a couple questions ..new crabbie owners

[jenne03]

My daughter has two hermit crabs. We keep hearing conflicting info. My daughter's book said that we could use bottled water for bathing and to put in their crabitat. But on another site , I saw that you can use tap water and condition it to take the chorine out. I have fish so i am familiar with this. My question is, how long do you guys wait after conditioning the water to put it in the crabitat? Do you let it sit for a while? I will use a water conditioner that is by top fin. It dechlorinates but also most of them contain a slime coat for healthy fish...Is this ok to use?

Also, regarding sea sponges. My daughter has two of them in her tank..Is this ok? should she be rinsing them out and then wetting them with the treated dechlorinated water? or in salt water?

Her kit came with a shell to put the food in..and a shell to hold water. We got a little bigger one off the beach while we were there...but after reading the forums think that she may need a bigger "pool" Her crabitat isn't huge..so any suggestions? Or is the shell fine. They can't submerse themselves in it..Can i put salt water in a shell..is that enough for them?

Thanks so much everyone!!!

[Hermie's rule]

Try to get sorta a swimming pool that the crabs can almost totally submerge themselves in. Not so deep that they can't see out over the water line but deep enough that they can partially submerge. Yes, sponges are okay in the crabitat. You should rinse them out or else they'll develop funky molds and growth on them. You don't have to wait for dechlorinated water to sit out. Just use it once it's well mixed. I wouldn't use any dechlorinator with slime coat in it. Hope that helps!

[WizKidsMom]

The dechlorinator with slime is especially made for fish and not recommended for hermies. I use API tap water conditioner. That little bottle goes a looonnng way.

[bluconspiracy]

As for the "ppols" I have 2 bubble pools. They seem to really like it. All I did was place a 3 way T adapter * or whatever its called, you find it in the aquarium section* in there with a little more air tubing to reach the pools with an air stone at the end. The dishes I used were 2 small round glass bowls from wal mart and Wala ! a bubbling pool. It also helps the water last a few day longer.