mold

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Jaci
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mold

Post by Jaci »

as gross as this is, i have a question about mold. my boyfriend found some mold in the tank near the sponge, food, and on a stick. is there a crab-safe way to prevent this?
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Wai
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Post by Wai »

Either the hermit crabs have dragged some food there or there was too much humidity. Watch your hygrometer, because too much humidity can cause mould to grow as well as rotten food.
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Jaci
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Post by Jaci »

how often should i change the sand? is it all replaced, or just half at a time? i got one of those digital humidty gauges and it says that the humidy is usually between 65 and 70 percent....is that bad?
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hermiesrokmysox
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Post by hermiesrokmysox »

That's a little low on the humidity (of what i know), unless it is reading it incorrectly. Some wher between 70-78% is where i would be.
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Wai
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Post by Wai »

Did you clean the sand before putting it in the tank? I noticed that you said you had a stick in the crabitat. You shouldn't put any wood products in a crabitat as they'll rot and attract mites.
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hermiesrokmysox
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Post by hermiesrokmysox »

no wood? I have always had wood. i never had any mold...?
i guess it all really depends on your experience with the product!

Cholla wood doesn't seem to mold. ;)
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Wai
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Post by Wai »

I heard from people that it moulds, but I haven't had any great experiences with wood really.
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hyper.mum
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Post by hyper.mum »

Hey guys :)
I agree with Wai in regards to the food and mold, fresh food spoils very rapidly in the warm and humid conditions, this is simply resolved by replacing the food daily and throughly washing and drying their food dishes.
As for mold on the sponge this can be treated by removing and washing the sponge daily or every few days, I dont seem to have a problem with mold on my sponges this may be because they are in the filtered salt water section???
Mold on sticks, twigs etc .... now that is a problem I have come across a few times now ... the only thing I can put it down to is that everytime I placed it near the coco fibre or wet areas it seemed to draw the moisture into the wood and then you could see the bacteria/mold forming on these areas, I have the wood now located in the dry areas of the tank and so far no more mold, yippee
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hermiesrokmysox
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Post by hermiesrokmysox »

here's some tips with wood mold:
Put down gravel or rocks where the wood meats the ground so the wet sand doesn't mold it as quickly.
soak the wood in salf water for a day and then dry if out.
(*)
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Jaci
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Post by Jaci »

Thanks guys! that helped. i will take the sticks out and wash the sponge. i change the food every day and make sure that the food that I see around it is taken out. the sand that i put in there was from a just opened bag. but i will change the sand as soon as i buy a new bag, just in case. i have a 10 gal tank with 3 crabs....2 of which are constantly buried. how often should the sand be changed? i'm not sure if my digital hydrometer is working correctly. they're at my boyfriend's house right now and the temp/humidity looks like it's bouncing around even though the temp stays the same in the room (about 76). i have a coconut wall thing on the back wall and we spray that about 3 times a day, we don't spray the sand.
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