Microgreens in a Hermit Crab Tank
We added a cup of microgreens to our hermit crab tank. What happened? The results were quite predictable!
Hermit crabs LOVE plants. If you’ve ever added a live plant into your hermit crab tank, most likely you learned within that first 24 hours just how much hermit crabs love to dig up (and ultimately destroy) live plants!
Microgreens grow super quick, seeds are cheap and they are a delicious snack for your hermit crab pets!
But it’s important to know that they destroy live plants because THEY LOVE LIVE PLANTS! Adding a cup of microgreens gives the added benefit of being a healthy snack. And if you grow the microgreens in a small cup, it’s easy to add it in, then remove or replace it.
Benefits of Microgreens
Microgreens are the young seedlings and plantlings of the leafy edible vegetables like lettuce, kale, broccoli and other common nutritious greens. Rather than planting to harvest as a full grown vegetable plant, microgreens are planted in clumps and harvested as sprouts, at approximately 1-4 inches tall. What are the benefits of microgreens in a hermit crab habitat?
- microgreens are edible, healthy snacks
- microgreens can be harvested in 7-10 days
- microgreens grow easily and quickly from seeds
Microgreens in a hermit crab tank after 48 hours! Crawled through, dig into, snacked on!
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Tip: microgreen seeds are inexpensive. They can be grown easily in a small cup with a little dirt. They need a few hours of sunlight daily, and will sprout to 1-2 inches within 7 days, and to about 3-4 inches within 10-14 days.
We use clear 2 oz. plastic cups with lids, most often used in the restaurant industry for take out sauces and spices. These small little cups are inexpensive and disposable. Grow some microgreens in a cup, and place the cup inside your hermit crab habitat after a week or so.
What to do?
1. put some dirt in a small shallow cup
2. sprinkle a bunch of microgreen seeds on top of dirt, and cover with a thin layer of dirt
3. add water to top of dirt
3. place clear plastic lid on top to help maintain moisture
4. place on sunny windowsill, in your Ikea Socker Greenhouse Hack or outside
5. maintain moisture as needed, ensure several hours of sunlight daily
6. microgreens will be ready within 7-14 days (depending on how tall and mature you want them)
7. add the cup, mist it, surround with some sheet moss to keep moisture in
8. swap out microgreen cup for a new one when your hermies destroy it (they will!)
Very easy and quick to grow!
Seeds are very inexpensive!
Growth in just 48 hours!
What happens when adding live microgreens to a hermit crab tank?
Nutritious snack for your hermies!
When adding growing, live plants in a hermit crab habitat, never expect them to survive for long!
Hermit crabs love digging through live plants. They love crawling through plants, and digging down into their roots. This inevitably destroys living plants, but your hermit crabs WILL have fun in the process!
Adding live plants stimulates their curiosity, their digging behaviors and if the plants are edible, they will most likely be snacking on them while having all this fun!
Add microgreens to your hermit crab tank, and we predict within 48 hours (and most likely during the night) these mini veggies will be destroyed while making your hermies very happy! TIP: MIST the MICROGREENS when you put them in to make your hermies even more excited!
Add live microgreens, mist for moisture
Large hermit crab finds microgreens
Hermit crab crawls in, digs down, has fun!
The live, fresh, growing clump of nutritious microgreens WILL GET DESTROYED! And that’s OKAY!! After a week or so, simply swap it out for another growing clump of microgreens! Or add a cup of greens once every few weeks so your hermit crabs don’t get bored with these greens.
Do hermit crabs actually EAT the microgreens?
We can see that hermit crabs love microgreens. Within hours they’ll be right in the middle of their new clump of microgreens! But do they eat them? It’s hard to tell! It looks like some tiny chunks of a few leaves are missing, which would indicate they’ve munched a bit. But we can safely say that IF hermit crabs are hungry, or craving some green leafy greens… the live microgreens being readily available makes it worth the small effort. Microgreens are highly nutritious, and make a great snack food.
Grow a few cups of microgreens, and add them to your hermit crab habitat as needed. They are very inexpensive, plus easy and quick to grow. It’s easy keep this live source of nutritious food in your hermit crab tank. It’s a great additional food source PLUS it stimulates them into happy behaviors. And you’ll have fun watching what happens!
Tip: keep 3-4 cups of microgreens growing on a windowsill and rotate them! When your hermit crab pets destroy one cup of microgreens, swap it out for another!
To make swapping microgreen cups even easier, simply use a few pieces of sheet moss. When using a 2 oz. plastic cup, just place it into your sand/substrate down about an inch deep for stability (otherwise your hermies will knock it over!). Then place sheet moss around it which WILL help hermit crabs climb into it but will also help keep moisture in and microgreens alive. Just keep in mind, if your hermit crabs like the microgreens, they will dig through them and you’ll probably need to replace them within a few days!
When adding fresh, live growing microgreens to your hermit crab habitat, you are providing a nutritious food source. Whether they want to snack on the microgreens, or just enjoy crawling through and digging into, your hermit crabs will enjoy their cup of microgreens for sure!
Last update on 2024-05-08 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API