I know that this may seem odd to some of you, but have you been checking the temperature of your hermit crab crabitat in the middle of the night early in the morning? I live in California, typically we would still be experiencing 80-90 degree days, but not this year. Today our expected high is 72. At night it’s getting quite chilly and I’ve noticed that the tank temperatures are dropping to around 70 degrees, which is a little too low for my hermit crabs. I’ve started turning on the UTHs (Under Tank Heaters) to ensure that the temperatures stay in the mid to high 70’s at night in my crabitats.
If you don’t already have a UTH it’s time to think about getting one or some supplemental source of heat. I use a combination of a UTH and lights on my tanks and you can read more about them in this post. UTHs should be attached to the bottom of your tank. Most come with small feet to put under your tank to allow for air circulation. I use some wooden slats from Michael’s on the bottom of my tank to raise the tank enough to allow for airflow.
I also use a 500 Watt Remote Sensor Thermostat on my 55 gallon tank. I plug the UTH into this device and it allows me to adjust the temperature of the UTH via a control knob so that it’s not too hot under the substrate. I have a Repti-Temp Rheostat on my 29 gallon which allows me to plug in two heating devices to control the temperature of the tank via a control knob.
I prefer the Thermostat, I have found that I’ve had an easier time controlling the temperature in the crabitat. Once I got it set (which took a little work), I could essentially forget it. It turns on when the tank drops below a certain temperature. The thermostat is more expensive, so if you are on a budget, look at the reheostat at Pet Discounters.
Heat rocks and heat cables aren’t really good in crabitats. They can get too hot inside the tank; while your hermit crabs are smart and will stay away from things that are too hot, I worry about them trying to molt directly under one of these devices and getting hurt or killed. You may also read that UTHs are bad because they create too much heat in the substrate; with a thermostat or rheostat this issue is eliminated. In all honesty, I never had an issue with my crabs getting “fried” before I had thermostats either.
I am writing this today because I’ve been reading the forums over the summer months and I’ve noticed that a lot of the new crabbers are using “natural room temperature” to heat their tanks. This won’t be enough during the winter months unless you live in a really warm area. You need to start thinking about how you will heat your hermit crabs’ crabitat now because it will cost money and you may need to save for a UTH or some other device. Don’t wait until the crabitat gets too cold and the hermit crabs start acting lethargic to get some kind of heating device.
If you are using a different heating solution, please share it here so that others can benefit!
