HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My family got a few PPs a few years ago @ Myrtle Beach that I had for awhile till my husband sprayed for insects (after I told him not to). Long story short, we are going back to the beach & my now 8yo son is begging to try again. Hard part - I've had an injury that has messed with my ability to remember. I know I should have things set up before we get any crabs. I'm trying to look through posts but I have trouble understanding what I'm reading. If someone could answer a few basic questions and tell me if I'm off on what I think I remember I would appreciate it.Substrate: mix together 1/2 play sand with 1/2 hermit soil. It should be about 6 inches deep and moistened with salt water. Water bowels: needs both fresh (non-chlorinated) and salt water pools. Pools should be deep enough for crabs to submerge in and have way for crabs to climb out. Food: don't use food they sell for crabs at the shops at the beach. I bought a bunch of freeze-dried food from a reputable site, and it has been in zip log baggies my fridge for the last few years. Do you all think it would be OK to use?Heat: This is where I don't know if I ever got it right. What is the best way to heat a 10 or 20 gallon tank?OK, I'm DONE. I know I'll have tons of questions to come and thank anyone patient enough to help me. I will try to read through my old material and soooooo many posts.Any recommendations on post to start with will be appreciated.

Everything sounds right and the food is probably safe to eat but I doubt it's very fresh. They might not like it. I heat my tanks with overhead bulbs. I have two UVB bulbs and 2 heat emitting bulbs. The low end of the tank is about 75* and the hot end can get up to 90* right under the bulb in the branches. If they're on the ground on the hot end it's around 83*. This is a 55 gallon tank, though. They have room to move into various temperature gradients.

First heating a ten or twenty gallon tank should only be done via UTH or under tank heater pads, for a ten gallon tank you'd need a pad rated for a thirty gallon to get the right level of heat output due to the way these pads are designed they will only bump the temp in the tank up seven to ten degrees from room temp.Using a pad rated for the exact size of the tank wont work because of where we have to mount the pads to make them safe for the hermitcrabs, in a typical reptile enclosure the pad would be mounted on the bottom of the tank encapsulating the heat it generates between the bottom of the tank and the stand, the stand then serves as a mirror to bounce the heat back into the enclosure hence the reason why UTH pads radiate heat from the front and back the radiant heat coming off the back of the pad needs to be isolated by the stand and reflected back into the enclosure for the pad to work as intended but in hermitcrab enclosures we can't do this because there is no heat source in nature that exists close to where the crabs would be tunneling and burrowing to escape the heat of the day so it would be counter-intuitive to use the heat pad in such a fashion you'd risk cooking the poor crabs to death.So because we have to side or back mount the pad for safety reasons we loose the radiant heat off the back of the pad to the air in the room where it exchanges temperature values with the radiant heat effectively wicking it away so which makes the small ten gallon pad non-effective it will only produce about half the heat we need so you'd be looking at a 3.5 to 5 degree heat boost from room temp instead of the 7 to 10 degree you need.For a twenty gallon tank you'd need a pad rated for sixty gallons.The freeze dried stuff should be okay I think most freeze dried foods have a shelf life of a year or so before they'd need to be tossed out.Everything else you mentioned looks correct.

Thanks for replies. Glad to hear food is OK - spent a lot on it.I think I did buy the UTH for a 20 gallon & never got the heat just right. I found it, but guess I should buy a bigger one. I remember having it on the side of the tank with something silver over it which helped.Been reading a bunch. Trying to write stuff down.

Hi there! I remember when you were active a while ago and I'm glad you're back. I, too, have memory issues. What a pain, right??? The good thing is that my 75gal is in the kitchen/dining room so I see it all day and night. You could always consider a calendar to note when to change waters, food, deep clean, etc. Might be a helpful reference. Again, good to see you back!Best wishes, Nonna

quote:Originally posted by jasonmom:Thanks for replies. Glad to hear food is OK - spent a lot on it.I think I did buy the UTH for a 20 gallon & never got the heat just right. I found it, but guess I should buy a bigger one. I remember having it on the side of the tank with something silver over it which helped.Been reading a bunch. Trying to write stuff down. If the one you have still works just buy one more to add to it rated for a 40gal tank and then when you have both combined it will give you the right amount of heat.The hermit crab soil you referred to above is called Eco Earth(EE) which is a coconut fiber substrate. You can use all sand, all EE, or a mix of the two.Also on the food if it got moist when you had it in the refrigerator/freezer it will not be any good at this point in time. However if it stayed dry in air tight packages then it should be ok.

Remember they can eat protein unseasoned, including eggs cooked in olive oil, micro wave, or boiled. I cool and just crack the shell and egg and put it in. Popcorn that is air popped or in olive oil unseasoned. Fruits and veggies just don't give the peels to them.. there is a list of foods on here. I haven't bought dried food for years now. I go by the list and organic baby foods and organic foods ( must watch lable make sure it is organic not filled junk!)

Why not the peels of fruits / vegies?

Most peels are fine if you are using organic. There is another list in with one of the food list that show different fruits and veggies that are high in pesticide use that you want to avoid and always go organic. If they're not on that list and you wash them off good its usually ok if its not organic. I believe the food list specifies if there is a part that is not edible for the crabs on a certain food. If you have your own garden and don't use any type of chemicals on it then you shouldn't have to worry about it.Crabs bodies act like that of most insects so if they are eating something with pesticides on it their little bodies can only take so much before it builds up and becomes to toxic and they die.