HCA: Hermit Crab Association

What saltwater mixes are people using? I recently switched over to Oceanic brand, from Instant Ocean. My crabbies are much happier, and I'm wondering what people are using and how the crabbies are liking it.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003- ... /index.php

has an article comparing several brand of saltwater mix, including IO, and found that the heavy metal levels in Instant Ocean were, depending on metal in question, hundreds, to hundreds of thoudands, times higher than that of actual seawater, and there was a 90% higher mortality rate for organisms using IO as opposed to real seawater. Coralife has an 80% mortality rate. They listed Bio-Sea's Marinemix as closest to seawater, and more organisms survived in it than did in the natural seawater.
I ran a thread earlier trying to get data about some problems people's Indos have been having, to try to see what could be the matter. Seems, from the evidence, to be an Iodine and other trace mineral deficiency (without iodine, magnesium, and sulfates, their natural systems just shut down. Same for all hermits, but with Indos being more terrestrial, and used to higher levels of magnesium sulfate, it happens much more rapidly.). I figure, what we are putting in their water dishes probably makes a big difference to their overall health, as the ocean is full of just about every element and substance there has ever been, and, to be frank, fake salt is not.

When I get some time, I'll do a study similar to Dr. Shimek's, using the brands we use the most of (for which I need input from you guys, to know which brands to test), and marine hermit crabs as test subjects, since they're close cousins to our crabs. Please lemme know which brand of water you use, what you mix it with (tap, well water, distilled water, RO water, etc etc), and how you've been doing with it. Thanks!!

I myself have been using Doc. Wellfish, for the saltwater dish, as well as to expand my FB and mist my moss pits. My crabbies have had many successful molts this way, and seem to be thriving. (Doc Wellfish is made from natural sea salt.)

well, I use instant ocean and have seen them drinking it - I can belive that there are better mixes out and would like to knwo which one is best.

obviously, there isn't any overly HUGE problem with instant ocean, b/c salt water keepers would stop buying and hence it wouldn't be in stores! Right?

I use doc wellfish's, it's the cheapest and in my opinion easiest to find and use. Also my pp's seem to enjoy it very much.

I bought a huge thing of IO a couple years ago....I just used the last of it, to boil the driftwood in the tank. When I did use it for hermie water, I mixed it 50/50 with Doc Wellfish, to dilute anything harmful that might be in it. Because it got wet and clumpy after a year or so, I didn't use it for the hermies at all, only to boil tank decor or shells. I have a small amount of Tropic Marin, and the last time I bought salt water, I got Red Sea, because it says on the package: "It is the most "natural" artificial sea salt on the market, with at least 87% of the raw materials being reclaimed from natural water sources" and "is suitable for marine fish and invertebrates from every sea and ocean". So I figured that it should be terrific for the hermies. They seem to like it, but then they've never shown a preference for one salt mix over another (except ZooMed's "salt water conditioner", they wouldn't touch that. So I tested it and it has almost no salt, so I guess they really do know best).

I also put reef supplement into the salt water dish. I use Kent Marine Coral-Vite (or maybe it's Kent Marine Essential Elements, I forget. And I'm at my parents' house right now, so I can't just go look). It contains trace minerals that are beneficial to invertebrates.

The next time I'm at PetCo, I'm going to buy some "Catalina Water Company Real Ocean Pure Natural Seawater", it's actual ocean water that's been filtered. I figure you can't do any better than the real thing. It's more expensive than the powdered mixes, but I want to do what's best for the little bugs. I'll still use salt mixes for boiling things, though, I'm not going to use the good stuff for that!

I use Oceanic and the hermit crabs seem to be enjoying it. I see them drink it and always the next day I see a bit of sand in it as well as some gone. During premolt they sit in the salt water for more than an hour

Yay for feedback!! So far, IO, Oceanic, Doc Wellfish, Cataline Water Company, and Red sea are on my list. I like the idea of the Red Sea, as it is the only salt currently on the market derived mostly from an actual ocean, plus, I use their supplements and like them. We'll see how well it holds up in trial. I'm wondering about that "real ocean water" stuff, how good it is, especially vs. the convenience factor.

Layne_d, much as I hate to mention it, I'm afraid the argument that "there can't be anything bad in it or they wouldn't sell it" doesn't hold true very often. Otherwise hermit crab food wouldn't have copper sulfate, an industrial pesticide, and EVERYONE would stop feeding it if it did. Instant Ocean has been found to have 210,000 times the level of LEAD as seawater. Lead is toxic to EVERYTHING, and that's alot of it to be in something you're feeding to very small creatures.

Willow- I also add supplementation to my dish. I use Red Sea's Success Marine Calcium +3, which has Iodine, Molybdenum and Strontium, as well as, of course, calcium. The Kent Marine stuff is good, my reef tank doesn't like it as well as the Red Sea brand, so I stopped using it as much.

Yay, hopefully a bunch more people will weight in, and we'll get a list of 10 or so brands to try, and see what we come up with!

I use HBH hermit crab saltwater bath thing

Hi Everyone,

What do you all use to get the chlorine out? I thought that might be important as well. I currently use Amquel + but not sure if it a good one.
It has a horrible smell. It is pretty hard to measure the exact amount too for only 1 gallon. How much do you use and what?

another question: would you use sea water from the ocean? Like if I go to the Cape and get some? How long could you keep that?

Willow wrote:"It is the most "natural" artificial sea salt on the market

Sorry, that just sounded funny to me.

I use bottled water.

I use Oceanic.
I used to use Doc Wellfish and when I switched I noticed a huge increase in the amount of time my crabs spent in the salt water dish.
They seemed quite pleased w/ the switch.

i use HBH, its made for hermit crabs, and has added Ca+ for exoskeleton care.

cisnegra wrote:I'm wondering about that "real ocean water" stuff, how good it is, especially vs. the convenience factor.

I got the stuff... hehe... It's a 5gallon box/bag thing of it and my hermies are going wild over it. I love the conveience. It stores in the box/bag. I thought I'd have to switch it over to something else. I do not like to mix things and then measure to make sure it's all right. So this is quick and easy for me.

The cost to me is outweighed by the need for my hermies. I will be making larger pools in the 55g we want to get going, but I still think I'll use this stuff as it's the real deal. Not artificial. That makes a difference in my book. It is pricey, but goes one sale every now and again so I'm going to watch for that.

I JUST put this water in my tank last week and have noticed another boost in activity. I recently had switched from the Hermit Crab Water Conditioner #2 (bad stuff in my book... not the right levels of sea salt in there...) to some water that I purchased by the gallon from a pet store. The levels were near perfect (1.22 I think...) and I they used either Instant Ocean or Oceanic for their mixing (can't remember! I discussed all sorts of stuff with that employee). That boosted activity and swimming in the sea salt pool.

I'm happy to give as much as I can to these little guys that's as close as I can get to their natural environments. Just like in a zoo, they'd make sure they had EVERYTHING they'd need as they learned it for the critters.... practicing that in my home. Kinda tricky sometimes...