29 Gallon Crabby Nursery

[Xenocrab]

Thank you very much

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[GotButterflies]

Yw!

[Xenocrab]

The way we think is "if I was a crabby, what would I like?" With these being babies, the possibilities are endless! We were striving for jungle/beach/amusement.

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[Motörcrab]

I saw this on Instagram, and it really doesn't do the tank justice! You both are soooo creative! I love it!! It's so adorable! Great job!

Thanks! I like Instagram for quick posts and random pictures for lots of people to see quickly. It's really hard to get detail in the pictures and viewing them on a phone doesn't help to see detail either.

After playing with the egg crate which if great for 95% of crabs everyone has, we needed something smaller for the babies to grip. Our crabs crawl all over the egg crate material and is pretty easy to cut and secure stuff to. I also hate how tanks look with an UTH taped to the back. It always makes the tank appear dark.

I got to thinking about the colors of crab mesh. They have tons of colors and since most baby stuff is light blue or pink we opted to go with a blue back ground for a summer sky. I was going to make the palm trees out of crab mesh then thought scrap bits of cholla would be perfect for the trunks, and leaves on the vines we got resemble palm trees. Xeno looked at me like I was crazy at first. I really think the possibilities for decorating are endless for crab mesh. The best thing is it's really cheap and very easy to work with. It can be used for a lot more than just getting in and out of water pools and on wheels for better grip.

The Crabby Cubes are great! Since they get filled with popcorn, one of our crews favorite treats, they are instantly attracted and pick away! They can empty out 3 pieces of popcorn in about two hours! I was playing with the design a little bit this weekend. if you cut the mesh in the shape of a cross you need far less zip ties. Plus if you put the locking part of the zip ties on the inside of the cube they look a lot cleaner!

[Scarletfire]

Oh wow. The tension rod is a great idea. I'll do something like that for my next clinking structure...

What did you wrap the coco mat around to make the lighthouse?

And is the wheel DIY? If so, is the bearings from a hobby ahop/fidget spinner/etc?

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[Motörcrab]

The light house Xeno bought years ago. I think it's been in almost every one of our tanks at some point. All the crabs like climbing on it.

The wheel is DIY. It's a tiny, I think a 1/2 cup plastic container. My first attempt didn't spin well. The main axle was too short. I used the outer shell of a Bic pen and extended the length of the bolt so it extended out further into the wheel like other wheels. That worked really well.

[Sillymel]

Your tank is amazing. Can I ask what you have taped to the back of the aquarium in the second picture? Is it something to help with heating the tank? Also, do you have your heaters duct taped to the tank?


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[Xenocrab]

We duct taped a Polypro insulation board on top of the UTH. You can't do that with all uths, but the ones we get from The Bean Farm and Flukers are safe. The insulation helps keep the heat in. We duct tape the UTH first, then tape the insulation on.

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[Crabby in NJ]

Omg how amazing! Creative and beautiful! Looooove it!

[Motörcrab]

Thanks! It's definitely our brightest and most fun looking tank. Unfortunately the babies don't really climb all the ropes or hide in the hanging Cholla. They do climb the background and on the palm trees a lot. Most of the time they dig tiny holes near stuff and hide. Imagine poking a hole with your pinky finger.

I've been debating on tweaking this a bit to see if we can get more activity from the babies by adding more stuff to hide under on the substrate.