newbie crab owner

cocoapig · Post by **cocoapig** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:21 pm

Hello, my brother in law has had hermit crabs for quite a few years. Sadly I now know they were mistreated. Long story short he had a few die off and was left with one crab. He put it n a 5 g a lion glass house with an inch of coco fiber and gave it to my daughter who's eight. It's name is Pinky she or he is in a painted shell.I did a little research and put it in a 10 gallon tank with 4 to 6 inches of the coco fiber. I then got her a friend. The next day I went out and got two more.I did a little more reading... now I have 2 Ecuadorian s and 2 purple pinchers in a 60 gallon hex tank with coco fiber . The tank has lots of jungle vines a c coco mat up one side and a cork bark wall as well. The have saltwater and fresh and a few food bowl. For heat we keep the room at 76 I have a small with on the side about two inches showing above the dirt. And a black hermit crab night light bulb I keep on at night and a fluorescent screw in I use during the day. I am in the process of adding levels.The Ecuadorian s are all over the place but still have painted shells. The PPs one was in a natural shell and is now buried somewhere. The other was in a fancy spiny conch type shell. He ditched it the first night and now I have no idea where he is either.Do I hunt for the missing ones or just keep everything the same as long as there is no smell?I would like to do a moss pit but the girl at the store told me hers stunk after 3 days. And she had to keep changing it. I want to just change out the food and water daily and mist stuff down. I do not want stink. I do not know where to get the right moss.Wow. Okay that's our story I welcome any advice.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 8:52 pm

New Zealand sphagnum moss in reptile section. I put it in my corner caddy and I lightly mist it and I leave it for two weeks or more and mist it several times and mine doesn't smell. Crabs love to hide and munch on it. Usually after 2 wks I take it out and replace it. If you had extra shells in your tank and you noticed a crab has ditched his original I wouldn't worry ,he probably took a new shell and dug down. When crabs get the right conditions they will dig down because if they haven't had a chance to molt that hormone will kick in! They will also dig down to distress if been in bad conditions. You really don't want to go looking and digging for crabs when they went down because if they are in mid molt you can stress them and they can die or you can collapse their air pocket and cause them to die. Only if you know you have had a crab down longer than 3 months ( that's a large crab to molt) average? Then I would go looking carefully.

cocoapig · Post by **cocoapig** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 12:32 am

T. hank you. Yes I have lots of extra shells and I think I know which one he's in. I just thought it was way to big for him. Although I'm used to seeing my huge Ecuadorians in shells I think are too small. One of the Es is always by the heat mat. Right now he's half buried next to the glass against the mat. I worry this is too warm. Will they move away if it's too hot? I am in search of at least 2 to 4 more crabs. While everything is still new is it okay to just add them now or should I wait till the PPs come up before I add any more. And if I wait will I have to ISO them?I don't want to add any more pillars to the ground for another level until the PPs come up.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:57 pm

Is your eco earth fiber at least 6 inches deep? It should be at least 3x deeper than your largest crab to make sure they have enough room to dig down. If you are getting all your crabs from the same place like I did with in a short time period I didn't iso mine because I knew they didn't have mites and it was a mom and pop shop and wasn't getting a new shipment in for awhile. If you are getting them from another place you might want to. We have had people on here that went and stuck a crab in their tank and in a few days they are saying HELP there are things crawling on my crabs! Oh how hard they are to get rid of! I bought crabs when my others were down. Word of warning when you have molters come up you might have crabs want to attack him or eat him. You want to make sure the others h e a good diet and good proteins, sometimes giving crabs a bath /swooshing them back and forth gently in their reg water to wash that molting smell off will make them stop. Sometimes crabs will go in one spot and not move for days..your crab that went by the heat mat could be stressed and weak. You might put some water and food by him and just let him be. Hope I helped you.