HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I love growing mosss in jars and stuff, and I would love to eventually add some to my crabitat. Could I use some from a small forest nearby if I quarantined it long enough? I'm really curious about it as it would be a lot more convenient and cheaper.
Are there any species that are known to be dangerous to crabs?
I know pesticides and introducing new invertebrates to the crabitat is obviously a concern, but I'm wondering if once again quarantining it and giving it time to flush everything out could help. Thoughts?

Aussie wrote up a plant guide on what is safe and isn't. I can't link it right now, but it is stickied in the DIY section, listing all safe planta


General rule, quarantine good at least 1 month. Get your municipality to make sure the forest is not sprayed.

Some plants are toxic to crabs. Generally, if it is safe for dogs/cats/fish/shrimp,itll be safe for crabs. Someone else with more knowledge could give more insight.

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Yeah, that's the thread that got me thinking, as he just put mosses. I think the forest is sprayed, however I'm wondering if I had them for long enough maybe I could flush that all out?

As far as we know, all true mosses are safe. Chemical residue is an issue and mosses pick them up and hold on to them easily, which is a bummer.

Hey guys I’ve been in the golf maintenance industry for 20 years and grew up playing golf so I’ve been around pesticides for a while. I have a degree in Turfgrass management. I have been applying pesticides for years. All the pesticides that are persistent in our environment and don’t break down easily and can accumulate in certain areas have been banned. I honestly can’t see anyone spraying anything in a Forrest and if they did it would be a chemical that breaks down easily. UV light, moisture, temperature, bio activity and probably more will break down these chemicals fairly quickly. There are some that can hang around for a while (maybe 6 months) but i highly doubt anyone is spraying that in a Forrest. The only product I use that will kill insects for about 6 months on golf greens is called Acelepryn. It was made by DuPont but DuPont dropped their pesticide department because they released a product for weed control that inadvertently killed trees. They had to pay millions. All the fungicides I use breakdown fairly quickly because I have to reapply them about every 7-10 days during the summer. And roundup breaks down quickly into carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Roundup works by inhibiting a key enzyme only found in plants and bacteria. I actually know a guy that accidentally drank the concentrated form 5-6 years ago, he thought it was green tea, and he’s ok today. We will see if he’s still ok years down the road.
Even with what I know there can always be an exception. And I don’t know everything. But if you can grow moss in jars you can monitor it and check for insects, other plants, and molds (which may not be a big deal with crabs) but finding those things is also an indicator there is nothing killing or inhibiting them. I would be more concerned about hitchhikers. I just collected some duck weed for my freshwater pool and I found many critters just in a small scoop of pond water. And the pond is on the golf course where I work. I’m doing research to see how I can kill anything else I can’t see (parasites, bacteria, etc.) and looks like a 1:20 water/bleach solution for a certain amount of time will do the trick. Maybe soak the moss and slightly stir it a bit, drain and repeat a few times. I am going to try it myself. There are lots of different cool looking misses and i would like to have them in my tat. For now all I have is sand/EE and wood. It will look better with plants. Nothing is certain but I plan to do exactly what you are doing. Wish me luck lol.


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Cornell says that for Roundup, it takes up to 174 days for half the product to break down. In pond water it's up to 70 days for the same - and that's only the half life!

The biggest worry is environmental and air pollution when it comes to mosses, because they are used a biomonitoring system since they tend to concentrate chemicals and heavy metals. They actually suck it out of the air and store it. For most of the world the levels are going to be low enough not to be an issue, but if you live downwind from a major electric plant or other industry it could become a problem.

Lol yeah I've had this one jar of moss since like May so like 8+ months, and I'm pretty sure all the hitchhikers (e.g. insect eggs, some did hatch into little flies but all died as the moss is in a sealed jar that I haven't opened in months) have died, except maybe the tardigrades lol, but I would love to have some of those!
I think most things in there should be dead, but the moss is still thriving and actually grew to be a couple inches tall. I'm really into ecology and I figured the moss and whatever's in the substrate would be able to break down any dead moss and thus the nutrients are recycling and the water as well since the lid's closed tight, plus from what I know plants can breathe CO2 and oxygen, depending on what's available. Plus moss is just amazing and can survive humidity and I think temperature extremes.
However I'm rather fond and proud of that particular jar so maybe I'll get some more and quarantine them for 6+months but maybe keep the jar open. I think my neighborhood forest just sprays stuff like roundup or some sort of herbicides to kill all the tall weeds every once in a while by the creek, which makes me a little sad since I love exploring there and all those plants appear to be native. But I think there's some areas they don't even spray so I can get some from there and still quarantine them to be safe.

wodesorel wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 11:12 am

Cornell says that for Roundup, it takes up to 174 days for half the product to break down. In pond water it's up to 70 days for the same - and that's only the half life!

The biggest worry is environmental and air pollution when it comes to mosses, because they are used a biomonitoring system since they tend to concentrate chemicals and heavy metals. They actually suck it out of the air and store it. For most of the world the levels are going to be low enough not to be an issue, but if you live downwind from a major electric plant or other industry it could become a problem.

Awww, shoot! There's a Kimberly-Clark factory by the river a couple miles away. So they probably would have some accumulation of that stuff. Guess I'll have to find a remote location lol. I'm probably just better off ordering some then. Shoot. I'm still gonna have fun growing them in jars though!

Roundup can be sprayed and seeded into a day later

Edit: but even I wouldn’t use moss from a known roundup location. Just doesn’t feel right.

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Also the testing Cornell is referring to could be from testing the concentrated form and that would make a difference. Unless they are testing real world applications.

And the reason seeding can occur the next day is probably because what ever is left over goes into the soil because it has to make contact to the leaf to kill the plant.

I found info from IUPUI but it only said quickly breaks down so who knows if they even did any research. And what is quickly? Lol.


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Also back when I was in college they told us RU is inert in the human body and merely just passes through. Lol


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Here’s the duck weed I took from the pond. Already starting to root 2 days in a window. I was unsure if any were viable because I think it overwinters on the bottom as a seed of some sort.


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I also found some videos of moss collected outside and rinsed well with straight tap water. And also shaken in a jar can’t remember if it was tap or dechlor in the shaking process. But he would shake it and drain and repeat until clean. Then he submerged the moss in dechlor in the jar to prepare it for an aquarium. Maybe the tap water will kill any bacteria or parasites. But as far as moss holding onto chemicals that I don’t know about but I hope the moss is breaking it down.


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FYI Duckweed is a floating aquatic plant. Almost aquarists don't want it in their tank and goes great lengths to remove it as it grows super fast and it's extremely hard to get rid of it.


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Yes I know But it’s great for pulling out nitrates


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