Newly purchased crab care
When purchasing and bringing home new crabs, there are steps you should take to lessen the chance of the crab dying from PPS.
You will need a tank your new crabs can be housed in for about a month.
This tank should be set up as follows:
- Day glo lamp
- Heat source (to maintain 72F if Day Glo lamp is not sufficient)
- Very shallow sand, barely cover the bottom
- Water and Food dishes
- Gauges
Take note of the store crabitat's humidity. Your temporary tank should mimic that value initially.
Your crabs should have a cycle of 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark and they should be fed high quality, enticing foods.
Eggs, fish, olive oil, fruits, greens, and calcium. You will gradually increase the humidity in your temporary tank by adding some
natural moss. It is vital that your crabs stay above ground and eat and be exposed to light to help their body regulate itself.
You will gradually increase the humidity until it is the same as your main tank. This should take about a month. If you have crabs acting
molty, feel free to deepen their sand and allow them to remain in the temporary tank.
This method was developed by Sue Latell of http://coenobita.org based on her correspondence with biologists. Sue will be releasing
a more structured version of this method in the future. This information remains her intellectual property based on research documents shared with her.
Reproduction of this information without proper credit given to Sue Latell and the biologist who conducted the study is forbidden. Do not copy, or reproduce this
procedure in any manner. Links to this page are acceptable.
:::Land Hermit Crab Owners Society:::
