Baths

[Chermo]

Don't give them baths, just put the salt water dish in the tank and let them go in if they want. I found a lot of sites that say bathing is only used for new crabs to check for mites and you should never bathe a crab for other reasons just provide the salt water and let them do it on their own.

[Mr.Crab]

K thanks. where did you read that?

[Chermo]

On other forums and such, I got the address for the other forum from this site so I am guessing it would be ok to tell you www.hermitcrabsrus.com they really have tons of information too. I am a member of about 4 or 5 different forums and I just put everything together and figure out the best recommendations and use them for my own crabs.

[Mr.Crab]

Yes cool. I know about HermitCrabsRus.com I don't like the forums becuase each post needs to be approved by someone. I find that kind of silly.

[Chermo]

Yes cool. I know about HermitCrabsRus.com I don't like the forums becuase each post needs to be approved by someone. I find that kind of silly.

No it doesn't, just your first few posts need to be approved, I only had like 3 of mine approved before it posted now they post right away.

[Mr.Crab]

Oh. Ok. I am still gonna stick with HCP!! YAYY
But I'll look back to HCRUSfor extra info.

[Hermie's rule]

It's called HCRU, not HCRUS. I definately let my hermies bathe themselves. I've heard it stresses them out to get in water that's over their eyes. If you were stuck in water over your eyes for a minute, you'd be pretty frantic too, don't you think?

[ladybug15057]

I have read through this whole thread and have a couple of notes.
Any time one uses an ocean/sea water source, it must be used in dechlorinated or distilled (pure) bottle water. None of the ocean mixes dechlorinate tap water. ZooMed, if it is part one it does not remove heavy metals from tap water. ZooMed part 2 (as well as the HBH brand) when mixed per instructions does not even register on a hydrometer, and hermies do need a salinity level of 1.021-1.024.
Doc Wellfish, is not a good choice for an ocean water mix, it is a fresh water salt mix and certainly has an element difference compared to the ocean/sea water mixes. Doc WellFish also contains Epson salts… NOT good for hermies:

Ocean_mixes

Also, when sea salt is referred to for the ocean/sea water pond it should be that which is sold specifically for salt water fish tanks, not the human grade sea salts, or even the human grade organic sea salts.
To bath or not to bath ones hermies is a personal choice. I offer the deep water ponds and still do bath our hermies here…
Those who do not have deep enough water ponds for their hermies to submerge in should bath their hermies occasionally for hygiene reasons.
But once the hermie flips over one can also remove them from the bath water because their shells have already been flushed out. No reason to have to wait a full minute.
Another reason it is highly recommended to bath new hermies too is to help rehydrate them as well as flush the tetracycline out of their shells that majority of pet stores bath their new shipment of hermies in to kill any possible bacteria.