HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I'm coming up on my sixth year of crabbing and am planning to upgrade from my current 29 gallon tank to a 75 gallon tank. I have a few ideas for decor but I'd like to know if anyone has some really favorite diy projects. I am also looking for tips and information on salt water pools/pool systems! I currently have five crabs, all PPs, who love digging and are rarely active before 10 p.m. I hope to post pictures of the process as well!

There are a couple of really cool threads on here about this- motorcrab and aussiejjdude and leehascrabs have been giving us a progress report on their builds as a sort of how-to. They’re using egg crate as a background up the back and sides as a base to build on, with shelves and hides, and Aussiejjdude is even putting some natural looking rock using foam underneath and concrete on top! Pretty neat stuff.
Pretty awesome stuff really... maybe try for a search on eggcrate and see if that pulls it up. Perhaps someone else more experienced can provide a link. I’ll try to add it afterward but I can’t promise anything!
Good luck on your build- I’m picking up mine on Weds and I am so darn excited I can’t stand it! I believe there are also threads on the pools and how tos there, perhaps a search would pull up some of what you are looking for too!

Crabitat 2.0 (from a 20 gal to a 50 gal)
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_ ... are_type=t
New 20 Gallon Tall Build With Egg Crate (in process)
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_ ... are_type=t
And finally- I got them all here- yay!
I guess its offical... an upgrade?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_ ... are_type=t
Dave the Wondercrab~Patpat the Scaredy Cat~MaggieMoo-Dumbo~Billy

Thank you so much! I haven't seen the egg carton one before I'll have to look into that!

We set up a 75 gallon last summer. For the pools we use 8" X 5.5" X 4" plastic food containers. They hold about 1/3 of a gallon of water. We added crafting mesh in a "U" shape and secured it in place with zip ties. We used the double up method. For each pool use two containers. The lower one always stays in the substrate and you remove the upper container to change out the water. This helps to avoid collapsing tunnels if a crab decides to dig under or next to the water dishes.

The projects I seem to keep doing over and over are adding crafting mesh to exercise wheels, digital gauge holders. and adding bubblers to the water pools. All are pretty easy and take an hour or less for the average person to complete.

Acurite Craft Mesh Holder
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 9&t=118870

Double-Dish Bubbler Pics, YO!
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 7&t=113691

For the exercise wheels you will have to search the picture section for some inspiration. I don't think there is a tutorial for that.

Oh wow thank you! That's wonderful advice! Do you use a bubbler for humidity or do you have other reasons? Where I live is already quite humid so if anything keeping humidity down is my issue but I'd be interested to know if a bubbler makes the pools more enticing/improves the water quality significantly for the crabs.

I added the bubblers for my strawberries. Before I got them I read how they love to swim, more than any other species, especially in the salt water. I had mine for a month or so and did not see them in the water and it was always clean. It concerned me since they weren't swimming. GotButterflies suggested that I added bubblers just for movement. The running water may entice them in. Sure enough a day or two later I had swimming strawberries!

We added bubblers in two other tanks too. So far the only ones we ever saw actually go into the water are the straws no one else seems to care about the water. They all just sit pool side and dip their claws! The bubblers also keep the layer of film from forming on the water too. Depending on how large your pools are you may get an extra day or two between water changes with bubblers depending on what they drag into the water.