A warning for those with glow in the dark dishes

Frostfire · Post by **Frostfire** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:01 pm

When I set up my 55 gallon I had my 6 year old sister pick out their calcium dish, as I figured it didn't matter too much what they used. She chose a glow in the dark dish from Petsmart. I'm sure you've all seen them, they come in green, blue, and pink- and they are all swirly? She chose the blue one. We bring it home and I stick some crushed sand dollars in there. A few days later and wondering why no one has touched it, I turn over the sand dollars. On the back is the ink from the bowl, bled on to my crabs very dry food. Have you ever broken a glow stick, and smelt that chemical smell? That's exactly what it smelt like. These were dry sand dollars. Imagine what chemicals these things must be leaking into the jacuzzi style pools they sell. I took it back to the store and I returned it, wrapped up in a bag and showed them the contaminated food. Did they care? No. Did they give me a refund? Yah. However the way that they did not care their product could have poisoned my crabs frustrates me beyond words. But me? I'm just glad my crabs were smart to scuttle off that dish whenever I placed them near it. I'll always listen to them first.

dylan644 · Post by **dylan644** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:10 pm

General rule that I sorta adopted, don't use glow in the dark itemss!lol glad the crabs veered away from it!! The chemical that makes the stuff glow when there is little light is toxic, I don't know if it leeches, but from what you say apparently it does. I threw out my calci sand because it glowed in the dark.

Frostfire · Post by **Frostfire** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:16 pm

It was a "well duh Frost" moment :/

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:28 pm

Wow - I didn't know about the dishes! Thanks for the warning, I was given one as a gift from a family member for Christmas for my crabs but haven't used it yet. It did kind of give me the willies looking at it, got as far as washing it and storing it but stopped short of filling it. Years ago my crabs went through a whole bag of glow-in-the-dark Calci Sand before I knew better, and thankfully nothing happened but I'll never buy it again.

dylan644 · Post by **dylan644** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:32 pm

Ya I used my crab ate some too before I knew. Hehe it made cleaning easier to 'see' if you know what I mean no problems have occurred though.

Crabby Abby · Post by **Crabby Abby** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:36 pm

Wow, I never would've imagined that to happen. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

mom_0f_3 · Post by **mom_0f_3** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:37 am

Have you thought about writing the company or calling the customer service line and telling them what the bowl did? These are marketed as being safe for use and that would not be considered safe in my opinion. The petsmart may not care but the company might...or should.

Rachel Lillie · Post by **Rachel Lillie** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:58 am

I read a thread about glow and the dark sand doing that, which there are tons of problems with that sand (its calcisand) and ever since I read about that I have steered clear of glow things but I would NEVER of thought that a dish would of done that. and yaah I'd listen to the crabs first too Frost lol I love how you put that

texasreb · Post by **texasreb** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:08 am

Good to know. Thanks for the tip!

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:05 am

I generally steer clear of anything that says glow in the dark on it because most of the glow in the dark comes from irradiated pigments(the pigment has been turned radio active through one of several irradiation processes which makes it very toxic) and due to how the pigment is altered to make it glow makes the whole idea of using them for animal decor or items absurd at best.The worst glow in the dark thing I've ever seen was glow in the dark fish gravel in a display tank at the pet store it actually turned the water cloudy and made it glow because the pigment leeched off into the water killing all of the fish.

HermitCrabby_LHC · Post by **HermitCrabby_LHC** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:10 am

Now I am glad they were $7 a dish. I wouldve gotten one. Thank you for the warning!

Frostfire · Post by **Frostfire** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:09 pm

your very welcome everyone. I had considered writing the company I just kind of forgot about it until I saw the product again and was like "gotta tell my crab friends^^"