moving my crabs to a new home

renegade29 · Post by **renegade29** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:14 am

I had a question about moving my hermit crabs to a new home. I just got a 10 gallon aquarium for my crabs as well as some sand substrate for them to burrow in, as I cannot keep them in the Critter Keeper they are currently in. I heard somewhere though that drastic changes can stress them, and I don't want to upset the little guys. Does anyone have any advice about moving them to their new home?

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:18 am

how far are you moving them? if it isn't too fa they will do fine, but bring a misting bottle, so their humidity will stay high, are you going on a plane?

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:20 am

oh sorry, i thought you meant that you were moving to a new house.

renegade29 · Post by **renegade29** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:21 am

I am not moving them far, just into a new tank. And I do have a mister bottle. Thanks for your help!

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:35 am

in that case, this is how you do it,don't hold them too much, they will have pps (post purchase syndrome for a while. then, you clean the tank with vinegar, and wash it out, then you put your eco earth in a block of water for 20 minutes, so that it becomes loose and soily, filtered water, i should add. then open the bag of sand, should be playsand, not calcium sand, and smell it, to make sure it is okay, then you can mix it with the eco earth. and you should have plugged in the plug for the heating pad by now, so that when they go in their cage the room temperature won't freak them out, then add toys, etc...., then don't handle them for awhile, and keep it dark, so that they can molt, because these pet stores don't keep them in good enough positions to molt there. you will need an isolation tank for this, which you can ask about when the time comes. lastly make sure that if they have on painted shells, that you supply them with natural shells, pet stores force them in painted shell, which as pretty as they can be, are toxic to the crabs! good luck!

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:52 am

sorry i would have typed more, but iam missing one of my keys on my laptop's keyboard.

Geranium · Post by **Geranium** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:38 am

I would advise that you get the 10 gallon set up completely including that night's dinner and then just move them and leave them alone. I love watching them explore.Have you seen the pinned post on the Zoea section of this site that gives information on tank set up, ISO tank, a 10 gallon example, etc? Before you get too far make sure you are setting up with the best possible conditions.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:23 am

IT sounds like you have already set up the tank. If you haven't go ahead and set up. If you need instructions to do so let us know.Some of us take them straight from poor conditions to great conditions with little or no problems and some of us easy them into them by slowly raising humidity and temps. The change of scenery doesn't stress them much sometimes it actually encourages them to explore and be active. After setup place them in the tank handling as little as possible. Do not spray the crabs as that is very stressful for them. The humidity and temp changes is what will be the most stressful on the moving so instead of starting with your tank at 80 degrees F and 80% humidity work up slowly from where they're at. For example if they are in 70 degree temps and no extra humidity just average room humidity is 50-60% so you can start them with say 73 degrees and 65-70% humidity then increase once a week 3-5 degrees and 5-10% humidity. Or here is a link explaining it better Aclimating conditions/PPS