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
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
