live plants for habitat (land hermit crabs)

Question
i want to put plants in with my purple clawed hermit crabs and wanted to know if air plants are safe for them. Read quite a lot on the Internet about habitat and they all say plastic. so please could you tell me what plants are safe. i live in Scotland and land hermit crabs have just arrived in our pet shops.

Answer
Dear Susan,
thank you for your question.
Air plants are safe, but delicate. If the crabs can reach them, they usually destroy them. There is a number of plants that are crab safe. Bromeliads are my favourite, they have sturdy leaves and the crabs can climb around on them. In my crabitat, with 10 medium and 6 big crabs, a bromeliad lasts for two or three months. Spider plants are good because they produce so many scions - if you keep the mother plant outside the crabitat, you always have a fresh supply of small spider plants to put in the crabitat. Spiderwort (Tradescantia) will take root easily in a glass of water (just cut off a few stems) and will keep you supplied with fresh plants when the crabs have trashed the old ones.
Bamboo also works very well, but not Lucky Bamboo, which isn't a bamboo at all and toxic for crabs. Nasturtiums and pansies are edible plants for crabs and look nice.

Here are some crab care websites that you may be interested in, they really have excellent info:
www.thecrabbagepatch.com
www.landhermitcrabs.com
www.hermitcrabassociation.com
www.epicureanhermit.com

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer