Yet another noobie :P

[PhoEniX212]

GDay Crab lovers out there!
A few days ago I became the beloved owner of 2 medium hermit crabs (looking at the species sheets, I'm guessing they're Aussie ones, considering i'm in Australia lol). Living in a rental house, I couldn't get dogs or anything big, but I still wanted something with more life then fish haha. So after lots of internet reading, I purchased two crabs at a local pet store. They've completely taken me over, I love to just sit and watch them, they're fascinating! I can see how ppl get addicted to them .

Now for a few questions to crab experts out there . At the moment they're housed in a relatively small tank 30cmX30cmX30cm (came as a package from the store), and i'm in the process of getting a larger tank, along with more shells and ornaments (the pet store really knows nothing about them i've found). I'm having trouble keeping the humidity up. I have been slowly increasing it, as thre was nothing in their enclosure at the pet store humidity wise, but i can barely keep it over 60%. Any suggestions on some sort of homemade humidifier?

Also, I usually feed them a combination of the commercial pellets that came with them and a little fruit/veg, but would love to feed thema diet without the pellets. Any suggestions on some good, balanced varied diets where the ingredients are easy to find?

Thanks all!
Emma (PhoEniX212)
*Greg*Gorden*

[krabby_katie]

Well, welcome to hermitcrabparadise and to the world of crabbing.

You could try taping plastic wrap over the top, still leaving a decent sized gap for fresh air. That usually works pretty good for me.

There are TONS of food lists out there. You can try some: unsweeted coconut shreds, apples, cucumbers, bananas, carrots, meat (NO seasoning, salt, or even butter), and there's more. I'm sure that someone will give you a link to that epicudorian crab site, or something. I don't know the ink or anything, but it has a very good food list there. If someone could give you the link, that would be great!

[HermieLove19]

You could try using a mixture of sand and eco earth as the substrate. It definetly keeps the humidity up. I recommended it to some else and it solved her humidity problem.

I like giving my crabs fish, apples, mealworms, peas, beans, all sorts of shrimp. It's easy to make your own mixture at the food store.

They can have everything on this list -->http://www.hermitcrabsrus.com/forum/foo ... -list.html

some people actually put up recipes for hermit crab food.

Good luck with your crabbies!

[PhoEniX212]

Thanks for the speedy replies . I currently have glad wrap (um, i think it's saran wrap or something in th US lol) over the top air mesh part, it also has a strip of mesh on one side that i havent covered so they get air. I'm hoping that once I get the new tank I might be able to keep the humidity up. And once summer comes back it'll be really humid here .
Thanks for the food ideas too!

Emma (PhoEniX212)
*Greg*Gorden*

[Wai]

Welcome! It's good to see that we are getting more active members these days.

I think it's time to post an "official" list of foods under the nutrition page of our info section of the main site. I left the nutrition page uncompleted because of my insufficient knowledge on food back then. After reading through some lists, I'll get around to fixing our nutrition page.

[krabby_katie]

Awsome. I hope it works for keeping the humidity up for you. It works for me most of the time. If that still doesn't work, mist your tank with a spray bottle every once in a while.

Fantastic Wai! I'll look foward to reading it.

[bluconspiracy]

Welcome !
I am a new crab owner as well and never knew that these little guys were so intresting. I wish I would have got them 3 years ago instead of our crazy boxer!!! I kid I kid ;p But all of us always wonder into the kids room where the tank is and take a peek at them several times a day. I hope all goes well with your new additions

[krabby_katie]

Hermit crabs are interesting to simply watch. You'd never guess it though.

[HermieLove19]

I got my boyfriend to hang out with my hermies and he said, "what do they do?" i got real excited and told him they do everything awesome. they climb, they molt, they have their own personalities. They live in one of my favorite things. he said theyre cute. im making progress.

[PhoEniX212]

Haha, nice . They are cute, and they're just interesting to watch, even when they're only eating lol.
I have another query. I have some bowls from the pet store, they're yellow with red lines running through them in different directions, I think they may be made out of some kind of resin. They're definitely not plastic, and are pretty heavy. But i'm worried because they have quite a strong smell (it smells just like the bog used on older cars to cover rust and holes -my dad used to use it on an old ute we had all the time lol). I haven't put them in the new tank because i'm worried this smell will poison Gordie and Greg, and I definitely don't want that happening! Should I not use the bowls at all?

Thanks!