molting for a short time if necessary.

Question: do you just have one water dish? Remember that she needs sources of both fresh water and marine salt water to stay healthy and properly regulate her shell water salinity.

[crabocado]

I do have both the big fresh water dish, and a medium salt water dish (made with Instant Ocean). As of today, the fresh water is tap water treated with Prime. For years, I gave her distilled water. Recently learned on this site that treated tap water is better, so I went out and bought a new bottle of Aqua Safe. Whoops! Then I read it doesn't detoxify ammonia, so back I went today for Prime instead. So I am all set with fresh water. And then, I just realized that for years I have been giving her untreated tap water with Instant Ocean - need to start treating it first with Prime, before adding the Instant Ocean (or vice versa). It is just one big chemistry project!

[crabocado]

I should also mention what happened the first time I gave her salt water, which was just a few years ago. She perched on the edge of the dish and drank for HOURS. I felt really good (and bad) to satisfy her need for that!

[crabocado]

... by "bad" I meant that she had to wait so long...

[DragonsFly]

That's amazing; she is a really strong crab to be able to survive so long in less-than-adequate conditions (not "judging," NONE of us knew what these guys really need when we ended up with hermit crabs!). If anybody near you was trying to do captive breeding, you should probably let her participate in it; her babies might be far more suited to live in captivity than the vast majority of land hermit crabs are.

[crabocado]

...And then, I just realized that for years I have been giving her untreated tap water with Instant Ocean - need to start treating it first with Prime, before adding the Instant Ocean (or vice versa). It is just one big chemistry project!

Correction - I was relieved to realize that actually, that's not true! I used distilled H2O ("purified drinking water") to make my salt water.

Come to think of it - since the only reason to use tap is the trace minerals, electrolytes etc., and considering that Instant Ocean has those in spades, it seems like distilled + Instant Ocean is the way to go for salt water.