crab doesn't like sand... it's not normal ether!

[Guest]

I just cleaned out the cage and changed the sand. it's not the same as befor and now they're not even diging in it! they acted normal with it the first day, but now my newest crab, mr crab, doesn't even touch the sand

he sleps on top of the log and doesn't go off it! he's awake right now, and moving, but he stayes off the sand! craling on top of the log and my other hermit crab...

what should i doooo!!!!!!!!???????????????????????

[Guest]

it's not normal because i just got a new lamp and shown it on the sand without knowing, it was the only light in the room, and when i turned it off, the sand began to glow in the dark in the green color

[brandi9976]

did you put calci sand in it or playsand? I know calci sand comes in glow in the dark, but I've never seen playsand come in glow in the dark.

I recommend going to home depot, lowes or a local hardware store and buying a 50lb bag of playsand for under $5 and changing the sand.

[blaze88]

Yah I always go with play sand it is way cheeper. Sombody else here had a glow in the dark problem but the crabs didn't seem to care, they still canged it within the week. Thats crazy, I mean glow in the dark? Who knows what chemicals are in there.

[Guest]

I look at it this way, we have been taking care of hermit crabs, (well, at least decently), for about 25-30 years tops. Hermit Crabs, on the other hand, have been taking care of hermit crabs for at least several thousand if not several million years. They've probably figured it out much better than we have in that time.

So, if your crabby seems to be telling you that the sand isn't any good, I'd take the previous poster's suggestion and go buy them some cheap play sand to replace it. I would, however, run a magnet through that sand before you wet it down for the crabitat. There's another thread somewhere about finding a lot of iron filings in some of the playsand. While I'm not convinced that iron oxide is necessarily a bad thing, (I find plenty of it when I bring anything with a magnet on it to the beach, myself), other posters are concerned, and this way you remove that as a potential source of worry.

There's a lot of stuff you can buy in the reptile section of most pet stores that isn't necessarily hermie-safe. We sort of suffer from the fact that most stores still classify these as reptiles, and put them in with stuff that is reptile-safe, but not so much for a small invertibrate prone to eating substrates and anything else around.

[Guest]

it's calci sand. i looked for play sand and couldn't find it in the pet store, my mom thought that toys r' us might have it, so we checked there too, but they also had none. it never ocured to us that there might be some in home depot, we were there just the other day!

the sand also doesn't absorb water, so i think i'll chang it. But now i have a different problem!

there was a fishy smell comeing from the crabatat, so went to see wich crab had died because it was a very strong smell, but when i checked on the crabs, they where all moveing if i lifted them, :roll: but now i don't know where the smell came from, and all the crabs are ok, so i'm very confused, did this ever happen to anyone befor?

[blaze88]

sometimes foood just get burried and reakes etc.

WHich sand doesn't retain water the calci or the play?

[Guest]

I would almost bet he's talking about the calci-sand. That stuff is really fine grain, when I used it in my 'tat, water would pool on the surface. That's one of the reasons I switched over to EE, the other being that EE seems to hold humidity and not look dirty when the moss falls apart in it.

Smell the crabs, one may be sick and making the fishy smell. If so, you'd wanna watch that one, he may be a goner soon. One thing I notice in my tank is that if the crabs "drool" salt water over almost anything fresh in the food bowl it'll start to smell fishy after a bit. If you're using dried krill or the like, they also give off this smell when wet.