Salt or Fresh?

[WEC]

Hi! I am in the process of building a new crabitat in advance of getting new hermies for our education center. I am planning toward a built in pool with a filter. Should the pool with the moving water and more space be salt water or fresh water? There will be a bowl of the other available at all times.

Also, am planning a terraced set-up to keep a portion with deep substate and then a more shallow one leading down to the "beach". Has anyone had success with a similar set up? Will post pics of progress as I figure out how to do pics.

Any insight is appreciated!

[Just Jay]

sorry i cant be too much help as i am a new crabber myself. what i have read is that usually the larger pool is salt water (more often if you are tying to get them to breed). also the main down side to having a beach like area where sub is in the water is a fear of flooding; which is harmful to molting crabs and can breed mold. now i have seem some good set ups where people use a clear plexie with rocks glued so the crabs can walk on it. so you have the same visual but the water doesnt touch the sub.

i hope that was kind of helpful in the least!

[WEC]

Hi! Yes, thank you! That is what i was thinking as well. However, the water is like the last thing to go in, so if anyone else thinks I should do otherwise, please let me know.

So, I got the false floor and the frame put in today. I am going to make a bag out of weed barrier cloth to house the substrate for the deep terrace and am looking for a good bowl for the fresh water in the lower terrace. Will post some pics as soon as I get it figured out!

Thank you!

[Just Jay]

cant wait for pictures!!!

[Rawrgeous]

Just make sure there is some sort of barrier from the sand that is the actual sub to the sand that is on the beach, that way the liquid from the beach side doesn't spread to the rest of your sub. A barrier of siliconed rocks might work.. With a false bottom though, and checking the silicone seal in the corner over times, I think the set-up will be lovely.

[WEC]

Hi! I went with msw for the pool. See pics in my other post about starting right. Thanks!!!
~Beth:)

[soilentgringa]

I would suggest searching for Curlz threads here at HCA and checking out their setup. They have successfully bred land hermit crabs and have a separate beach area style crabitat as well.

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[WEC]

I will definitely check them out! We are just trying to keep some healthy at this point, reproduction would be way out of our league...but I am interested to see what they did. Thank you!