HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, I moved my 8 into an Exoterra a year ago and all are still doing well and growing. Last spring I added a batch of roly poly isopods and thy have flourished. I have a constant batch of new ones crawling around. The only thing I've done in the way of adding anything is replenishing miss in the 2 moss pits when the kids have distributed into the substrate.

There is no smell, no mold, mildew, or anything negative going on that I can tell. Last summer I saw some of those small mites in the food dishes but was able to clear up in a couple of weeks. I appear to have a healthy crabitat. I know it s said to replace substrate but unless I start seeing any issues I dont want to upset the success I'm having keeping everyone alive and happy. Anything wrong with this train of thought?

Some folks do a deep clean yearly, churning the substrate to help aeration, but I don't think many actually remove all of the substrate just for the sake of putting in 100% new -- it's a pain to mix and get the substrate in there to begin with! I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school: I've had the same EcoEarth/play sand substrate in my 29g for the past 13 months with no problems whatsoever. It's still sandcastle consistency, all of the crabs have been molting successfully, no mold, fungus or bacterial bloom, so it's staying in there with daily food and debris cleanups.

Crabinski wrote:Some folks do a deep clean yearly, churning the substrate to help aeration, but I don't think many actually remove all of the substrate just for the sake of putting in 100% new -- it's a pain to mix and get the substrate in there to begin with! I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school: I've had the same EcoEarth/play sand substrate in my 29g for the past 13 months with no problems whatsoever. It's still sandcastle consistency, all of the crabs have been molting successfully, no mold, fungus or bacterial bloom, so it's staying in there with daily food and debris cleanups.

Good to hear. All I do is take a plastic fork and fill in holes and move top layer around a little to level out areas when they have a party night.