The Terrarium

Taking care of a hermit crab can be simple once you have all of your equipment. Long past are the days when people would bring a crab back from the beach and put it in a cardboard box under their bed. You can't just have an aquarium- you need a terrarium! For simplicity's sake, I'll break what you need in your terrarium up into several categories.

The cage itself-
if you live by the ocean and have warm, humid breezes blowing through your house every day, you can have almost any type of cage. For the rest of us (especially those of us in freezing Minnesota), you'll need a glass aquarium with a sealable top.  The light should be fluorescent and shouldn't get too hot. You need the sealable top so that you can make it breathable for the crabs in there- it must be somewhat humid for them to survive.  If you need to know what size terarium you'll need for your crabs, use a basic 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of crabs to gallons- for ten crabs you'll need ten to twenty gallons of space.

Gravel, woodchips, sand.....?
Hermit crabs come from beaches and rainforests in the Carribean.  They need a ground substance similar to what they are evolved for. Gravel is OK, but they have trouble burying themselves in it. It can also get somewhat pricey if you have a large tank.  Your groundcover needs to be cleaned often and gravel is a pain to wash and dry out. Cedar chips are the worst thing you can get. They can be poisonous to crabs if the crabs get curious and hungry at the same time. Never put any resinous wood in their cage! The best (and most economical) thing to get is playsand. Just go to a toystore and ask for it- you can usually get 50 pounds for three or four dollars, while gravel costs that much per five pounds! The day I converted from gravel to sand (and lots of sand was put in the cage), six crabs buried themselves to molt. Their molts began getting much more successful, and the crabs liked running around in the sand more. It also doesn't get as stinky as gravel does. You can just sift it to remove crab waste and the like.

Decorations-
Crabs are very curious little critters- If you give them more area to explore, they will be more entertaining because they will wander around longer. They love climbing driftwood and anything else you put in their cage. you can use wood of any nonresinous kind- don't use pine, cedar, etc because it will poison them when they eat it (yes, they will eat the wood). I use storebought driftwood and some chopped up wood from my fiance's farm to decorate. As long as you boil it or cook it at at least 300 for 10-20 minutes, your decoration should not have anything living on or in it. Once a month, I wash and cook all of my decorations to assure that they are clean.
Crabs are nocturnal, so not every crab may like to come out during the day.  Theyprefer to have a cave or shelter to hide in until they feel at home. I keep two caves in my terarium at all times, and the crabs use them frequently.
I also suggest using some fake plants in your terrarium. The ones which suction to the wall are nontoxic and easy to clean, and the crabs enjoy climbing them. They also make your cage look nicer.
As is mentioned in the food and water section, the crabs need constant access to water. Large pools are nice, but they are tough to change and crabs can drown in them. Just get a normal (nonmetallic) waterdish and put some coral or shell in it.

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