HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Click here to view an image gallery of my latest Crabarium iteration:http://home.comcast.net/~JediM...20Moon ... dor/Here's two samples: I went down a totally different path than ever before this time.Even with going back to having a bit busier tank with the Mysterious Shoreline Crabiarum, having more available hidey spots and climbing, less open, I still felt it was just a bit too open.I've finally come to the full understanding that crabs don't need true flat exposed "floorspace" to walk. They will dig under, through, and over anything, and actually prefer it that way.Additionally, when I did my deep clean, only 4 crabs were on the surface. 3/4ths of the crabs were in fact all the way flat on the bottom glass. I figured I needed to do something to get them back up (granted it's winter time, they are usually much more surface active in spring and fall).My idea is that if they have sufficient coverage and security on the main level, they won't need to bury to feel secure.To achieve this, I plastered/saturated the whole main level (underneath the metal cube structures) with fake plans, half-logs, and plastic hideys. Then I covered the 2nd level ontop of the metal cubes with smaller baskets, and interweaved fake plants in all the cubes, sides and top, creating a true "canopy".Oh, and I also extended the 2nd level cube platform quite a bit, so it covers about 25% more area.The water pools are still in front, as it's the best way to access them. Heck the only way to access them this time! And I put the trusty bonzai on the right. But this time I didn't even leave the bonzai alone. I surrouned it with a fake flowering plant thing to create a real dense security area. And you can see a complete fake fern plant on the left side! I've just been waiting for a chance to use that since I got it at hobby lobby!Then I "filled in the blanks" with a ton of driftwood and cholla.I had a large bucket full of driftwood I've had for a long time but haven't used since I had so much mold trouble so long ago. But now I figured that I have the UV lighting and humidifiers and better airflow, mold shouldn't be as much of a problem. I still don't have the driftwood touching any moist substrate directly.Since I used smaller baskets, I split the empty shells into three baskets this time instead of two.The crabs seem to love it! And they truly love being at the TOP of the world! The rear basket with that handle is only 1 inch from the top, and every night there are two crabs perched up there, and often a crab ontop of that driftwood arch which is just inches from the top as well. They seem to enjoy the extra heat up by the lights too.And generally it seems to be working. I see crabs all the time chilling out behind ferm leaves up on the top, or snug inside some vine leaves inbetween some driftwoods.It really starts to look more like pictures of crabs in the wild, when you always see them perched on trees and such.And it's been a couple of weeks now and still no mold.Last time I tried a 5:1 ratio sand:EE. I might not have had a full 5:1, maybe 8:1 or 6:1. I think I did one brick to 3.5 bags of sand. This time I did 1.5 bricks to 3.5 bags of sand, to up the ratio a bit and try that. And this time I think I did a good job of keeping the sand at the right moisture level, pouring about 1 or 2 cups of water into the tank every week. And same as always, I retain about half a bag of old substrate to reseed the new tank.I can't come to any conclusions yet. In my experience going through all-sand very moist, all-sand fairly dry, 50/50 separated, 50/50 mixed, 8:1, 6:1, etc, it's hard to say one size fits all.It seems that I have the best luck with PPs using all sand slightly moist. I went through my longest 1.6 year no PP deaths that way. With 50/50, my E's had molt deformities, but it might have been due to a food I was using with copper sulfate (before we realized how bad it was).With all-sand, the exotics didn't seem to do as well. But with the last time 6:1 ratio, I didn't loose a single exotic or E over the course of a year, but did lose some PPs.So it seems that PPs prefer sand, E's don't like too much EE, but exotics like some mixture. but this is so far a limited data set, and just a theory, not a conclusion.Additional info: I use two duetto 50 filters in the 1/2 gallon fresh and salt pool. I use stress-coat 2 drops per gallon, and instant ocean 1/2 cup per gallon. I have 100 watts of moon glues (two fixtures, 25w per bulb), and a repti-sun 5.0 which is probably too old to be effective anymore and should be replaced. I think the UV coating only lasts about 2 years maximum. I have two tropicaire humidifiers wtih two 90 gallon rated whisper pumps, each of them is T'd so both valves go to a single humidifier. And the lights are on wall socket timers. During the summer I replace one moonglo fixture with dayglos and put it on a daylight cycle. And the pools are propped up on upside-down coffe cups so that sand/ee can't get in over the edge. I use plastic mesh so crabs can easily climb up, in, and out. And I have a rock on the back of the tank top so the crabs can't push their way out when they inevitably do crawl up the cords and hang from the ceiling. I fully clean the filters and pools once a month, and i filter and save 1 cup of water from each to reseed after cleaning.

That sounds and looks AMAZING!! I have a 40 breeder, and that would be really cool to put in all those vines and foliage. I have 5 live plants in my tank right now. I did not know they could have Bonsai Trees. Do they love climbing on it?

That is amazing! Nice job!I too have found that our Phil likes to have a hidey spot up off the ground.

Love it!Thanks JMT for taking the time to write all about your crabitat iterations and post the pictures. I've learned so much from reading about them and your lessons from deep cleans!

That looks awesome!! Makes me want to add much, much more to my 75 gallon! Right now the substrate is just full of holes, so if I get more going in it and more hidey places, then maybe they will be up more. Very good job!!

Love the new set-up JMT! So woodsy. Where do you get your large, drape-y plastic plants? I have been looking for nice ones but they are all too small in the stores. I have only ever used 100% playsand for my PPs. Tried a brief experiment with EE many years ago and they did not like it at all, so the sand came back.

I got my best batch of plants at Hobby Lobby. They have quite a selection! My other batch I happened to stop at a garage sale on the way to work and picked up two lawn bags full of plastic plants. Not sure where they come from.I know that walmart has a lot of the long drapy kind, and fairly cheap compared to michaels or joann.I haven't had as much luck finding larger ones at thrift stores, but they do have plants there as well.But yea, the most "unique" ones all came from hobby lobby.

Also, these aren't pictures of my tank, just stuff I found on google images, but I always thought my 92 gallon corner tank would be beautiful as a reef aquarium! (with marine hermit crabs!)They also sell a smaller 54 gallon version.

My newbie-ness might be showing here but...You don't worry about the orgins of the plastic plants and whether or not they'll leach toxins into they system? Aren't the bendable vines just coated metal? Isn't metal bad for crabs?Your tank looks awesome, by the way. You have an eye for decorating.

Some of the plants are coated wire, others not. I get mine at the dollar store and they don't have any sort of wire in them. they also don't bend that easy, but I wrap them around things.

"Metal" in the generic sense is not harmful to crabs:http://landhermitcrabs.com/eve...041072 ... 1072823But there are certain types of metal you need to avoid being in contact with water, like stainless steel.The plants are all washed to make sure they don't bleed out any dyes.

I always love seeing your new set-ups... they're so inspirational!But you've mentioned pouring water into the substrate before and I was wondering if that doesn't oversaturate the substrate. I've always had problems with my substrate being too darn wet no matter what I do (I have about 3:1 sand to EE).

It's about checking the current substrate moisture level. You can definitely saturate it by pouring too much water in. But on the other end, not enough and you can end up with a desert. It's not too easy.I usually finger into the substrate into a few places and see how deep the dryness goes. And keep an eye looking into the sides through the glass to see if the lower substrate looks wet or not.

I may have missed this, but how many crabs do you have in there? Any jumbos? What species?

And also, how the heck do you heat that thing?