Strawberry Hermit Crab Pictures

 

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Mega Tank Construction

So here I go again! New tank! I was browsing on craigslist looking for a new tank that I could use as a crabitat as I am getting more and more crabs. I have 30 crabs as of the moment, so I thought I need a bigger crabitat.

The tank posted on Craigslist: Dimensions: 63″ L x 31″ H x 18.5″ W

So we settled to $300 (I know expensive you may say), which for me is still cheaper than getting a brand new Exo-Terra Large and X-tall tank, which is first I thought of buying.

It took me two weeks to construct the crabitat, that includes installing inside pools and waterfalls, waiting for the silicon to cure and installing the foam and cork bark background.

For this crabitat, I spent a lot! I bought driftwood, 7 lbs of cork bark from amazon, silicone, Great Stuff insulation foam, coco fiber bricks and the piece of glass for which I made the pools from.

First, I installed the inside pools. I let the silicone cure for a day first and then put water on both pools and waited for another day just to make sure there would be no leaks.

Then, I installed the driftwood on the back wall of the tank. I let it cure for another day. 🙂

Then came my cork bark tubes which I ordered from amazon. This one I have to register for a US address in Point Roberts in WA coz they don’t ship to Canada

This is my workplace in the garage!

This is the filter I used for the waterfalls. I got this one when we had our aquarium. It hasn’t been used since I got an external filter.

Using Great Stuff insulating foam I started to create the waterfalls. Honestly, I didn’t really know what I wanted my waterfall to look like at this time. haha!

Then I started installing some of the cork barks and coco hideys. The space on the bottom would be where the substrate be and the space at the top would be for the heat mat which is installed at the back.

Then comes cork bark installations on the side of the tank. I started with the left side as seen in the pictures.

Then the right side. 😀 I’m telling you, this tank is heavy!

Not in the picture is when I applied silicone first before spread on the coco fiber. Again, I waited for a day before I clean this one up. Also did the same for the sides.

I used my heat lamp and a portable heater to make the curing process faster. Neat eh? 😀

Heat lamp to make silicone + coco fiber curing faster.

Tank curing!

Tank curing!

Tank’s left side curing!

Waterfalls curing!

I also started attaching live moss on the cork barks hoping that it would thrive and grow.

Fake plants installation

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DIY waterfalls testing.

It was so heavy!!! Took us 3 men in the house to bring it upstairs! I had to take off work the next morning coz I had backache!

The crabs! Unfortunately I have one dug-up molter, a PP. But I am pretty sure it would be fine.

Setting them free, just kidding. Now they have a very huge tank to explore!

This is the whole tank.

Shell shop.

Another view. Left to right.

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These are the tools I used.

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Crabs galore!

 

Crabitat Update

I am hoping this would be my final setup. 🙂

Strawberry Land Hermit Crabs

Finally got my own Strawberry Land Hermit Crabs! Rescued them from Petland where they are housed in a very horrible crabitat. Their setup was more of a frog habitat. They used gravel as the substrate. Poor crabs. They were $12.25 so, really really cheap considering that they are strawberries! There were 6 straws and 3 small PPs in the store so I ended up bringing all of them home and be homed in a proper environment. They were adapting so well that 2 of the straws changed shells already on their first night.

Crabitat Update

As mentioned in my previous post, the shells that I ordered from Amazon has already arrived. 2 of my crabs already changed shells. Nothing to do on this Saturday afternoon, so I decided to create a shell depot for the crabs instead of just letting the shells on the ground making it dirty, and crabs don’t like dirty shells. So see for yourselves. 🙂

Hermit Crab Shell Change

Shells from Amazon has arrived and guess what? Click the link below to watch the video on Youtube.

Hermit Crab Changing Shell – Part 1

 

Crabitat Sun

Crabitat under direct sunlight. They also needed sun i think especially the tropical plants.

New tropical plants for the crabitat

Bought 5 tropical plants for $1.99 each.

Still waiting for the vines and shells from Amazon. I think I need a bigger tank. Lol!

Live plants in crabitat

Started to put in live plants to make the crabitat more natural.

Crabitat Update

Made ladders from bamboo skewers bought from dollar store!