HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Your tank is amazing!

Wow. Every time I see some of these amazing pretty 'tats I start rethinking mine and planning for larger. Who says I need a couch or dining table in my apartment? Lol

soilentgringa wrote:Wow. Every time I see some of these amazing pretty 'tats I start rethinking mine and planning for larger. Who says I need a couch or dining table in my apartment? Lol

Haha I feel the same way. Unfortunately my hubs doesn't share my sentiment. Good thing I've got a lifetime to convince him otherwise!


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Hehe, I'm still young. Who knows what I'll come up with in the future? I remember your tanks Laylicorn, they were really cool

Love, love, love your frog! I've always been a sucker for frogs and used to have African Dwarf frogs.

Jarteta, you said that you purchased the variety of bagged hermie food on Amazon. As it looks like a very nice assortment, could you post the link?

Crabinski, it was only a one time thing, but I found several other "mixes" by the same seller. If you search up "organic hermit crab food", or something else like that, you should be able to find it.

It's been awhile since I've been on the forum, but I'll post some pictures of the tank as I just cleaned it, not much has changed, but I did adopt 4 new medium-to-small PPs, so the tank is at full capacity. Also, I'm hoping to soon order a couple of good cholla pieces to fill in the right side. Here ya go



I've gotten into frogging for the past year, so here's some shots explaining my long absence:







Also, I now have the largest size UTH heater (60 gallon I think) on the back right side of the tank, the room temp. varies from 75 to 76 during day and 70 at lowest at night, so I think the heat is sufficient, though I may add another in the future and monitor temps and behavior to see the effect. The crabs are quite active, especially with the new adoptions, and I pour a handful of sanitized leaf litter into front left caddy once or twice a month, they love to munch on those things. Also I had a bunch of spare cork pieces (sterilized of course) so I stuck those in random places. I currently have to replace the left hood bulb (annoying lol) but for now I have a daylight spectrum CFL lighting that side of the tank. I still have them on a staple of mealworms and cuttlebone with fruits and veggies also being changed out twice a week, and about once a week I give them half of one of the treat baggies I bought. Last winter I was gifted 4 strawberries by my family, and I lost the largest shortly after receiving them but we know how hard it is for large crabs to make the trip into captivity, especially strawberries. All other crabs are doing well, and they have been molting constantly, with up to half down at any given time.

My god you make gorgeous enclosures lol.. I'm going to make an attempt at building something half as amazing as yours. Thank you so much for such an inspirational enclosure!

Oh, believe me, you will most certainly be able too. Check out dendroboard.com, a sight for the poison dart frog hobby, and you will see some of the most breathtaking tanks ever. Also, if I showed you some of my old or original tanks both for hermit crabs and frogs, you would see the learning curve in it's full relevance lol. Just keep practicing, look at hundreds of tanks and you'll get there.

Wow. Awesome habitats!! Will definitely be checking out the site you listed. Do your frogs make cool pets?

By the way, cute dog reflecting in the glass on that one crabitat picture.


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looks awesome!! You are very creative. My crabbies and I are jealous Sorry to hear about your Straw. That must have been really hard. I am dreading the day one of mine passes. I think I will lose it. :crybaby: Love seeing pics of your tank, it was definitely an inspiration for my 125g.

Absolutely amazing. I'm so envious.

What's the bluish light you've got going at night?

The bluish light is from the blue acitinic LEDs that are part of the hood. I purchased the tank and lighting on craigslist, so all I know is that it is Odyssea.

Frogs do make very cool pets, but they tank a TON of research and preparation. That being said, through frogging and vivarium making I know I have entered a hobby that will last a lifetime. The beautiful enclosures that can be created make it an endearing hobby, and the frogs are simply stunning. In comparison to hermit crab, I would say that in general their initial start up cost is more expensive, but that long time maintenance is less. They are, however, more delicate to touch and significant parameter changes, particularly heat. Hermit crabs, I believe, are more susceptible to chronic or lasting stress, often in the form of delayed sickness from shipping stress, while frogs are more susceptible to sudden changes, such as a heat wave. You also have to have microfauna, live plants, proper (and often expensive) lighting, bred fruit flies, and powder supplements. Once this is all done, though, care is remarkably easy, especially with automated misting, time controlled lighting, and pre-drilled tanks for drainage.

This does not mean that I am giving up on hermit crabs, far from it, but I expect that I will cycle between the two hobbies when it comes to builds. One thing I fall short on with crabs is that I often take a couple of days to change food out, sometimes giving me moldy nasties, but it's improving as I focus more energy and time on animal care. I of course have dreams for crab tanks to be built in the future. For one, I would love to have a 120+ gallon glass tank with more permanent pools that are drilled and have more powerful and effective filters, with better design, almost like two individual aquaria. I would also have a cholla jungle. plenty of shower caddies and magnetic ledges, and more plastic plants, I want more plastic plants even now, and will likely get them. I would also love live plants in a crab tank, preferably non-destroyable ones. I would have a background consisting of cork panels that could have live moss spreading across, with little squares cut out for once again shower caddies and other second or third level pieces. Also, I would give some supplemental UVB lighting just to experiment, and an automated misting system as well. Oh, and 14+ inches of substrate would be awesome

I also would like to, in the future, do more detailed observation of the behaviors of strawberries and other exotics and determine all they need and potentially discover previously unknown care requirements. Who knows, maybe UVB will make the difference, or it could just be that they do need really deep sub and large pools. For now, though, I am very content with what I have, I just want another heating pad, a magnetic ledge above the SW pool, and LOTS of cholla

Very beautiful tanks keep up the good work.

Once again, due to the photobucket debacle:

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