(Part 2) Best products from r/hermitcrabs

OK, Im just going to list a bunch of stuff I've purchased through this process. Nothing is in any particular order.

Almond leaves (for tannin) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LKTX4VC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Moss - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035Q65TQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cholla Wood - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H4FUMHY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dried red Shrimp (Protein and Chitin) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027JCRVW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Instant Ocean (1/3cup per Gallon) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255NKA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ultrasonic Mister/Fogger (for DIY Fogger) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PAK21WU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Digital Temp Humidity Controller - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I6BZ2IO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

LED White/Blue Light - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0191EWII2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

UTH (You may need to get a different size and this isn't the most recommended, but it works for me currently) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TR4HLEI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (This one has adhesive on the back of it, so you just stick it on like a sticker.)

Cork Bark Board - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019J1VPY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Water Conditioner - https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116043304-Prime-500ml/dp/B00025694O

If you have any questions, please feel free. To mitigate confusion I felt just listing this as a reference first is the best approach. If you are looking for a new tank so that you can get friends, i would suggest 30 or more gallons and work towards that instead of investing into the current tank which would get changed.

Personally with the 5 i have i clearly see they need much more room than the 15 gallon they have now. I am in the process of acquiring an 85-120 gallon tank for permanency. These guys can live 20+ years with the proper care and environment. but not everyone has that freedom. 30 is a totally doable size for 3 crabs. they can grow to jumbos and be fine in there, but im sure if they reach that stage you'll be looking for another tank. Jumbos need at least 12" of substrate for molting.

You do not need the tank liner. The heating pad goes on the outside along the BACK of your tank, not under. The goal is to heat the air. If you put it under you will cook the crabs, heating pads often get much too hot (even with reptiles you need to use a thermostat to keep it from overheating and burning your reptile).

For humidity, I am going to link you a thermometer/hydrometer that I use. You will be able to easily see what both are at with just a glance and then make adjustments as needed. You can find a good one here

If you want one that has probes that goes into the tank and the display is outside, check out this one. Make sure that the probes are out of reach of the crabs, but as close to ground level in the tank as possible.



As for keeping humidity up, moss is a great option. You can mix it into your sand, place piles of it on top of the sand, or use a suction cup shower caddy on the glass and fill it up with the moss. Specifically, you want sphagnum moss which you can find in reptile sections. You can mist it and it will stay wet for a few days. Another thing you can add are bubblers, the same kind you would use in an aquarium. Adding them to your pools creates water movement which will not only increase humidity but attract your crabs to the water and deliver oxygen into the tank. With the proper substrate mixture and the heating pad, you should meet the parameters you need. But sometimes it just doesn't happen, and then you can try adding moss and/or bubblers. I have both and my humidity stays perfect.
You're awesome for getting started on their new stuff right away. They are such a rewarding pet, and I bet you will notice a huge difference in their activity once you have it all set up!

For a 75gallon get one of these (Eco Earth):
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Compressed-Coconut-Substrate/dp/B0010OSIHW
The two bricks should be enough and mix in with the sand real good. It'll help keep the humidity up and it's more like their natural environment. Make sure sand is sand-castle consistency. Not too dray or they won't be able to dig tunnels and not too wet that water pools end up on the bottom.

Read the stickied posts on top of the "topics" area and ask questions if you need more info here:
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=26

Also - check out the shells from this seller on Etsy. I noticed the spiky one you have in the corner. They like "Turbo" shells much better. You'll be amazed how fast they switch in these shells (links below) and never use the one like you have showing again - see links below. Depending on the size of your crabs you'll need to figure out which ones you need.

A little smaller:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/163508909/multipack-2-25-tapestry-turbo-shell?ref=shop_home_active_2

A little larger:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/163509545/multipack-15-2-tapestry-turbo-shell?ref=shop_home_active_12

I'd go with the larger ones probably as they'll wear them if they're too big and will always grow into them fairly quickly anyways.

Good luck!

This is a common myth that hermit crabs NEED to submerge to drink/fill their shell/clean. They drink with their small claw, dipping it in the water and lifting it to their mouth. They don't fill their shell underwater -- they suck water in through their setae (tiny hairs) and this allows them to slowly add the water to their abdomen, maintaining their preferred PH. Filling underwater would mess up their PH, so they likely have a way to seal off their shell if they do decide to go under. It's possible a saltwater pool could help with mites, but they do fine with their smaller inner claws removing dirt and grooming themselves (you can see them if you look into their shell at the right angle). Also some species in the wild don't even have access to saltwater. So they don't need pools, but some crabs do like to submerge as long as the water quality is good. Spizam71 goes into a lot more detail about this on my post.

I set up some pools myself before I learned they don't need them. If you'd like to go ahead with it anyway I used two of these tupperwares, they're 4"x4"x2.25". Took me a while to find tupperware deep and big enough for them without taking up too much space (I have a 10 gal). They're a bit pricy though, and if you have more space I'd probly get something a bit bigger. For entry/exit you can get some craft mesh and set it up however you want, I just cut it to size and hot-glued it to the sides. Not the best method for easy cleaning though, I've seen others make a little tee-pee and drape it over the side. You can get some small rocks/gravel and put them in the bottom. A sea sponge is good in the saltwater pool for maintaining water quality and allowing them to crawl out, same goes for live java moss and/or duck weed in the freshwater (duckweed needs natural light, java moss doesn't). If the water quality isn't to their liking, they're a lot less likely to submerge (from this video). Completely change the water out once a week.

