New to crabbing. working on crabitat before adopting, check it out please

[jillrabbit]

Hey everyone! My daughter is 9 and interested in getting a couple of hermit crabs. I've done some research and thought it would be a fun pet for both of us to take care of. I even found a guy in the area looking to get rid of a bunch of hermit crabs though we only are looking for 2-3. I started the tank. I need to find water dishes still that I like and add a bit more substrate to raise the level(figuring around the bottom of the netting should be deep enough). Also, is this heating pad too large? I thought I ordered smaller one, but it's almost the entire size of the back of the tank where I plan on hanging it. The little dish is going to have moss.

I need an idea for a lid. I have a screen one, but I need something to better keep the humidity inside. What can I get easily/cheaply to go on top? Thanks!

pictures at below imgur link

https://imgur.com/a/Rahrvzh

[Hermiesguardian]

The heating pad should cover the entire back of your tank. From the top of the substrate to the top of tank. If it overlaps an inch or so with the substrate it's fine. How deep is ypur substrate? It's hard to tell from the pics. It should be a minimum of 6 inches or 3x the height of your largest crab, whichever is deeper. It has to be sand castle consistancy. And the water dishes should be large enough for them to submerge with a safe way in and out. I also have a mesh lid and I cover it with a piece of plexiglass taped down with packing tape.

[jillrabbit]

Okay that sounds perfect then(as far as the heating pad goes). My substrate is about 3.5 inches at the moment. I wanted to bring it up to about 5 inches with the extra bags coming from amazon this week. The crabs the guy has look very tiny from the pictures. I'm sure in the future I will have to upgrade the tank to a larger tank. When you say the water dishes have to be large enough to submerge themselves, does that include the entire shell or just submerge up to where their faces and legs stick out? I have some netting that I plan to put over the side and then fasten it to the bottom of the water bowls as well as put some rocks in there to help them get out. As far as plexiglass goes, do you need to leave a space open so that they can get enough oxygen? I do have a small bubbler that I want to put into the water bowl.

[jillrabbit]

Also, forget to say thank you so much for your help! One other thing...since I'm getting these crabs from a guy who doesn't want them anymore should I be looking for things like mites? I've read that they can have mites, but I am not sure how prevalent they are. Also, is there anyway to tell if a crab is sickly?

[aussieJJDude]

As for water dish depth, its best to have an absolute min that the water level is up to the shell opening, however if you can provide deeper dishes for them to submerge their whole shell in it also allows you to not upgrade the dishes when they grow larger.


So far it looks like a really good start - the substrate was something I was going to reccomend, but you're already on top of that so no need to beat a dead horse.


Edit: as for leaving gaps in the lid, theres no need, even more so due to using an air pump - it will constantly pump in fresh air.

As for mites, a once over is fine and if there's no visible hitchhikers, free to add them into the tank. I personally think that the fear of mites is pretty overstated... Since I've started out, I've only heard of a small handful of reports of mites on crabs.
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[Hermiesguardian]

The reason for a minimum of 6 inches of substrate is so other crabs can't smell a molting crab and eat them. They give off a sweet smell.