How exactly do i bathe my crabbies?

[Oakie]

Hi guys, I'm a new crabber! I have 5 crabs and I read that you need to give them weekly baths. How exactly do i do this? Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can read up on?

Thanks,
Oakie.

[CrabbyJo]

Hi Oakie, welcome to crabbing and to the forums!
Actually, the idea of bathing hermit crabs regularly is becoming less of a practice, as most seem to do fine without a regular bath, which may stress them more than it helps them.

Two instances I know of when you should bathe them:
When you bring home some new crabs and they have spent some time in the iso tank and are ready to move to the permanent tank, you want to bathe them so they will all "smell" the same to the other crabs.

or: When your crabs have mites, and in this case, find some good solid advice, probably in the care sections in this website.

Feel free to peruse all the topics and read some of the posts, there is also a search feature you can use to see if anyone has already asked a question you may have before you go and ask it again
As for bathing, yes there is a section in the Water section on the main page, here is a link to that specific section: http://www.hermitcrabparadise.com/crabc ... ?c=bathing

You can just click on the Hermit Crab Paradise button at the top of any page in the forum and it takes you to the main page with the list of categories that have all kinds of information. If you don't find your answers there, try the search feature here in the forums, and if you still can't find an answer, ask away!

[emmac350]

Also, it is recommended instead of bathing that you have deep enough water pools for the biggest crab to completely submerge and have some way (shells, glass pebbles, etc.) for the smaller ones to get out if they fall in.

I can't find the link, but there's a link somewhere (maybe try searching on the site for "city swimmer") to pictures of a purple pincher walking around in water WAY over his head, and he looks so happy! So definitely try to offer deep water for them.

[Oakie]

Alright! Thanks everyone for your responses. I was thinking about getting a deeper pool since I do have a jumbo crabby and some friends in the ten gallon tank, so I guess I'll do that now! :-)

Does it have to be a salt water pool or can it be just a regular dechlorinated water pool?

[CrabbyJo]

one of each make sure you use an accepted sea salt (such as Instant Ocean) used for tropical salt water aquariums. Table salt is deadly to hermit crabs.

[ladybug15057]

When one does bath their hermies, they do need to make sure the shells are flushed:

http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... p?faqid=94

If one cannot offer ponds deep enough for the hermies to completely submerge to bath themselves one should bath their hermies periodically for hygiene reasons.