Hello from Papoose45

[Papoose45]

I'm French, and I fell in love with hermit crabs since a friend of mine asked me to keep his for a while during his holidays. At the beginning, the poor animal was always sleeping in his coconut shell. There are plastic plants, and no heating system and no moisture system. To my mind, there is not enough depth of soil (5 cm of rough soil). Here are some photos (the first two pictures) of his former home, and the others are pictures of his new home (thin white sand (3cm)+coconut fibers (4-5 cm)+thin white sand (3cm)), branches to climb on, a pool, heating and moisture systems hidden in the biobox at the back). Now he is there in his new home, I can see his beautiful funny face and his legs whereas before he always hid in his shell. Now, in his holiday home, the temperature is 25°C, and there is 80% moisture. The soil at the bottom right corner is 15 cm deep. I registered yesterday to your FB page.

Before :


Now :

[The Franckinator]

Hi Papoose!

First of all, I'd like to say that is a great improvement you have given that crab. You might have saved him from a sad fate. I would like to give a few suggestions. It looks like you only have one water pool. If so, you actually do need two with two different types of water. Since hermit crabs naturally live on beaches in the tropics, they've become reliant upon salt water from the ocean. As crabbers, we generally imitate this by making a mixture called Marine Salt Water, usually seen as MSW on this site. This mixture is created using some sort of salt designed for salt water aquariums and mixing it with dechlorinated water - usually into a gallon jug. Most people on this site use something called Instant Ocean. The other water pool should contain dechlorinated fresh water. Since your crab seems to be small, the size of your pool is fine for now, but you will need to up-size one day as the crab's whole body should be able to submerge with a way to get out - as they do breathe air, not water. Crabbers will usually put shells, rocks, and plastic mesh so that the crabs can get in and out easily.

Sponges are heavily debated here: new crabbers generally will use them since so many websites and pet stores describe how necessary they are. Actually, crabs do not need sponges to drink and will use their claws and mouthparts to drink and scoop water into their shells - another reason for MSW is that crabs need to maintain a certain level of salinity in their shells.

To summarize everything so far: one pool with a water/salt mixture (preferably something like Instant Ocean), one pool with fresh water - both with dechlorinated water - and no sponges, as they will essentially harbor bacteria. Sponges can help with humidity but most people will agree that other methods will work better, such as Bundy's Humidifier and bubble pools:

Water Dishes and Bubblers:
Try to use bowls or pools that are wide, as the increased surface area will create more humidity. Water dishes may be placed near your UTH or beneath your overhead light to produce additional humidity though evaporation. Adding a bubbler – a fish air pump with an air stone – that sits in the water dishes can also boost humidity levels. However, if the pump is too powerful, the air outside the tank is too dry, or if the pools are too shallow it may have the reverse effect and cause the humidity to drop even further.

If you decide on either of the latter options, you can message me and I'll help. Another great way to maintain humidity is sphagnum moss. I bought mine fairly cheap at PetSmart (not sure what stores you have over there in France) - it was a 150 gram bag and I've only gotten halfway through it.

In my opinion, plastic plants are okay and do make a good climbing accessory for the crab, as well as gratification for the aesthete (fancy word ). Looks like to me your temp and humidity are fine and the crab has many spots to dig and others to hide in. I'm also glad he seems to be more active. One other thing: crabs are very social and to prevent the possibility of social anxiety, you should consider adopting him a friend or two.

Make sure to educate your friend about all this; otherwise, I would suggest that you keep the poor animal. What's the little guy or gal's name by the way?

[Papoose45]

Thanks for your answer.
I don't like plastic plants. I think I will buy terrarium moss (for reptiles) in order to get some "green color" in my mineral environment. I will buy special salt in an aquarium store to make sea water.Maybe I can add big ropes for him to climb... As for the sponge, I thought it was used for the crabs not to get drowned.
I will buy for myself 3 hermit crabs when this one is away. They are so funny !

[The Franckinator]

Some moss can be dangerous to hermit crabs. I've heard that the only safe kind is something called sphagnum moss, which isn't even green, but a tannish-yellow color.

And yes, make sure the salt is the kind used for salt water environments. Make sure you do not get the kind "formulated for hermit crabs." That stuff is not the right stuff. Also, make sure you don't buy salt made for fresh water tanks. It must be a salt water environment mixture.

Do what you want with the sponge, but most do not recommend using one. They can get unnecessarily nasty. If you are concerned about the crab drowning, you can place shells and rocks at the bottom of the bowl. The crabs won't allow themselves to get too far in the water. They are very aware that they can drown.

And yes, rope is an excellent accessory for a crab tank. Perhaps, you can drape some over the water dishes so you can comfortably remove the sponge.

And like I said before, make sure to educate you friend about all of this. Show him/her this website and make an account. I really wouldn't want you to do all this work for nothing.

Here's a cool thread on how to make a net if you are interested in this kind of thing: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... p?t=110752