Setting up for cardisoma guanhumi

[Jimbob]

Hello all, hoping someone had some experience with some form of land crab to give me insight on a few things. Not much info on keeping this species so I’ve mainly been going off hermit crab care which has filled in a lot for me. A few things I’m iffy about as I’ve never really kept a crab before, most of my experience is with reptiles and fish.

1) I like to do bio enclosures and would like to utilize live plants. Most recommendations are for eco earth/play sand in the hermit crab community. This doesn’t facilitate plant growth very well. Is there something safe I can add as a fertilizer? I also see people warn about bacteria blooms, something I didn’t concern myself with much in reptile bios… so I’m worried about what to look out for and how to prevent. I have bins full of eco earth/sphagnum/leaf litter/roach frass/etc that has broken down over a couple years into a compost. Would this be safe? I basically took all of my old bio feeder bins and composted them… I also have loads of cork bark from those bins I was hoping I could use, too large to really sterilize and I was never a fan of doing that if not necessary anyway. Mold always seems to bloom on cork after sterilizing it.

I guess what I’m really wondering is how sensitive are crabs to their substrate? I wouldn’t use any chemicals, but sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly what’s in soil/substrates. Anything I should be sure to NOT use?

2) Is there a staple full spectrum diet I can provide with ease? Even something homemade? Should I add powders to any of their food? There is loads on foods for hermits, but most lists are just almost everything lol, which is understandable as crabs are opportunistic omnivores in most cases, but something to help prioritize foods in the diet would be great.

Happy to hear anything anyone has to add, thanks

 

[Jimbob]

Another question if anyone happens to know, will copper pipes in my house be dangerous since inverts tend to be sensitive to copper? I have well water and was planning on using seachem prime.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Another question if anyone happens to know, will copper pipes in my house be dangerous since inverts tend to be sensitive to copper? I have well water and was planning on using seachem prime.

Copper pipes don't usually leach enough to even hit half a part per million and it's usually far, far less. You can run the water for a few minutes to clear the lines if you're worried. The line in your street is probably iron and consider inverts are sensitive to high levels of copper like verts are sensitive to high levels of iron. Low levels are needed.

 

[Jimbob]

Copper pipes don't usually leach enough to even hit half a part per million and it's usually far, far less. You can run the water for a few minutes to clear the lines if you're worried. The line in your street is probably iron and consider inverts are sensitive to high levels of copper like verts are sensitive to high levels of iron. Low levels are needed.

thank you for replying, good to know. We actually have well water with a salt water softener. Not sure how much that changes things though.

 

[NocturnalSkies]

I’ve had mine for 2 years. They’re pretty easy animals, I have mine on a mix of reptisoil and fine coco fiber kept slightly damp, with 2 water bowls deep enough for the crab to submerge, 1 saltwater and 1 fresh water. Make sure it’s decorated of course. They require high ventilation as well. Give them deep substrate like at least 10 inches or so, and pieces of cork. Don’t expect the tank to stay the same way you set it up, they LOVE to dig and they make burrows, and often change up their burrows. The first month or so of keeping mine the water was constantly being spilled and replaced. Once the crab settles in that’ll happen less.

This species doesn’t really lend well to live plants at all, they will be uprooted and eaten for sure. Most of their diet should actually be plant material. Leafy greens and fruit. They’re scavengers and like enrichment opportunities. Once they feel more comfortable they’ll start to roam around a lot. I scatter different food items around the tank and let mine pick up little pieces of stuff as if I was scavenging in nature. Ripped up leaves, pieces of fish and mice, meat and fish trimmings from cooking, they can eat most things the only thing mine won’t eat is broccoli. They also like cracked pieces of coco nut attached to the shell. They’ll walk around with it and take pieces off.

Mine hasn’t ever molted, but around October or so make sure the bottom layer of substrate is wetter than usual, in case the crab wants to molt. They make molting chambers around that time of year and they like it to be wet down there.

 

[Jimbob]

I’ve had mine for 2 years. They’re pretty easy animals, I have mine on a mix of reptisoil and fine coco fiber kept slightly damp, with 2 water bowls deep enough for the crab to submerge, 1 saltwater and 1 fresh water. Make sure it’s decorated of course. They require high ventilation as well. Give them deep substrate like at least 10 inches or so, and pieces of cork. Don’t expect the tank to stay the same way you set it up, they LOVE to dig and they make burrows, and often change up their burrows. The first month or so of keeping mine the water was constantly being spilled and replaced. Once the crab settles in that’ll happen less.

