Not so messy hermit crab substrate?

[lizardminion]

I'm considering retrying a hermit crab clan, so I'm looking into what I can do better than last time. I'd like to know what other substrates are an alternative to messy sand or the like, since last time, sand got EVERYWHERE. I am open to solutions that involve an extra box that will provide molt-suitable substrate. I'd just like to find a decent substrate that won't stick to the hermit crabs or the hands that enter their cage.

 

[Kazaam]

Hermit crabs are naturally messy, there's nothing you can do about it.

Coco peat > sand imo.

 

[Entomancer]

Contrary to what pet stores want you to think, terrestrial hermit crabs come from coastal jungles, not sandy beaches. I used to work at a PetSmart and I had to resist from strangling my co-workers who would bitch at me when I got rid of the sponges in our hermit crab setup and replaced them with bowls of water.

Anyway; yes, they do much better with either a sand/soil mix or all soil. Soil in this case could mean straight coco fiber, but I'd try to spice it up and add some organic potting soil (I try to avoid the brands with perlite in them) and maybe some of that T-rex jungle bedding. For sand I would just go to a hardware store and buy a big bag of play-sand. Cheap, and it's fish safe, as far as I know. You just need to wash it out a little so it isn't so dusty. Then I would add a large water dish for soaking, and I'd probably buy a small bag of marine aquarium salt so that they have access to it if they want.

Also, not to make you feel bad, but I'm not sure I'd ever want a hermit crab. Many of them are treated terribly and all of them are wild caught, because it's very hard to simulate the proper environment for captive breeding (the young grow up in the ocean, and the parents mate at the shoreline in the waves). Get some if you really want to, but I'd rather go for vampire crabs; they look really cool, do well in planted tanks, and they are so easy to breed in captivity that it often happens by accident. CB ones are very easy to find, and they only showed up in the invert-keeping hobby very recently.