crabitat evolution

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Topic author
Shananagians
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Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:20 pm

crabitat evolution

Post by Shananagians » Sat Apr 15, 2017 12:03 am

So, almost a month ago, my roommates and I randomly bought one hermit crab at a toy store in the mall. We literally knew nothing about hermit crab care, and it was a very spur of the moment decision, cue me reverting into what one of my roommates calls my 'helicopter pet mom' mode and doing a ton of research! I was looking through my phone and actually can see the crabitat evolution that has taken place within the last month, and with the limited funding resourses that we have at the moment.

Day One, bringing the first crab home: Pepper and Luna are always watched carefully when they interact with the crabs.

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Week Two, first attempt at setting up the new tank. We used sand from a beach near our apartment, it was strained through a fine mesh strainer, and baked to make sure that there were no parasites before it was added to the tank.

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Three Days later:

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A week Later: There is small brick of coconut fiber to absorb the excess moisture from the substrate because I used too much water, It has already been broken up and mixed with the old substrate to get the correct consistancy.

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Pepper was shooed away after this picture was taken, we found her like this when we came home from the store, she just likes the heat from the tank light.

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Today:

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Sorry It's a little picture heavy, but I was excited. So we have three purple pinchers, their names are Drace, Crabbe, and Goyle, hince the Slytherin Decal on the front of the tank, all the crabs came in shells that had a clear coat on them, you can see on Goyle, the crab with the green shell that there is a large drip on the shell, they have since all changed out of those shells, and after a 24 hour buyers remorse time frame the shells were removed out the tank to ensure crab safety.

If any one has any tips they would like to share please feel free, I'm open to all suggestions!

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GotButterflies
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Re: crabitat evolution

Post by GotButterflies » Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:44 pm

Great job on the upgrades! We love pictures here, one can never post too many pictures Image if possible, try to give them more things to climb - oak tree branch (free of pesticides/fertilizer) pop in freezer or oven to debug. For water bowls I would recommend double bowl Tupperware method/ & put something in there on bottom & so they can get out safely Image

Edit: I love the kitties watching...and love that you rescued a stray that had been altered! :)

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Last edited by GotButterflies on Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

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Kermie16
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Re: crabitat evolution

Post by Kermie16 » Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:30 pm

Fantastic!! Love the evolution of your tanks^_^ and definitely love the crabbie pics!! So sweet!


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Hermias_mom
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Re: crabitat evolution

Post by Hermias_mom » Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:23 pm

I love your substrate!!! It is beautiful!!! :). Good depth, nice eco earth. I have a ten gallon, and it took me forever to get it deep enough while still having room for everything else. :D

I too bought my crab and then had to figure out what in the world I was doing. :) Super kudos to you for all your effort and hard work!

I have a few thoughts for you. Suggestion for climbing stuff- reptile hammock or hemp hammock, branches that cross the crabitat at an angle, fake plants/plastic aquarium plants or silk plants. Plastic shelving can be used to help create second levels. They might like a few more places to hide. Plastic containers with holes cut out or coffee mugs on their side will work. I love what you've done so far!

Shells- I couldn't tell if you had 5 shells of the right type and size for each crab or not. PPs need turbos or similar, most of the shells I could identify were non preferred types for PPs. But you could have them all up in your shell shop, I couldn't tell. :wink:

I had the exact same humidity and temp gauges that you do, and my humidity gage maxed out at 99% too. After a week I got to wondering about it, so I bought the Acu-rite dual digital gage from Walmart that a number of folks on here recommended, calibrated it, and discovered that my humidity was LOW- like65-70%. I shudder to think of it even now. :( What happened was my gage got saturated and wasn't reading actual tat conditions. I think it was too close to my water bowl maybe? I don't know. But I thought I should mention what happened to me since from the picture it looks like you may be having a similar problem, and you may not know it. :(

And lastly, whoever came up with nested Tupperware bowls to help change out crab water was a genius! Looks like you have pet bowls similar to what I used to have for your pools. I got tired real quick of dragging those across the house, they were heavy and they'd always have sand on the outside, which would burn my skin because of the saltwater in it and mess up my drains. So if you have any of those challenges and get tired of them, check out nested Tupperware with optional air stones/bubblers

