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Crabitat...

4K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  patm 
#1 ·
well it is not officially planted but the pond will grow algae... Thought i would share some photos...

I took it upon myself to redo my daughters crabitat.. due to neglect and well basicly neglecting chores(im guessing along with poor choice of feeding--same old crap all the time) 2 of the three crabs died--over a period of a year--so most likely not due to stress as much as other issues. The sole survivor was the largest and now most docile/energenic.

I decided to dump some cash in the 10 gallon tank and make it a truely "zoo like" habitat. 55.00 later and about 10 hours of work over a week (waiting for silicon to dry)..

STEP X (i guess this would be really step 20 or maybe 50 in the process *wink*)



I took a 3 gallon thick plastic bucket and cut the bottom out of it.. then i slashed the side and constructed the three divided sections of the tank. There were first held in place by 5 min epoxy and then 3.5 tubes of aquairum silicon later they are water tight. The front chamber then was coated with silicon and gravel pressed into it to creat a "rock wall" for crabs to climb on. Drying time was 48 hours I gave it a bit more just to be safe... just a note.. I covered it THICK and WIDE with the silicon..it was very messy and hard to get it NOT to leak..my first attempt was a failure so i had to remove a section of the silicon and redo it.. now it is perfect!!! Then I took remaining section of the plastic..BTW...I had to heat and bend the plastic over my gas stove to remove the bow in the plastic and to make "tabs" for mounting the plasitc to the glas with epoxy... time consuming and smelly work also hot on the hands ouch!! But this is a skill i have learned from my work with making custom crap for my aquariums.

Here is the finished product!

Click on the image to view it at its original size

Plastic coated with that climing background stuff.. I cut up a large vynl or plastic vine (the ones that are lizard safe) and capped each end with hot glue to keep the wire from rusting and then used them to allow more climing areas. I then wove a smaller vine through holes i melted into the plastic shelves for a bridge. I had some white sand from minnesota and teh chamber behind the brakish water pond is coconut fiber.. My crab changed his shell after abotu 2 hours int eh tank... and sits on a rock i placed in the pond and enjoys his new pond.. he loves the water!!! he ran in it for over an hour.. and did a butt dance to fill his shell. First time I ever saw him do that! Now he sits and picks at the rocks and dances with his claws I think he is about 300% happier than he ever was in the old design that was just coconut fiber with some water dishes..
 
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