HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello everybody great community. I have been lurking for the past couple weeks finally signed up. I have owned a couple different crabs in the past and I am a carnivorous plant enthusiast I thought some hermit crabs would put some life in the house while we endure another winter. And besides that they sure are cute and fun. Please review my photos and blurbs about them let me know if you see any red flags. This is of course my simple starter tank I will be dropping money on it steadily.

My heat source is a small-sized fluker's clamp on with rheostat with a 75 watt Moonglow bulb. It's always on it's attached to a pie tin which is cut out and I really like this system. Humidity is always at minimum of 80. temperature is generally 80 to 85.
Substrate is 3 in or just above I know I need more in there I'm using play sand I found at Home Depot.(cheeeaap)

This is the sphagnum Moss I use for my carnivorous plants I think it will be a great option in the crab tank I'm mixing it with the sand and using it by itself.(depot)

For water I'm using tap and this betta product which helps with chlorine chloramine ammonia and heavy metals it says that there are Trace elements specifically designed for bettas in it????? The salt water is distilled with instant ocean
The whole thing is sitting on top of a dishwasher which is sturdy and on every couple days.
The four small-med PP crabs buried themselves in the moss pit in the front right and barely resurface I try not to bug them when I do see them crawling around but it's hard to resist. The other night I stayed up till 3 in the am because I noticed at midnight that there were beginning to emerge. I got to see a shell Swap! If and when I see all 4 at the same time I think I will put them into an isolation tank for a short while and work on the 10 gal ( I'm thinking a full 6 in on two-thirds of the tank and then adding a dry pit on 1/3 of the tank for more vertical climbing. Thanks for reading thanks for checking it out

good start! Thanks for sharing

Hello The products look good! The tank looks great I would recommend is a couple of things I personally like 5 gallons per crab. You can pick up great deals on Craigslist, Offerup, Lego, Bookoo..etc. Search Tank, Reptile, Terrarium, Aquarium. (To each his own though). Substrate should be a minimum of 6" or three times the height of your largest crab (whichever is deeper wins). Water pools should be deep enough for the crabs to fully submerge themselves and safely get out of

Edit: I would love to see some of your carnivorous plants!!!

Pool depth was something i was unclear on. Thanks for looking!

Yw

Edit: A lot of us use tupperware containers, and we double them up. I find a link for you that explains it perfectly

2nd Edit: Here you go: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=113691&hilit=double+dish+yo

Here is my answer. I feel much better and i hope they do too thanks for the push. (I was very carefull)

Looks good so far! Just wanted to add welcome to HCA!

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I use that same spag moss! (Mosser lee's right?) It's cheap for a big bag, organic, very clean and my crabbies love it!

Correct. Yes its a wonder product for me. I highly recommend it. Many great applications such as THIS:


Behold! The cave of Caerbannog! I softened up the hard plastic with a mossing.



You can see one of the rascals lower left.
The rest of his buddies are below.
Shazam!

Welcome! cool setup!
I use the same moss, and the same plastic plants/vines, too!
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for stoppin by to say hi all!
30 ct turbot shells en rout.
Now more patience. :roll:

Saw one of the smaller in the morning he didn't hang out long and went back under the moss. I started a crabby journal to help me keep track of what's going on in there including shell counts and crab identifying descriptions I'll have to slowly catalogue what i can observe. I know very little about my 4. Dey is shneeeky.
Day15 crabbin

All 4 were out last night. Got my new turbos.
Day 17.

Love the line of shells!!!

The only picture of one of my crabs I have so far. He seems in good health colorations on his body range from purple white and orange some hair but not on the front of his legs. My four are all slightly different sizes so I think I'm well suited for Shell hand-me-downs I don't think this one has a name yet (open to suggestions) and I believe he is the second to largest



What I have seen of my crabs is just them slowly moving walking on their fingertips but last night this guy stretched out and man thier legs can stretch. Look more like a tarantula spider thing. I'm all thinking how the heck do these things even climb so well and then I see the stretched legs and im all ddaaaaannngg...

Nice tank (like the little ladder) and the crab is so cute!!