HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I just spent the last 3 hours up to my elbows cleaving a flooded 20 gallon long. I happened to walk by and thought something looked wrong. Upon further inspection my heart stopped when I seen 6 inches of soaking wet substrate. I immediately went into high gear. I put all my crabs in a emergency critter carrier that I keep stocked for emergencies. That was THE NASTIEST SMELLING substrate ever. None were dead as thankfully none were molting at the time the bubble pool failed and they all took off for the shelves and logs. Its all cleaned out but I only have a half inch of sand in there until I can get to the pet store tomorrow. Ugh what we do for our crustacean kids.


Crabbing for 4 years-still obsessed! 5 total crustacean kids. Gave up trying to tell them apart but I love them all.

Yikers! How big was your bubble pool, that it had that much water in it? And what caused it to "fail"--did they tip it over?

It was a plastic fish tank that for perfectly all the way across. I think it was a gallon but I didn't know it was leaking. I thought it was just evaporating quick and I kept filling it up. It took a bit for or to work its way all the way up to eventually air in the low lying areas of the substrate. I feel terrible. How did I miss this? I'm just happy none were hurt and I wanted to deep clean anyway.


Crabbing for 4 years-still obsessed! 5 total crustacean kids. Gave up trying to tell them apart but I love them all.