This species doesn’t really lend well to live plants at all, they will be uprooted and eaten for sure. Most of their diet should actually be plant material. Leafy greens and fruit. They’re scavengers and like enrichment opportunities. Once they feel more comfortable they’ll start to roam around a lot. I scatter different food items around the tank and let mine pick up little pieces of stuff as if I was scavenging in nature. Ripped up leaves, pieces of fish and mice, meat and fish trimmings from cooking, they can eat most things the only thing mine won’t eat is broccoli. They also like cracked pieces of coco nut attached to the shell. They’ll walk around with it and take pieces off.

Mine hasn’t ever molted, but around October or so make sure the bottom layer of substrate is wetter than usual, in case the crab wants to molt. They make molting chambers around that time of year and they like it to be wet down there.

awesome to meet someone else that keeps this species. Haven’t talked to anyone directly that has them and most info I’ve gone off is from hermit crab care.

what size tank is yours in? Based off what you say, I can relate a ton. My guy has large cork bark(few feet long logs) and sand/coir/worm castings mix for substrate. I add a lot of sprouts and pothos cuttings which have taken hold, even some corn sprouted lol. He does rip it up, but it grows pretty fast and he’s surprisingly left the new pothos leaves for a few weeks now. I have isopods, springtails, and lawn shrimp in as cuc. Trying to keep the soil rich and bioactiveDigs a lot, moves everything, loves throwing dirt/food in his pools lol. I’m planning to add duckweed and snails to his FW 2g pool(both are cycles, heated, and with bubblers). Going to try a little liverock, some cleaners, and chaeto or caulerpa in the 2g SW pool.

What is your humidity/ventilation like? I have a weird lid, covered in plastic wrap with openings for my UVB t5 and a small fan I used in the summer a little. Also I have a mistking. Daytime humidity 70-80% up top, probably closer to 90 in his burrows. At night it gets high 80s-90s. For temps I have an ultratherm on the back that keeps temps around 80s, I have it shut off for a few hours at night for a night drop. Water temps are 74-78 range. Been considering an overhead radiant heat panel, but not sure how it’d work out.

how worried are you about bacteria blooms from wet substrate at the bottom? I have some spots under their pools that look suspect where he can’t even reach, but I’m not sure it’s as much a concern as hermit keeps make it out to be? I have a drainage layer that overflowed a bit into the substrate.

so far he seems to be doing well, coming out more often, and loves making noise. Coloring up a lot too!

do you think they do best alone or with another crab?

anyway, thanks for replying, would love to hear more about yours!

 

[NocturnalSkies]

Oh yours is a male! I have a female. I also have a male G. Ruricola that I got around the same time.

Never had an issue with bacterial blooms, and mine has pretty high ventilation. It’s a screen cover. The filtered tanks you have are nice, I keep mine in a 40 gallon with deep water dishes that I just change weekly. I have the same tank within a tank set up for my mangrove monitor though who lives in a 6 foot enclosure.

As for cohabitation, I haven’t tried it and I’m not sure how they’d do but I’d probably avoid, seeing as how aside from social species like hermits and vampires crabs tend to be ornery with one another.

 

[Jimbob]

Oh yours is a male! I have a female. I also have a male G. Ruricola that I got around the same time.

Never had an issue with bacterial blooms, and mine has pretty high ventilation. It’s a screen cover. The filtered tanks you have are nice, I keep mine in a 40 gallon with deep water dishes that I just change weekly. I have the same tank within a tank set up for my mangrove monitor though who lives in a 6 foot enclosure.

As for cohabitation, I haven’t tried it and I’m not sure how they’d do but I’d probably avoid, seeing as how aside from social species like hermits and vampires crabs tend to be ornery with one another.

oh ruricola, how is yours in comparison to guanhumi? I was actually between getting ruricola or mine.

I feel like keeping ventilation and humidity up is tough. He seems to come out more when it’s humid and enjoys going in water.

figured it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to keep another with him, I just didn’t want to keep him solitary if they prefer company.

has yours ever taken food from your hand or anything like that? My guy is on the skittish side, but is getting much more used to me as time goes on. Would be cool to eventually be able to feed/hold him…. Not that I need to, but just as a bonus to show my kids.

 

[NocturnalSkies]

I keep them the same. I have the ruricola in a large bin that I cut ventilation holes in. Since I don’t have another appropriate sized tank.

Nah they’re both very skittish. I doubt they’ll ever get acclimated to me. I leave them alone and watch from afar