Spring clean and head count.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:12 am

Well I just did my spring cleaning on my 120gallon just to freshen things up a bit as my yearly deep clean isn't until late June or early July depending on how the weeks fall and so I thought I'd do a head count as most of my crabbies have been up from their winter slumber for the last three or four weeks and it turns out that out of seven pp's I've lost one to molt complications and out of four e's I've also lost one due to molt complications.I'd noticed the substrate on the right hand side of the tank was looking a bit wetter than usuall and that can be attributed to my larger PP's constantly wicking the fresh and salt water pools dry by digging right next to them and then piling the substrate up until it pours over into the pools.I've repositioned the pools neumorous times and nothing will do because my too biggest PP's both boys are baseball sized and when they dig they make a monster of a mess.Anyway due to the hermitcrabs dumping sub into the pools and oversaturating the substrate on that side of the tank two of my hermits failed to harden properly because there was just to much moisture in the substrate.My two jumbos did molt for the second year in a row going down in early January and just comming up two weeks ago covered in fuzzy hair with nice new sharp nail tips.Their coloring is a bit faded though but I'd expected that because I need to restock on my foods and other supplies for them, I'd had enough to get em through the winter and into the spring so it looks like I'm going grocery shopping for them in the next couple of weeks.lol

Theodora · Post by **Theodora** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:55 pm

hm... sucks when the crabs keep dumping sub in to the dish huh? It is frustrating sometimes. lol

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 2:59 pm

@Theodora, yep it really stinks when you have to keep refilling the same bowl every other day because some naughty crabby decided to dump some substrate into it. I've got bowls that are approximately a half gallon each maybe a little less and this is because I have so many larger crabs so I typically only have to refill once a week and then do a thorough cleaning of the bowls every two weeks since they are so large it doesn't necessarily have to be done more often than that.As long as I've been at this I should have know that the substrate was taking on to much water but I've been having some health issues and I've just not been able to check the substrate as often or as thoroughly as I've needed to lately.

Theodora · Post by **Theodora** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:08 am

Yeah I guess.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 7:29 am

i solved my water tipping, i have large deep resturant style ice scoops 4 so they rest in each other without disturbing sand or molters i roughed 2 up salt-water safe coral glue(thick) sand and shells to them for easy access and soaked overnight to dry. the top scoop can easily be removed cleaned and replaced no sand no spills. i absolutely love this ,they actually get cleaned everyday now cause it is so easy. oh my boyfriend took the handles off. and there is a shallow end , deep end to satisfy all @"

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 4:09 pm

@Sonny, my water dishes aren't being tipped so much as they are settling in the sub making it easier form my crabs to dump sub into them when digging right next to them which leads to the sub wicking the water from the dishes.lolThanks for the info anyways.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:41 pm

my big guys were dumping mine, the bowls were heavyn deep. they keep us on our toes dont they

dylan644 · Post by **dylan644** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:19 am

My E's kept doing this. So I put lids under the bowels. Since the lids are bigger than the top it prevents then from piling sand up and into the dish. I use food containers btw. I also took the lids and out then just under the surface of the sand and covered them up so you cant see them. This is all in my 10gal. I know keep my little straws and viola's in there. This method still works.