HCA: Hermit Crab Association

has anyone heard of putting rollie pollies in the tank to help with keeping it clean. Has anyone done this? does it work or just cause promblem?

Yep. They're awesome for cleaning.

I have been letting mine breed. I don't know when I will put them in. Probably after my sub change. I use salt water to mix, so I don't know if it will harm them. I assume it would. When I do my change I want to wash out the old sub to get the salt out then I'll add new and rehydrate it with only fresh water so I can add plants.

wait what rolly polly keep the tank clean??

Yes isopods (or rolly pollys, sow bugs, pill bugs) are great little bottom feeders. Dylan you don't have to worry about the salt water. I use salt water for my sub as well as to spray the tat. My isopods have been breeding happily for well over 6 months now!They eat crab poop too - how awesome is that?I love my isopods. I almost never see them. They scatter when the light comes on and prefer to hide. They like the same habitat conditions as the crabs and eat their leavings. It's the perfect symbiotic relationship! The crabs will even eat dead isopods apparently but I haven't seen that myself.The hardest part is doing a deep clean without killing them. I get pretty attached and don't want to lose ANY of them which is almost impossible!I ordered mine from bugsincyberspace.com - I ordered 14 of them or something and goodness knows how many are in there now. I got the kind that don't roll (who knew there were so many kinds?). It's so gratifying to see the little white, translucent babies as well as the fat, healthy adults.I recommend isopods to anyone with hermit crabs. I have always been a little squeamish about bugs but I love these little guys. I was afraid they might breed and over run the tank but so far have not had any issues with that.

so would i beable to get some from outside and use them?? my daughter finds them alot and come up to me with handfuls "look mommy i got some bugs!!!"

The consensus about using "wild caught" rolly pollys is that they can be exposed to pesticides if you or even your neighbors use any. If you think there is any chance they were exposed to pesticides you can catch some and keep them in their own enclosure for a month and then they are safe to put in with your crabs. You want 10-15 of them to start. They like the same conditions as the crabs and they eat decaying leaves and probably a lot of the same stuff your crabs do. Give them lots of stuff to hide in!

@Miko, its never recommended to use insects from your own yard as the odds of making your hermitcrabs sick from exposure go up exponentially when introducing a foreign insect.Rollie Pollies are native to the hermitcrabs natural habitats but due to geographical differences the isopods in your back yard are likely to be carrying parasites and other contaminants that your hermitcrabs may have no resistance to upping the ante quite a bit.You can't actually insure the safety of wild caught insects by isolating them as this does nothing to the bacteria, amoebas and other microscopic pests the rollies may have and only addresses what pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals the insects might have crawled through by allowing them to dissipate.

ok so what kind should i order and how do u keep them from over running the tank??

These are the ones I got: http://shop.bugsincyberspace.c...lio-15-ct-bic700.htmHave never had an issue with them overrunning the tank. This was one of my concerns but really I wouldn't worry.

ok coo thank you

I just wanted to say when I was asking around about adding isopods to my tank, most of the people I spoke with used the ones they caught in their yard - and nobody had any issues with their crabs getting sick. I wanted to purchase bugs but that's just what I decided to do.I'm not sure the isopods I got were from the crabs natural habitat or if you could be sure ANY bugs wouldn't have microbes etc that might harm the crabs. It's whatever you feel comfortable with. Not everybody wants to pay $30 to have some isopods overnighted to their house!!

Can the isopods climb glass and get out?

you should have a lid so that wouldntr be a problem

I can't always have a lid. It's too hot here.