Great times in a week

So i recently bought hermit crabs, i named them crazy, kate, and big crabby. I put them in a 10 gallon tank, with 2-3 inches of the jungle bed/sand and cypress bed. Inside of it i put 2 seperate types of water, one salt water and the other for drinking, i put in 3 diffrent wood for them too climb on (store bought), a bark shelter and a coconaut one, 4 diffrent types of shells, a climbing wall, cuttle bone, finally a food dish. In a week of a time kate and crazy would isolate themselves, but now they are more active, most of the food is getting eat, but they still dig dig and dig. When i bought big crabby it changed its shell the next day!:katertater:. Other than that they pretty much make my life exciting!. And kate is about youth small/medium, crazy is about youth medium/large, and big crabby is about adult small/medium, and they are all purple crabs too!
This all happened in 1 week!!!!!!! mg: mg: mg: mg: mg: mg: mg: mg:
Tell me how im doing!

~Eric~

 

:hermez2: Congratulations! They're such interesting creatures.

If you don't mind a little advice though...
Your bedding should be another one to two inches higher, assuming you have small crabs. Four inches is a nice depth until your crabs get larger or you purchase larger. I wouldn't put any more than four crabs in there though because they would be too crowded.

When setting up a tank there is a lot of room lost to space-consuming but necessity things like shells, water dishes, food dishes, hidey huts, climbing things, decorations, etc. Then there are the crabs...the general rule for each individual crab is:
Jumbo - 5 gal each
Large - 4 gal each
Med. - 3 gal each
Small - 2 gal each
Teeny/micro - 1 gal each

You could add a second story with a corner shower caddy filled with proper type of moss, with a way to get up there for them, just to name one idea.
Hermies must have enough room to go under and molt in privacy without the danger of their cave crashing in from all the weight topside.

Another thing about the bedding, the Cypress isn't safe for hermit crabs.
Here's a bit of info...

Cypress Mulch/Bedding

Cypress is a conifer. Coniferous wood/needles are toxic to crabs when ingested. Crabs typically graze on their substrates, making cypress a bad substrate. Cypress mulch is really best for reptiles that are carnivorous. Cypress has uses only in EXTERNAL application, for most mammals and other animals it has toxic properties, and depending on the species of cypress, the most common is arsenic.

100% coconut fiber is better than bark mulch... again bark chips are Cedar which is not a good wood for crabs!

When you can, I'd get a few more shells. Once again, the general rule of thumb is three shells per crab. PP's (Purple Pincher's) like the "Turbo" shells. They have the round opening.

...and lastly, I can certainly relate to your excitement, but maybe in future posts just one or two mg:'s would be plenty. :chuckle:

Happy crabbing and keep us updated on how things are going in Crabbydom! :flower:

 

Glad to hear you are having so much fun! :spunky:

 

thanks for advice and i will keep the mg: too 2! haha and i think i just wasted omney then for the bedding haha!

 

Sigh...I can sympathize with you. :flower:

 

haha thanks! and is jungle bed good?

 

:yes2:

 

I have my crab tank by my rocking recliner so I can watch them at night, sometimes it's better than watching t.v.! Last night one of the crabs scooted a shell over to the water dish , threw it in there & climbed in with it, looking it all over then climbed out and left it! Mine are always changing in & out of shells, I got green turbos off of the crab patch site, I live quite a ways from any pet stores that carry shells that pp's like & big enough. Check out the food list on here they can eat a lot of what we do, I made a egg in the microwave a couple days ago part for me so I could make me an egg sandwhich & gave them a hunk to, they loved it! don't add anything to the eggs, just beat them up and zap em. The other moss can you stick in a flower pot? You will find lots of things on here, I sit at night and read through things, I'm always up for suggestions and love to see other tanks and how crab owners decorate them! Welcome to the crabby world of fun!