HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm not completely happy with my set up yet. I realize I need to add a bubbler which I'm doing tonight. And some climbing vines. Can I use the plastic plants from joann fabrics, are they safe? My other huge pet peeve is the lid. It slides out and opens the whole top up which is fine when I'm cleaning it I guess but the heat and humidity all escapes. Right now the screen is lined with plastic wrap. That didn't work so I added glad to 3/4 of the top. I still don't have quite enough humidity at all times, but it's getting better since I added a massive heater to the back of the aquarium. I hate the top. I'm going to eventually hang the lights. But I have two different ideas for the top. 1) in place of plastic and glass I'd cut a piece of acrylic. It could still slide all the way out. Or 2) piece of acrylic still but have a smaller door on the top. Which would require cutting the acrylic to include a door and cutting through the screen. Which citing acrylic like that will be time consuming and difficult. Plus I'm not sure having a small door would even be worth it. What do you think?

Also, is it normal to have water on the glass? If not how do I get rid of it besides wiping daily?

Thanks!

Yes, adding some vines and moss will help it look more like a hermit crab paradise. The plants from Joann are fine as long as there's no glitter, paints ect.
One thing I'd suggest is evening out the substrate. It'll make for safer molts. You don't want a crab to dig up a molter and hurt him.
A small door may become annoying when doing maintenance. Just a thought from my experience with lids.

Hermitcrabdc said everything I was going to say. I second her suggestions.

What do you have under the lamps? It looks like sheets of glass? I was just wondering because I have plastic on my mesh lid and so I didn't want to use a heat lamp for fear of melting the plastic, and I was even concerned if I put glass there as you did that it could still melt the plastic. But it looks like this is working well for you? If so I might try it myself.

There's moss in there, in a small bowl. It doesn't stay wet but would a bowl help? Would my tank be ok if it is half and half substrate then? I'm all out of coco fiber, can I use moss to mix with the sand? Is not going to be much for climbing space then? Also I'm still having trouble keeping the humidity up. I've done everything suggested including a humidifier in the room. Any ideas?

Also yes it's a piece of glass. I bought a photo frame from the $ store.

How deep would it be if you just evened it all out? If it's 6 inches you won't even need more sub. It's hard telling from the picture how deep it would be. I'm not sure if mixing moss in would be a great idea, unless it was really fine moss.
Do you spray each day? That can help the humidity boost. When I had heat lights they killed my humidity. I was a battle to keep the humidity up just for a few hours. Once I got my ultratherm that evened everything out. It might help once there's some plants in there, you can spray the plants and they'll hold some of the water.
You could try putting the moss in a bowl if you think it'll help, not sure it will help much

hermitcrabdc wrote:How deep would it be if you just evened it all out? If it's 6 inches you won't even need more sub. It's hard telling from the picture how deep it would be. I'm not sure if mixing moss in would be a great idea, unless it was really fine moss.
Do you spray each day? That can help the humidity boost. When I had heat lights they killed my humidity. I was a battle to keep the humidity up just for a few hours. Once I got my ultratherm that evened everything out. It might help once there's some plants in there, you can spray the plants and they'll hold some of the water.
You could try putting the moss in a bowl if you think it'll help, not sure it will help much

The deepest is 7" but I thought it needed to be 3x deeper than my biggest crab? My biggest fits inside a shell with a 1.5" opening shell. Another question, how do you determine what size your crabs are? Small, medium etc?

I do spray each day and it only seems to help so much. I'm going to try redoing the top tonight but we'll see I've been so sick with some kind of allergies.

I don't use heat lights anymore. The one is just a light and the other was a night light but I stopped using that when my ultratherm came. I just need to put it away.

So well the plastic plants hold water? Or are you saying live ones? And if so which?

I am looking at possibly putting a humidifier in there. I'm almost regretting having bought this tank. I thought tons of space to roam, I didn't realize how much digging room they really needed. I've spend so much money and really don't have the money to afford a different tank for awhile. Now it seems is going to be too short!

Also can you look at a crab and tell he's sick? Are they suppose to be a certain color? I'm just worried for my crabs. I know 4 are alive but one I'm sure is dead and one, I'm not sure.

Thank you so much for your help, all of you!

hermitcrabdc wrote:How deep would it be if you just evened it all out? If it's 6 inches you won't even need more sub. It's hard telling from the picture how deep it would be. I'm not sure if mixing moss in would be a great idea, unless it was really fine moss.
Do you spray each day? That can help the humidity boost. When I had heat lights they killed my humidity. I was a battle to keep the humidity up just for a few hours. Once I got my ultratherm that evened everything out. It might help once there's some plants in there, you can spray the plants and they'll hold some of the water.
You could try putting the moss in a bowl if you think it'll help, not sure it will help much

6" of substrate is only sufficient for very small crabs. I have 13" in my 55 gallon and around 10" in my others.

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I read is suppose to be 3x the depth of your biggest crab?

To answer your question about sizing-it's not an exact science. If you size by the shell you could have larger crabs in smaller shells and vice versa. If you size according to the chart on the site which basically measures space between the legs when walking normally means you have to try to get them on the bulls eye and willing to walk normally right over it and do it enough times (because they are likely to be moving fast and going in an opposite direction to where you want them to go) to really get a good measurement. If you hold them over the bulls eye by the back of their shell their legs splay out and it gives an inaccurate measurement. As far myself, knowing the subjectivity in measurement I just eyeball them. If the crab in its shell is the size of a marble they're teeny, the size of a golf ball they are medium, the size of a tennis ball they are larges, and the size of a baseball is a Jumbo. Most of my crabs are in between these sizes, like I have two mediums who are larger than a golf ball but not as large as a tennis ball.

To see more information on sizing you folloow this link: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 26&t=92541

With substrate, more is better because the more room between molters and crabs digging for fun the better off the molters are because they are not as likely to be disturbed. It should be at least 6 inches, but more doesn't hurt.

CrabbyHermit wrote:I read is suppose to be 3x the depth of your biggest crab?

That is the general recommendation, at least 3x as deep as your largest crab stands tall, but not less than 6 inches.

landlubber wrote:To answer your question about sizing-it's not an exact science. If you size by the shell you could have larger crabs in smaller shells and vice versa. If you size according to the chart on the site which basically measures space between the legs when walking normally means you have to try to get them on the bulls eye and willing to walk normally right over it and do it enough times (because they are likely to be moving fast and going in an opposite direction to where you want them to go) to really get a good measurement. If you hold them over the bulls eye by the back of their shell their legs splay out and it gives an inaccurate measurement. As far myself, knowing the subjectivity in measurement I just eyeball them. If the crab in its shell is the size of a marble they're teeny, the size of a golf ball they are medium, the size of a tennis ball they are larges, and the size of a baseball is a Jumbo. Most of my crabs are in between these sizes, like I have two mediums who are larger than a golf ball but not as large as a tennis ball.

To see more information on sizing you folloow this link: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 26&t=92541

With substrate, more is better because the more room between molters and crabs digging for fun the better off the molters are because they are not as likely to be disturbed. It should be at least 6 inches, but more doesn't hurt.

So glad to see this! Our biggest is definitely bigger than a golf ball and smaller than a tennis ball. Put some new larger shells in today (finally!) and they seem to be popular with the little guy. I'd been worried about sizing him correctly and finding appropriate shells-- I was so worried the shells I found wouldn't work out but thankfully they did. This extra info is a huge help, also-- thank you!

Thank you, I've been looking through the stickies and that's helping. Lol only problem is people have differing opinions on sizing BUT it definitely helped!