Best of luck and happy crabbing!! Your crabs are gorgeous!!!
:crabbigsmile:
4PPs and tons of FUN in a 29 gallon!
Hermia(F), Helena(F), Branch(M), and Tiger (M)
RIP Athena


Topic author
Shananagians
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:20 pm

Re: crabitat evolution

Post by Shananagians » Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:04 pm

GotButterflies wrote:Great job on the upgrades! We love pictures here, one can never post too many pictures Image if possible, try to give them more things to climb - oak tree branch (free of pesticides/fertilizer) pop in freezer or oven to debug. For water bowls I would recommend double bowl Tupperware method/ & put something in there on bottom & so they can get out safely Image

Edit: I love the kitties watching...and love that you rescued a stray that had been altered! :)

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Thank you! I've been slowly collecting more things for the crabitat, I want to get a fake tree to nest in the substrate for them, it's been a slow process that is for sure!

And both the cats are actually rescues! They were both street cats, one was adopted from the shelter, the one with the docked ear, she was a spat and release, but she is the sweetest little grump! And the other my roommate found and got attached too before she moved in with me, sweetest little love bug who when she's hungry climbs on top of you and purrs.


Topic author
Shananagians
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:20 pm

Re: crabitat evolution

Post by Shananagians » Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:10 pm

Hermias_mom wrote:I love your substrate!!! It is beautiful!!! :). Good depth, nice eco earth. I have a ten gallon, and it took me forever to get it deep enough while still having room for everything else. :D

I too bought my crab and then had to figure out what in the world I was doing. :) Super kudos to you for all your effort and hard work!

I have a few thoughts for you. Suggestion for climbing stuff- reptile hammock or hemp hammock, branches that cross the crabitat at an angle, fake plants/plastic aquarium plants or silk plants. Plastic shelving can be used to help create second levels. They might like a few more places to hide. Plastic containers with holes cut out or coffee mugs on their side will work. I love what you've done so far!

Shells- I couldn't tell if you had 5 shells of the right type and size for each crab or not. PPs need turbos or similar, most of the shells I could identify were non preferred types for PPs. But you could have them all up in your shell shop, I couldn't tell. :wink:

I had the exact same humidity and temp gauges that you do, and my humidity gage maxed out at 99% too. After a week I got to wondering about it, so I bought the Acu-rite dual digital gage from Walmart that a number of folks on here recommended, calibrated it, and discovered that my humidity was LOW- like65-70%. I shudder to think of it even now. :( What happened was my gage got saturated and wasn't reading actual tat conditions. I think it was too close to my water bowl maybe? I don't know. But I thought I should mention what happened to me since from the picture it looks like you may be having a similar problem, and you may not know it. :(

And lastly, whoever came up with nested Tupperware bowls to help change out crab water was a genius! Looks like you have pet bowls similar to what I used to have for your pools. I got tired real quick of dragging those across the house, they were heavy and they'd always have sand on the outside, which would burn my skin because of the saltwater in it and mess up my drains. So if you have any of those challenges and get tired of them, check out nested Tupperware with optional air stones/bubblers

Best of luck and happy crabbing!! Your crabs are gorgeous!!!
:crabbigsmile:
Thank you! The perks of living ten minutes from the beach was real when it came to layering substrate! I didn't want to add a lot of extra salt to the substrate because it was beach sand, that had been sifted and baked, but it has a lot of ocean nutrients in it! And I didn't realize about the humidity gauge, I'll definitely look into a better one. I'm also still building up a shell collection, I want to visit some tourist shops and get more shells and sandollars for them to snack on, again another perk of ocean town living.

We're also slowly building up on more climbing stuff, I really want to get a fake plant that's really sturdy to make it a climbing tree, which will offer more hiding places, and I haven't had a lot of issues with the water dish, but I plan up upgrading soon, I want to slowly add stuff in from not on so it isn't a lot of big changes all at once and stress them out.

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