Sponges, my opinion and need advice.

[pattycake101]

I mounted my UTH on the side and have a screened top with a thin blanket on top. My Humidity is around 78 to 82% and temp. is around 70 to 74 F.

[Mr.Crab]

I use sponges, but rarely. Just to keep the humidity. I wash them afterwords.

[krabby_katie]

I use sponges. I also use very large water dishes. I only have them in there so the smaller crabs can get out of there, and don't drown.

[erikleeson]

Yea, at my Petland, they have a HUGE water dish that somehow has shallow water and deep water, it was like a swimming pool and there was alot of sponges in it.

[erikleeson]

Well actually, I'm starting to use them.

I first bought one large sponge that took up the whole dish but I cut it in two and it fits perfectly as a stepping stone for smaller crabs. My crabs rarely submerge themselves but when they do at least they can get out easier. This I guess gives me a little boost of humidity as well. ANd now that I have two sponges I can swap them each week.

[HermieLove19]

I have four sponges in my tank. two in the fresh water shell and two in the salt water pool. They keep the crabbies from drowning. I've seen them eat the sponges and I've also seen them drink without even getting in the dish. They just stick the big claw in there and bring out a little droplet to their mouth parts and they keep doing this until they are done.

[erikleeson]

Yeah, my salt water dish has stairs in it so they can get out and I have no trouble with humidity. But sponges are something I'm not sure about.

Also, I hear sponges foul easily when placed in salt water. Is this true?

[ErnietheHermie]

My first hermie I bought died a week after I bought him, and the person at the store told me it was because I didn't have a sponge for him to drink out of. So I got another crab, and a sponge to put in his pool, and so far I see him sitting on top of the sponge all the time! So he indeed likes the sponge... wether he needs it for survival I do not know.

[Wai]

My first hermie I bought died a week after I bought him, and the person at the store told me it was because I didn't have a sponge for him to drink out of.

That's pathetic... of course your hermit crab didn't die because there was no sponge. In the wild, I'd doubt there are sponges lying everywhere in puddles.

[erikleeson]

There are no sponges anywhere in the habitat. Most sponges are found deep under the sea, and the others are close to the shore but to deep for a crab to wander. And the hermit crab anatomy is not made for sucking moisture out of sponges. When people think that their hermit crab enjoys sucking the sponge, this is not true. Hermit crabs may lay across moisture sources like water pillows, moss and sponges but the third maxillipeds can not actually suck, the only way the crab can use the sponge is to lay on it to keep the gills moist, use it to climb out of a dish or to eat pieces of it.