water dish concern

[soilentgringa]

The sponge and shallow dish information is very outdated. People used to assume that hermit crabs would drown in the water; either they didn't provide them with a way out or the crabs passed for other reasons. Often they will make a last ditch effort to get to the salt water if they are weak or dying as well, so people just assumed that deep water=drowning.
It is a must for them to be able to submerge, as they carry water in their shells and they need to be able to adjust and balance the salinity to their own particular liking and also to swim around. I have crabs that will stay under for an hour or so and some that like to walk across the bottom of the pools. I can assure you that HCA is going to be one of the best sources of info, as the founders and almost all the admins have several years of experience and the authors of the guides have done some pretty extensive research of their own.
They don't have to be fancy or "aesthetically pleasing", they just need to work for the crabs. It isn't about making the prettiest habitat, but what is going to give the crabs the best. Also I forget if you said you were upgrading soon, just remember that they can grow rapidly in good conditions and will need a bigger tank soon.

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[Arlo-Duck-Tony]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I can see how a 10 gal tank can get too small fast. I was planning to add another level, to give them more room, before finally upgrading to a larger tank.

Thanks for the reasoning on the water. Looks like I better get them some deeper dishes, ASAP. Biggest challenge is providing containers and a good ramp out that doesn't eat up too much of our limited (for now) tank space. Would appreciate any photos or ideas.


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[meg_and_the_zoo]

Maybe some thinner, deep Tupperware or..like spreadable butter/margarine containers? Something like that should give you the depth you want without a huge footprint. And others have mentioned craft mesh for ramps...very cheap, easy to use and won't take up much of any space on the sub.


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 3 (for now) crabs

[fantasybookworm]

In my ISO tanks, which are only 5 & 10 gallons, I used 12oz plastic deli containers that I had leftover from my packaging my dog's food. They worked well, other than being very lightweight, which could be fixed by putting some round aquarium stones in them to help hold them down/in place. Leftover small butter or sour cream containers would work well too. The craft mesh works great too, and is sturdier, but I also used fish net (bought from Michael's) for pool access at one point & it seemed to work well if you can make sure it's secured enough to not fall down.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

http://www.michaels.com/darice-canvas-m ... te&start=1

http://www.michaels.com/shell-fish-net/ ... et&start=5

http://www.michaels.com/decorative-fish ... et&start=6

Links so you have them.

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[Arlo-Duck-Tony]

I have an idea for building some water dishes for our tank, but would like to know what you guys think is the ideal dish and water depth for a collection of small to medium boardwalk purple pinchers. I'm figuring dish should be 1/2" deeper than ideal water depth, but need a depth to aim for, preferably in inches. Measuring in shell diameters doesn't help me, as we haven't seen our largest crab since bringing him home a month ago, and have only seen one of the smalls this week. They seem to spend all their time sub-terra, although I can see from the food and water dishes they must be having fun while we sleep.

[meg_and_the_zoo]

Roughly how tall is your largest when he's standing normally? Seems most have dishes deep enough for largest to completely submerge so maybe his height + 1" or so?


Lover of all things critter (except bugs and birds )

[Arlo-Duck-Tony]

Medium crab is def. over 1" to top of shell. Would a 2" deep dish with 1.5" of water in it be a good starting point?

[Goodwitch333]

I am currently using the plastic dishes that go under potted plants as my water source. I have a smaller one within a bigger one. The small one is about 3 inches across and the larger ones are about 5 inches across. I put rocks inside the small dish that holds the water and also in between the small and large dishes for weight. The barrier of rocks between the dishes also acts as a catch for any substrate they would be dragging into the tank. However this is just my temporary set up. I am turning mini paint trays that you can get from walmart or any hardware store for under $4 into pools. I have siliconed aquarium rocks to one and I plan on getting some mini seashells and siliconing those to the other pool to show the difference between the fresh and salt water pools. Using mini paint trays will probably be out of he question for you with a ten gallon tank. I got the idea from someone here on this forum. I hope my description of the plant dishes makes sense. I would post a picture but I'm not sure how.

[IBlab crab]

I just wanted to mention something about the water dish at substrate level.Crabs love to dig under the dishes and when they do they fluff or kick up a pile of sand that ends up in the dish and sometimes it is alot.They also like to do this right after you have changed the water.I like to have the lip of the dish as high as possible also with the food dish.Crabs can climb almost anything so no problem getting water.

PS-Sponges can be used off of the substrate and out of the water for a nutritional snack.My crabs love to eat them and I use a sponge pit that is near the UTH and I spray it once in awhile and it will dry out in between. Never any smells or mold.I think people are so wrapped up in the water dish thing that they dismiss them totally and miss out on using a natural food source.I will add to NEVER put them in the water dish.