HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I know we should never do a deep clean unless there is flooding, but what about surface cleaning to remove poop? Not sure what I need to do for that.

Is there a"cleaning schedule " for when things need to be cleaned?

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You can surface clean to remove poo, but its certainly not required. I personally like to spot clean my tank to remove EE from the substrate whenever possible - I use straight sand, personal choice - and food that the crabs have dragged around.

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I also don't scoop out the poop, I just mix it into the substrate every now and then. I do remove bits of food every now and then, maybe once a week or whenever I notice it.

@aussie/curly, do either of you have isopods? If no, how do you deal with it decomposing?

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Scarletfire wrote:@aussie/curly, do either of you have isopods? If no, how do you deal with it decomposing?

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In the past, I use to have isopods. In fact, I recently brought a colony of 'giant isopods' which I plan to grow before introducing into my tank.

Currently I have springtails growing in my crabitat, and a couple of times seen harmless detrivous mites scampering about which naturally reside in our crabitats due to high levels of food and moisture.

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No isopods. I always just figured that the poop decomposed like compost. I think those of us that don't scoop out the poop are in the minority, most people do scoop what they can see on the surface. I only have two crabs, currently in a 55 gallon, so the poop isn't all that obvious LOL.

I also have springtails in my tank, and I never even hardly notice them unless they are floating in the water dish

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So substrate changes are never needed unless an emergency? It seems like they would be next to impossible to do as wouldn't a crab almost always be molting if you have a few?

Nitegoddess wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:26 pm

So substrate changes are never needed unless an emergency? It seems like they would be next to impossible to do as wouldn't a crab almost always be molting if you have a few?

Molting is why I've never done a full substrate change on my tank. There's always at least one who's underground and I'm too paranoid to disturb them. I usually just spot clean the surface and refill as necessary.

Ok, that is what I was trying to figure out if that is actually something that would be needed. I was dreading trying to figure out how to do that, so I am glad to hear that it is not usually done!

Correct. And if there was an emergency like a flood or bacterial bloom, you would need to dig up any crabs that were under.
Fingers crossed it never happens to you!