HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Thank you for all the help and suggestions, i’ll try to get the biggest heater asap. especially since the winter cold is coming.

I have one of the ZooMed Hermit Crab Heating Pads and before it was maintaining the temperate well but now my tank is barely in the 60-65 range. I heard there’s other variations of a heating pad or even a heating lamp but i’m not sure what’s best for a 15 gallon tank.

I have this half-log that's genuine wood and I saw that some small fuzzy, gray mold was growing on the underside. A lot of my crabs sleep under it together and I didn't want to expose them to constant mold. Is there a non-chemical way to safely clean and disinfect the mold? My current attempt is to ...

Pumpkincrab wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 29, 2023 8:25 pm

You can easily spot clean your tank. Just carefully skim off debris, poop ect. off the surface, without disrupting the entirety of the sub (meaning, not digging).

Thank you, I was figuring that would be the best option. I just didn’t know if there’s any particular way of then sanitizing the sand.

I’m growing a little concerned that the sand of my crabitat is getting dirty. My crabs, for the most part, poop in the food dish so cleaning that is simple. But the sand is also getting covered with it and I don’t want it to build up and spread disease. I have roughly 7 inches of sand last time I me...

So perhaps he didn't molt (disappear underground for an extended period of time) or surface molt (shed his exo on the surface), but he did change shells. Is he moving around normally? Crabs can re-grow their legs during their next molt. Sorry for the confusion, but that was a separate crab. The one...

I follow LHCOS guidelines so I’m the outlier here, but it’s no harm in providing more space and foraging opportunities. They are taken from the wild and I think we should do our best to replicate that the best we can. I also have had no issues with my substrate holding shape, the water has no where...

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it? Sand, ~6-6.5 inches Curly - E's do like deeper substrate. It should be at least 3 times as deep as your largest crab. 2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temp...

4 crabs in a 20 gallon is too many, we have to adhere to the 10 gallon per crab rule when using small tanks. As well as for their diet, it should be 50% protein. I would be offering more things such as dried fish and dried insects they can be found on Etsy. Staples like leaf litter, worm castings, ...

Since you've come to the emergency forum, we know you want a fast answer to your question. In order for us to figure out the problem as quickly as possible, we ask that you answer the following questions as best you can. Some of them may seem odd, but they're all designed to give us the information...

With the high heat and humidity in our tanks, mold is almost unavoidable. It is not harmful for the crabs, so you can just remove it when you see it on the surface (usually this is from bits of food that have been dragged around), or remove items that have mold on them to scrub it off (like with wo...

I currently have my crabitat 99% completed. I found this nice 20 gallon tank on FB marketplace but it came with a mesh lid. I haven't looked for a glass lid that fit the dimensions so at the moment I use the mesh lid (to prevent my crabs from crawling out) and I folded this thin blanket that I stack...

If your tank is in a room that has a window, you don't need to buy another light (unless you want to spend the money). Indirect light from a window is enough. Be sure to check the 'water' care sheet, or take a screen shot with you shopping, so that you know other brands as well (in case the most co...

You're very welcome! I would recommend tossing the mulch, and using coconut fiber and play sand (which you can pick up at a hardware store for cheap), 6 inches of substrate is recommended and I have roughly 7 inches in my tank! PPs tend to love turbos the most, so I recommend those for shells! What...

Thank you so much! In hindsight I probably should've looked a little deeper but I kinda just grabbed what I assumed the essentials were from the pet store. The current mulch substrate isn't actual mulch (that's my bad if I accidentally confused) but I'm not sure if it's still toxic to them because e...