Crabitat Makeover

The tank had been looking very boring and dingy with its lack of fake plants, so as part of a trial run for potential future products I chose a few new bits for it, stripped everything out and completely redid the decor after adding some extra substrate.

Of the original stuff the coconut hut, two pieces of cholla, ocean pool, cork bark cave and food dish remain. The net will be readded at some point after it recovers from being pulled down and buried the night before. The new items I picked out are two fake ficus sprays, two plastic grass sprays, a leafy stem with lilac flowers to add in extra colour, a new piece of mopani wood and two more cholla pieces from my stash.

First I removed the hermies (all were on surface) and all the items to allow me to stir up the substrate and add in some more sand, other than a load of buried shells there was nothing to remove like food items. Next came working out the cholla climbing area, with a stroke of luck the chunky branch I wanted to have level is a perfect fit to hold itself securely wedged flat halfway up the tank walls. I broke out the cable ties to add two smaller bits as ramps up to the balcony piece, one each side, and a smaller piece leading to halfway up the slightly thicker ramp. The natural holes in the cholla make threading through with cable ties possible without drilling, cutting out some of the work that may be required with normal branches.




The ficus sprig stems have been threaded through the bigger holes in the main cholla piece and bent around and fastened with more cable ties to make them very secure, and the branches bent as needed to create a leafy screen to give privacy and security to the hermies and encourage them to climb.

The ocean pool was set into its dip next and the sand around firmed down to help prevent it being tipped over to flood the tank, with shells and pebbles placed in the bottom as they were before to stop the two babies becoming stuck with the sloping sides.

The stems on the plastic grasses and flowers are easily bent at a right angle to be buried deep down and help keep them stable even if anybody burrows directly underneath, and the small mopani has been placed directly in front the grasses to add another climbing and privacy area.

After that the tray of cleaned shells, fresh water bowl, cork cave and coconut hide were all placed, and a new order of more small shells added to give the babies a wider choice.

The hermies seem to feel much more secure in the new layout and have been climbing and exploring almost non stop, even the shyer members of the colony. They seem to love the new plants so once they have been tested for a while longer the grasses and ficus sprays (variegated and solid colour) will be added to the store, and the green cable ties are already there.