HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I am in a bit of a pinch (no pun), since the questions I asked on the 'New Crabbers [etc.]" forum were not getting attention in a timely enough manner as I need and at least a few of them were more pertinent to this category, I decided to present my case here as well.

Over Christmas break I will be painting my room. You have three guesses to figure out where they crabs are. There is no question that I need to move them, however my options are a little limited and then further limited by my 'screening processes', especially since they've had a bit of stress with my current UTH's being pretty lame and it being pretty cold. No worries-I have that wrangled for now (I'll be ordering a 6x17 Ultratherm soon, for now a space heater to help with ambient) however I still do need to move them. At the moment I have narrowed it down to two locations, one being another of the bedrooms and another being the bathroom. The bathroom is the closest and preferred, we only use all-natural cleaners anywhere in the house so that is a non-issue, but I'm worried about any steam. The water to our house is chlorinated, and though I can completely seal off the crabitat the individual who replied to my 'introducing myself' topic presented some concerns about the chlorine dissipating by the time it is unsealed. The restroom in question is pretty easy to air out, though, and much warmer than my bedroom-meaning that the UTH would be supplemented without the space heater burning electricity. The only other acceptable place I might consider is one of the bedrooms on the other side of the house. While the tank is only a 10gal, there's still that 50+pounds of sub and stuff, and I'm not eager to drop it. If the general consensus is that the bathroom would be unsafe, I have no problem with wrangling together some people to help me out with moving it, I would just really prefer and appreciate some more experienced input.

I'm really not sure about the chlorinated steam being an issue or not. Up until I read that, having well water myself, I thought "What's the problem?". I'll let someone else chime in there.

How long have your crabs been under? Moving even a small tank full of sub can be a risk. It may crack during the move and of course there's always the risk of collapsing crabby tunnels.

Oh, sorry if there was a misunderstanding? Neither of them are under, they do dig around some but currently neither are destressing or molting. We could remove sub to move them, but I think that would only really be necessary to put them in the other bedroom. The bathroom backs right up to my bedroom, part of why I'd prefer it there. xD We've moved the tank full before using a thick piece of plywood as support for the tank.

My living room and dining room are basically one giant space and I've painted both more than once with the crab tank in the living room, sometimes in winter. I sealed it up in plastic before I started painting, and then opened it up the next morning after the fumes had dissipated. Using a very low or no VOC paint is the key, and most of what is available now is just that. Never lost a crab.

I wouldn't worry about the steam myself, but again, you can always seal the tank during a shower.

I've also had my husband lug around a 10 gallon tank with over 50 pounds of wet sand when we had the furnace replaced in 15 degree weather a few years back. It took three days before it was working again, so we had to pile everything in one place and use space heaters, and then put the tank back where it belonged afterwards. There were like 5 or 6 molters down and again, no trouble and they all came up about a month later.

wodesorel wrote:My living room and dining room are basically one giant space and I've painted both more than once with the crab tank in the living room

I'm trying to remember what I did when I painted the family room. I think at that time the crabs were in the dining room but it's all open too. I honestly don't remember even thinking about it.

The current paints are much safer than they used to be. My recommendation would be to vent to the outside. Do you have a box fan that you can put in a window and create a negative are pressure in the room, meaning that if you hold up a tissue in the middle of the room it is drawn towards the window. This is in addition to the previous post about sealing the tank as best you can. Note, don't use anything fabric to cover the tank as that will absorb the fumes.

wodesorel wrote:My living room and dining room are basically one giant space and I've painted both more than once with the crab tank in the living room, sometimes in winter. I sealed it up in plastic before I started painting, and then opened it up the next morning after the fumes had dissipated.

My issue is that the space is small, and I'm painting a dark color (3+ coats aaa) and then doing some stripes. If I kept it in my room, the tank would have to be placed somewhere off the wall and tbh there really isn't an 'off the wall' space that won't interfere with the laser leveler I'm using to mark my stripes, and my mother may actually get rid of them with the added inconvenience they may cause and my fretting with take off the lid, put on the lid...No wait I think it may need to be put back on and are the temps fine?

I would think if your sand is the right consistency and you don't jar it too much collapsing tunnels aren't a huge problem though a valid concern-probably depends a lot on how long they've been down? I actually have moved the tank when they both were down 2wk/1wk, and they both came up successfully after a 5ish week molt. Everyone would be away for the week or so and the heat wasn't hooked up to the school yet. ;~;

If you don't think the steam would be a problem, I think I may move them to the bathroom then. It will probably be used to store/clean off paint brushes and such, and I'll seal it off with the plexi should it seem to get too steamy or fumy. We have so many box fans it's not even funny, tbh. Since it's a small space and we'll need the paint to dry quick we will probably be using the fan anyway. Because their UTHs are struggling as-is with high ambient, changing it to 30-60's with the airing out would not be helpful.