HCA: Hermit Crab Association

We have two down for molting. I know darkness is important, but both are down along the glass so they have a window? Should I cover that? They are both down several inches.

And just a suggestion from a newbie, it might be an idea to have a molting sticky with all the basic info. I know it's on the care sheets because I finally looked there but it also says on there to do an iso tank... Might be helpful!

yes, just put something over it for now and try not to peek too much.

I have a 10gallon as an ISO for now, but i dont like using it, one of my newbies went down the day i got the 40gallon set up.... of course.

As long as you have deep enough substrate and a large enough tank for all crabs to have their own molting tunnels/burrows without interfering with each other, and feed good sources of protein and chitin regularly, it's fine for them to molt together; you don't need to iso for regular molting; you just want it in case you have a surface molter, or if you have one get attacked while molting.

DF- can you remind me where chitin is found? Is that shrimp shell and sponges? Thanks

I use a post-it or 2, plus I try not to peak more the 2 times a week.

hermitmommy wrote:DF- can you remind me where chitin is found? Is that shrimp shell and sponges? Thanks

Yes, natural sea sponges, shrimp tails (or freeze-dried whole shrimp), and also insects (e.g., freeze-dried crickets, etc.) are all good sources of chitin.