Our poor little crabs :(

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I seriously need some advice here. My 5 year old son just adored his 4 little crabbies, itchy, scratchy, creepy and crawly. We have never ownedland hermit crabs before and i dont have any idea how it should all be set up. Reading alot on the net has just overwhelmed me. We have a 2foot by 1 foot tank and had river sand in it. Also i had bought some decorations from the pet store and my son put a fake fish plant in there. All seemed to be going well until the other day when i cleaned out there tank and decided to wet the sand. I misted it and then mixed the sand up so it was slightly damp. Two days later the house stunk and we traced the stench back to the tank, pooo did it ever smell bad, like a dead mouse or something. I moved the tank onto the back patio and tonight i noticed that on the sand there are huge spots of mould. two of the crabs is dead and the other 2 are alive but i dont know if they will die too. We have a light on the tank normally and i took it waway when i put them on the patio in the tank as it is light out there but not hot. please some advice would be good. Take care christina

ANSWER: Did you buy the river sand at the petstore?

What kind of water did you put in the sand? If you used fresh water that could be the reason you had a mold bloom.

You need to replace all the substrate ASAP and rinse the tank out with a 20% vinegar solution. Wash all your tank items as well.

Try reconstituting some Coconut fiber bedding with salt water and using that. They really need to have temp and humidity between 74 and 82.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi thanks for getting back to me, Sadly no I didn't buy the sand but i got it out of the back yard. Ok I replaced the substrate with pebbles that you can use in a fish tank from the pet store and I washed the tank out straight away with water and the stuff that you clean out the fish tank with, I asked the petstore and they said this was ok to do. I also washed all of the other tank items in this solution. We bought some more crabs and everything is going great now. I was also told that it may have been the food that went rotten in the tank as well because i put banana and wheetbix in there for them. We are giving them carrot and fresh veg now as well as the pellets for crabs. Im happy to tell you that the other 2 crabbies lived and they are now making new friends with the newcomers, Candy and whatshisname.

Answer
I would only consider gravel as a temporary solution. It has a couple of problems. One, the coloring can chip off and the crabs will eat it.Second, the gravel can get lodged up inside the shells and irritate their abdomen.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing better. There are safe and unsafe food lists at www.epicurean-hermit.com