HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello my Crabbie peeps!

So Mr. Crab was gifted tons of stuff for Christmas and I'm about to revamp his 55 gallon tank. I've done it several different ways over the years and need help on what to do this time. He is very BOUGIE and loves never keeping his take the same more than three months. (Allllll my fault but I love the man!) I'm adding more sand due to it compacting at his last molt and know I am keeping my pools. He loves climbing and I have a few more tanks that I would love to add as a topper.

Does anyone have any cool new ideas? I'm a d.i.y. person but I feel uninspired at the moment. I don't know how to post pics on the site but I'm more than happy to share if need be. Thank you all for being awesome!!

How about an eggcrate background? A few memvets have them set up, and allows you to ziptie objects (plants, wood, levels ect) and allows them to climb on it. Since you have the ability ziptie objects to it, it allows you to customise it when you want and offer a 'different' jungle gym.


A few members have eggcrate backgrounds, the ones that come to mind are @Motörcrab and @Xenocrab , but i know theres more crabbers!

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Ah yes! Egg crate, plastic mesh, zip ties, Cholla...the possibilities are endless

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Yes! Egg crate is great for attaching stuff to. Once stuff is attached with zip ties it stays put!

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I don't think I've ever had an original idea, they all come from pics from the picture and DIY section. Egg crate is amazing! I just lined the sides and back of the tank and all but 1 of the 9 I just introduced crawled all the way to the top shortly after being put in the tank. I have shorter puces of what I cut to fit it in and I am still thinking of what I can do with it. PVC pipe is good to make second levels. A lot of people like to put in hamster wheels with craft mesh.

I really like to start with one core piece of decor that I fall in love with and design around that.

My main inspiration for my original Ruggie design was a huge cork round that looked like a tree trunk and fit the space between the substrate and lid perfectly. Her redesign was based on a spiral vine that also fit in the tank lengthwise like it had been made for it.

I did the same with my old display case crabitat - the main piece there was an entire cherry tree that had been cut in half and placed side by side. Everything else was tucked on and around it. My teeny tank went through a few iterations. One was beachy based on a sand castle aquarium piece. At Christmas it was a tree and gingerbread house aquarium decor. I found a nice piece of mopani and went totally woodland.

My brackish shrimp tank started with a plastic sea fan I bought on sale and really wanted to use. The crested gecko tank started with lilac branches and a birdhouse. I have a spiderwood piece now I'm trying to figure out a use for. I'm in my local reptile and fish store weekly for feeders, so I always get to check out their newest stuff which is really dangerous.

Motörcrab wrote:Yes! Egg crate is great for attaching stuff to. Once stuff is attached with zip ties it stays put!

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If I remember correctly from a different post I read a whole back, I can find this in the hardware store? I just got a 40 gallon but I am going to be setting up here in the next few weeks. Thank you

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I get the egg crate at Lowe's in the ceiling tile area. For a 24" x 48" piece it is around $17.

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Motörcrab wrote:I get the egg crate at Lowe's in the ceiling tile area. For a 24" x 48" piece it is around $17.

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Thank you I think I'll pick some up before I start filling the new tank up

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Don't forget a bunch of zip ties! A good heavy duty set of wire cutters works great for cutting it too.

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Motörcrab wrote:Don't forget a bunch of zip ties! A good heavy duty set of wire cutters works great for cutting it too.

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Do you have it in front of the uth? Or should I put it on a side that doesn't have uth?

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We have it on the rear wall with the UTH. We cut it so it goes all the way to the bottom of the tank and covers the entire back of the tank. We also measure up 6-8" and attach our wheel. Then use pieces of the egg crate to make a shelf across the top of the tank.

This is midway through the build of our 20 gallon from January. We lined all the egg crate with cocofiber. It's still holding up very well after almost a year.

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Yall rock!! I just pulled this up as I'm getting to the part I'm failing at. I actually liked the back wall with crate with sections depending on humidity in those areas. Coir mat near the pools because I can cheaply replace them but the soak up excess moisture, middle section is all plastic greenery with net for climbing, and last section is only net to have the option to scale the wall to get to his ferris wheel and second level on that side. I'm having trouble disguising my bubbles as well as having a corner caddy for moss pit with decent into the pools with my vines. They wont zip tie to where it makes sense. Maybe I'm over thinking it. AussieJJDude and Motorcab, have to say that I'm big fans of yalls work. I may not comment much but yall have been the ones I comb through feeds for information or day's. Motorcab, you taught me how to build my first hut based off your stone covered pools after the flood.

Test to see if I can figure out pictures. Such a blonde moment...

Awesome! I'm glad we both gave you some inspiration with your decorating!

We decommissioned our water cabanas since we upgraded the pools to cycled ones in the 75. We are now using the tops for hides. The bigger crabs seem to really like them!

How do you want to disguise your bubblers? We took pieces of plastic plants and zip tied them to the airlines when we had the cabanas. The lines looked like vines when we were done.