HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi, my family went to the beach recently and I was wondering if I could take sand and ocean water from there to use for my crabitat? New Jersey shore and I have purple pincher crabs

No, this is not recommended. You can get cheap play sand at Home Depot for around $3 most places.

Most crabbers use sand, sand/eco earth mixture, or even just the eco earth alone. Eco earth can be usually be found at your local pet store/Petco/Petsmart.

Reason being the water and sand from nature has other small living things in it... You could bake your sand and boil the water, but it's not usually a good idea to take off of beaches. You don't really know what you're bringing home.

Also, depending on your location/beach, it may be against the law.

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Ocean water contains many micro organisms which require a specialised environment to survive. They will die in our bowls, increasing organic and toxic compounds like ammonia.

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I have used dry sand from beaches that are not heavily populated. I agree with not using the water with the above mentioned reasons above.

Would ocean water be fine with a sponge filter? That would filter out any harmfull things right?

Emi wrote:Would ocean water be fine with a sponge filter? That would filter out any harmfull things right?

You're not going to be able to filter out all of the impurities/pollutants in ocean water with a filter. The safest bet is tap water with a dechlorinator like Prime, and a marine salt (like Instant Ocean) for your salt pool.

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