Overall they don't need pools, just access to freshwater and saltwater (even then they could probably get their saltwater from food). It is something for them to do though, so it could be beneficial for their happiness. Maybe that's why people recommend it.

Unfortunately I don't have advice about the lighting as I don't use one for my crabs. This may help you if you haven't seen it already. Anyway:

• I would personally stay away from dyed purple sand. You just never know what's in the dyes that could bleed into their food and water.
  
  
• I also don't think they will have any interest at all in the running wheel. They'd get more out of something they can grip onto, hide in, or climb up. I'm not even sure they would be able to spin it around, they're not really entertained in the way small rodents are by something like that. More than likely they will just climb over it to get to something on the other side of the tank. You have lots of other enrichment objects on your list so I think this one should be left out, just so you don't waste your money! :)
  
  
• Not sure if this is on your list, but you'll need some kind of water dechlorinator and instant ocean. Dechlorinate all water introduced into the tank (even misting water), and one of your dishes will need to be salt water.
  
  Everything else looks to be in order. Anything else I have to say is really just my opinion/my experience:
  
  
• I prefer using plastic tupperware for my water dishes as it's deep enough that they can fully submerge (they do need that) and I've found that an irritating amount of reptile food/water dishes leak or drain out the bottom because they're porous. So annoying! They're also insanely overpriced for what they are, natural looking or not. And that's just for water- if you put food in a porous dish then it'll be much harder to clean. Smooth ceramic or plastic dishes are much easier, for me.
  
  
• I also prefer to use a combo digital hygrometer/thermometer just because the exo terra ones feel cheap and the foam adhesive backing goes bad quickly. I had one keep falling off and I don't want my crabs to eat whatever's on that foam.
  
  
• Definitely look into getting some kind of spray bottle to mist the tank often. I bought a small one at first but now I have four tanks to mist and I have upgraded to a very large one and it works wonders for humidity.
  
  I think that's all I have to say. :P I know I can be pretty wordy but let me know if you have questions about anything else. I'll be back here if I remember something I left out. Good luck to you and welcome to the hobby!

You can order isopods or woodlouse ("roly polies") from Amazon. Or, heck, even find them outside. They serve as a clean-up crew for all the food bits that crabs will drag out of their food bowls. I still get the moldy clumps when I'm too lazy to clean, but these little guys will tackle the smaller bits I always miss. And they have bred like crazy since I've added them to my tank! I picked up a cuttlefish bone one day and there were teeny tiny isopods swarming under it.

And YES, they are perfectly safe if the hermit crabs decide to snack on them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0785D86QY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I can pretty much guarantee as long as your petsmart has a reptile section, it'll have ecoearth. They come in a brick like this ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007C8580K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jj17AbYM40X3N )
For playsand make sure it's mainly marketed as playsand, not allpurpose sand that can be used as playsand. People recommend buying this one ( https://m.lowes.com/pd/QUIKRETE-50-lbs-Play-Sand/3006085 )but i haven't seen it in person yet so you'll be find as long as it is mainly marketed as play sand.

I don't think hermits would enjoy the hamster disk. You might want to get a thermometer + hygrometer with some automation (like this one), so e.g. your heating system will turn on and off without manual intervention.

Otherwise, your list looks fantastic! A tip: you can also weave the hemp cord around pieces of driftwood or other things to make it easier for your crabs to climb on.

edit: Oh! Of course, don't forget shells!

Put the heat mats on a thermostat to avoid the temperature running away on you, or getting too cold if you leave them unplugged.

Pet store thermostats tend to be flaky in my experience. I've had decent luck with units WILLHI and Inkbird. Something like this WILLHI would probably work just fine for you; it has a waterproof and easily replaceable temperature probe you can snake into the tank and leave the control box out on your desk (or wherever) safe from the high humidity in the tank.

For my setup, I’ve used The Tetra Whisper Air Pump (link at botton). You put a check valve (see 2nd link) on the end of the tube attached to the pump. On the other side of the tube you put the air stone (also in 2nd link). Th air stone goes in the water and “bubbles”, thats why we call it a “bubbler”. It has dual benefits in that it is the most effective way to humidify your tank and the movement in the water keeps it fresh for longer.


https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Whisper-Easy-Aquariums-Non-UL/dp/B0009YJ4N6/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=bubbler+pump&qid=1565723778&s=gateway&sr=8-3


https://www.amazon.com/Pawfly-Standard-Aquarium-Accessories-Connectors/dp/B07FZY71K6/ref=pd_aw_fbt_199_img_3/137-2577294-4867509?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FZY71K6&pd_rd_r=1974bd54-ba73-425a-96f4-b27b02ebbe2f&pd_rd_w=7mVYj&pd_rd_wg=b8F1Q&pf_rd_p=3ecc74bd-d08f-44bd-96f3-d0c2b89f563a&pf_rd_r=VNHBEDMXVJNSW6SHZ0M4&psc=1&refRID=VNHBEDMXVJNSW6SHZ0M4

I've used these suction cups in the past, and as long as you can keep them and the area they're sticking to free of sand, they work pretty well. Personally I prefer the suction cups so I can move things around without having to purchase new sticky pads or anything.