HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Here's a simple way to make a climbing wall... however I haven't figured out how to attach it to the tank yet...

Anyways. You know that coconut fiber lining for hanging plant baskets that they sell at most gardening/home improvement stores? It's fairly cheap and safe for crabs (make sure to ask for the organic, pesticide free kind). Just cut a piece the size of the climbing wall you want to make and... this is the part I haven't quite figured out yet: how to attach the matting to the wall of the tank. In my tank, the lid is heavy enough that I can use it to weigh down the top of the matting and prevent it from falling. However, this is impractical for anyone with a light lid/ large crabs.

I would love suggestions on how to improve this toy.

Maybe try suction cups with metal prongs/hooks on them? They sell various sizes in the craft dept at walmart/craft stores. Depends on how heavy the matting is, I guess. Worth a try. I use the suction cups with prongs/hooks to hold the air tubing to my humidifier against the tank walls- works wonderfully. The already-made climbing wall stuff they sell at Petco/Petsmart uses velcro and says staple the velcro to the climbing wall stuff and then attach the other part of the velcro to the tank wall.

Also, just an idea, I've made my hermie herd a few climbing toys from metal chicken wire. Bought a roll of it at Home Depot and use wire snips to cut out whatever design needed. Have also made them tiny ladders to climb in and out of their pools (not that it's necessary, but makes ME feel better they're in place, especially for the lil' guys!) They seem to enjoy these things very much.

Sorry to ramble, hope it helps.

You're never to use metal in the tank. It rusts if you have your humidity at 80% like you're supposed to, and the rust is bad bad bad for the hermies. Any metal in the tank needs to come out asap.

buy a box of velcor from walmart. i used some super abresive. attach to each upper corner and one or two in the middle depending on how long it it. stick it to the tank. that what i used. "rough surface" is what i bought. worked like a charm. hope this helps.

hermiegirl wrote:You're never to use metal in the tank. It rusts if you have your humidity at 80% like you're supposed to, and the rust is bad bad bad for the hermies. Any metal in the tank needs to come out asap.

Thank you for letting me know this, I definitely do NOT want to be putting my herd in danger of any kind. I'm still a new hermie mom- learning new stuff each day and grateful ya'll seasoned Hermie Parents are around to give good advice

if you use the ones with the metal hooks just coat it with silicone, most are galvanized metal so it shouldn't rust but to be safe just coat it with silicone.

I just used aquarium silicone. No suction cups, no metal, I just glued it to the glass. It holds great, and if you need it to come off just use a razor blade to scrape the excess off the glass. I have one of those T Rex 'climbing backgrounds' (same thing, except I probably paid too much for it) for a 10 gallon, turned it sideways, and covered a part of the back of my 65 gallon with it. It didn't cover top to bottom, but top to at least where the substrate would start.

The only problem with that is crabs can't be in the tank when you attach it and it needs to dry for 24-48 hours. So, I don't know what I'm going to do if I have to replace it. Maybe I'll just replace it when I do my next deep clean? Oh well I love it as is and I'll worry about it when I get there! :)

Here's an image of it drying on it's side.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Why not use velcro?

Big MaC wrote:Why not use velcro?

I didn't because I have a couple large crabs and I wanted to be sure it'd hold. If someone has smaller crabs, velcro should be fine. :)