HCA: Hermit Crab Association

After a couple months of collecting materials and building, I have finally finished my new crabitat. (Or at least version 1.0) It's a large/extra tall Exo Terra terrarium: 36" tall x 36" wide x 18" deep. That comes out to about 101 gallons, although it has less floor space than my old 90. The basic terrarium design doesn't allow for enough substrate for hermit crabs so I siliconed a taller piece of glass in the front and topped it with some vinyl tubing to prevent chips. The sub (coco fiber) current sits at about 10". I'll give it a month to settle and then top it off to be 12". The hood takes four compact fluorescent bulbs so I used two UV bulbs and two standard household light bulbs. I built the main centerpiece out of two gigantic cork logs I got from Germany. They arrived much bigger than anticipated and required a large redesign of my initial plans for the crabitat. The two logs are connected and the horizontal log contains a huge moss pit.

I've taken some initial pictures but will wait to take more when the crabs have gotten over their upset and fussiness at being relocated.

Building the centerpiece on my workbench


The empty tank


Completed tank with the doors closed


With the doors open


Upper left


Upper right


Lower left


Lower right


Lower right again


My medium Ecuadorian, Lexington, in the moss pit for scale


The eventual moss pit party with Lex, Kola, Mandarin, Cookie, Bitsy, and Fiddle


A view of Leroy exiting the right side of the moss pit where the horizontal log connects to the vertical log


The end of the log/moss pit on the left side


The water bowls with Merah getting a drink of fresh water


Cardinal hogging the salt water bowl


Cookie hiding out on the side of the vertical log


Fiddle on the back of the vertical log


Fiddle exiting one of the holes in the vertical log (with Wellington in the background)


Florence climbing where the logs join


Goose at the bottom of the vertical log


Kola being shy on the edge of the moss pit


Mandarin on top of the vertical log


Merah in the supplements dish


Sesame being adventurous for once


Wellington peeking at me

beautiful!!! is there enough room for me?! I want to live there!

I loooove how you did the moss pit and shell shop! <3

Truely inspirational tank.
ONE DAY I will have a tank like this, one day!

Wow sugarselections that looks awesome!
If possible, I would love to hear some more stats about the tank & how you built everything! This is totally getting saved in my bookmarks & those pics are going to be on my computer before you can even blink!
Please - with a cherry on top - can you make a vid?

Loving all the hermies too, I sure they will love it in there... They all so beautiful too.
May I ask, what happened to Darwin?

Knibitz wrote:beautiful!!! is there enough room for me?! I want to live there!

I loooove how you did the moss pit and shell shop! <3

Truely inspirational tank.
ONE DAY I will have a tank like this, one day!

That shell shop was a last minute decision and I'm not really comfortable with it. I've always kept my shells directly on the substrate and it makes me anxious that a crab would have to climb up there to get a shell in an emergency. Hopefully I'll get over it. I had to raise the shell shop because the logs took up much more floor space than planned. I was going to place both logs raised horizontally on a pvc structure but they came in at about 12" diameter so my original plan wouldn't work.

sugarselections wrote: That shell shop was a last minute decision and I'm not really comfortable with it. I've always kept my shells directly on the substrate and it makes me anxious that a crab would have to climb up there to get a shell in an emergency. Hopefully I'll get over it. I had to raise the shell shop because the logs took up much more floor space than planned. I was going to place both logs raised horizontally on a pvc structure but they came in at about 12" diameter so my original plan wouldn't work.

OMG! I have the same worries about up high shell shops! "what if they can't find the shells?!?!" - I know that's nutty because so many people have had elevated shell shops for years, but it still is something I wonder about lol

aussieJJDude wrote:Wow sugarselections that looks awesome!
If possible, I would love to hear some more stats about the tank & how you built everything! This is totally getting saved in my bookmarks & those pics are going to be on my computer before you can even blink!
Please - with a cherry on top - can you make a vid?

Loving all the hermies too, I sure they will love it in there... They all so beautiful too.
May I ask, what happened to Darwin?

I'll work on making a video once the crabs settle in. I'm not sure how to explain a lot of the things I did. It involved me working in my basement for long stretches of time with a jigsaw, drill, and a bunch of zip ties. I marked the dimensions of the terrarium floorspace on my workbench and then basically cut and pieced everything until it would fit together in the space provided. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Darwin, the blues, and a couple other crabs dug down as soon as I put them in the new tat. I think they're all due to molt and weren't happy to be dug up from the 90 and transplanted.

sugarselections wrote:I'll work on making a video once the crabs settle in. I'm not sure how to explain a lot of the things I did. It involved me working in my basement for long stretches of time with a jigsaw, drill, and a bunch of zip ties. I marked the dimensions of the terrarium floorspace on my workbench and then basically cut and pieced everything until it would fit together in the space provided. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Darwin, the blues, and a couple other crabs dug down as soon as I put them in the new tat. I think they're all due to molt and weren't happy to be dug up from the 90 and transplanted.

Ok, I eagerly look forward to that video thats one thing for sure! Hurry up crabs, settle in already!
haha, i love it; you just did things and have no idea - kind of sounds like me. However, I would like to know how that shell shop is floating like that & did you cut the cork in any way?
Awww thats I shame though. I hope that their moults go well though!

For the shell shop I bought the repti rock water bowl which is a lighter-weight foam material. I trimmed the back and sides with a chop saw and jigsaw. Then I just drilled two holes through the side of the bowl and corresponding holes in the cork. I strung a zip tie through them all to connect. It turned out very sturdy.

I used the jigsaw to take chunks out of both of the cork logs until I could fit them together. Then I drilled holes and attached the two with zip ties. The logs are fit together so that they are completely open to each other inside.

This is amazing! [SMILING FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES] What do you use for your sub? The whole thing just looks so pretty!

Beautiful!

soilentgringa wrote:This is amazing! [SMILING FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES] What do you use for your sub? The whole thing just looks so pretty!

Thanks. I used coco fiber (ee) for the substrate.That's all I ever use

Looks great!!

I love it!!wish I was that crafty to put something like that together


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moonshermies wrote:I love it!!wish I was that crafty to put something like that together

Perhaps wrongly, I tend not to think of myself as crafty. I do like designing, repurposing, modifying, and building things, but I'm no good with fiddle-y little stuff... as evidenced by my horrible silicone sealant work on this new tank. I tend to get a big idea and then power through to get it all done without worrying about the details any more than absoutely necessary.

I put together a quick video today detailing some of the things I did in the tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRyFUU0VGMw