HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Does anyone keep live plants in their crabitat for their crabs?

I was thinking of using Bromeliads and other Epiphytes in the crabitat for them.


thoughts?
suggestions?

Dartolution wrote:Does anyone keep live plants in their crabitat for their crabs?

I was thinking of using Bromeliads and other Epiphytes in the crabitat for them.


thoughts?
suggestions?

Hello . There are definitely quite a few crabbers that do have live plants in their crabitat. However, the plants need to be on the safe list. They also have to have never had pesticides or fertilizers used on them, because hermits are sensitive to those products. Hermit crabs will munch on the plants. I have aloe in my tank. It has been climbed on, munched on, and doesn't look very pretty, but its green, doing okay, and the hermits love it.


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Yes, but don't go spending too much or place you prized plants in there, most likely they will trample/eat/shred them. A crabber a few years back spent over $200 on broms (or it was $150... anyway it was alot) and in a couple of weeks, they were shredded/trampled on or eaten.
I tend to go by "what's reptile safe, is crab safe"; so would suggest looking at the herp/dart frog forums for easy to keep plant species. One that many have had success with is pothos!

i loooooove live plants! started a post to help me keep track of everything ive tried. how its done. why i picked it. i have a list of a bunch i want to try as well! my hermits favorite has been air plants by far! (Guatemalan Ionantha) it also goes great in the tank until the hermits find it that is lol.

I have wild palm trees. Some seeds fell and New tree's sprouted. I transplanted a 4 inch one into my tat. It's doing well so far

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I was thinking Ionantha airplanes, and some kind of palm.

What palm tree would you guys recommend?
Sago? Neanthabella? Coconut?

I'm sorry, I am not very knowledgeable on this subject. Here is the unsafe food list. Sago is not safe.
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92556

Thank you that was helpful

GotButterflies wrote:They also have to have never had pesticides or fertilizers used on them, because hermits are sensitive to those products.

Do you know if the plants at Home Depot or Lowes are pesticide free?

Just Jay wrote:i loooooove live plants! started a post to help me keep track of everything ive tried. how its done. why i picked it. i have a list of a bunch i want to try as well! my hermits favorite has been air plants by far! (Guatemalan Ionantha) it also goes great in the tank until the hermits find it that is lol.

Started a post on here?
I'd love to try some live plants, but I usually kill all plants. The only successful ones I've had so far are cactuses. Aloe would probably work well.


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CharlesMTF wrote:

GotButterflies wrote:They also have to have never had pesticides or fertilizers used on them, because hermits are sensitive to those products.

Do you know if the plants at Home Depot or Lowes are pesticide free?

I would say those are not safe. Farms would need to be organic to be safe. However, from what I understand the ones in the pet stores by the reptile section would be your closest options for being safe. My local Petco sells plants. I hope that helps. Hard to type on a phone! Lol

You could purchase a plant and convert it - but that will take several months...if you have the time, then do it


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I've been using live plants for years now. Spider plants are a good place to start. They are easy to grow, and if you start with one outside the tank it will regularly send off babies that can be moved into the tank. You can buy them from a Home Depot, etc. I wait a minimum of three months before including them in my tank. I consider any plant that you put in to be consumable, meaning that the crabs will trash it.

I have had awful luck with planting directly in the substrate. The crabs will dig it up or disturb the roots with their digging and the plants I've used don't seem to like the eco earth/sand as a growing medium. I have solved this by putting the plant in a small pot sunken into the substrate. This could be a problem if your crabs are small enough to dig into the pot and you later need to remove it. My hermits are large enough that it would be very obvious if the invaded the pot, which they have not done so far.

Another option for live plants is to start from seed. I've used chia, flax, barley, parakeet seed (mostly millet) and sunflower. If I don't have a plant ready to go into the tank when the current one is dead I'll pull the dead plant out of the pot and throw a few seeds into it.