The battle of the shell

Two of our ruggies have been locked in fierce battle for the past several minutes. First, Flash changed shells and then a minute later changed back again. A little while later, Feegle changed into the same shell, and Flash came over and started checking Feegle's old shell out.

Feegle didn't like that. Not one bit.

I've never, ever seen two hermit crabs struggle for an empty shell like that.

Feegle won, and switched back into his original shell.

Then, they started struggling over the shell they'd both tried and rejected.

*sigh* So long as they're just bashing and pushing at each other, I don't worry too much, it's when they start pulling at legs and snipping at eyes I get worried. ;) So far, there's been none of that.

RIP Bill

Bill, the crab we thought might have been a cavipe, died last week. Either we bought him dead (possible he didn't move... but he didn't smell either), or he died that night (he still hadn't moved and he was smelly). :( He's the only crab we've ever had to return to Petco.

Cleaning day!

We noticed when we got back from our Christmas trip to Montana that the crab tank was in need of some attention, so we got to it today. The crab tank is looking great after everything was sifted through, cleaned and rearranged. We even gave the crabs baths before we put them back in their tank, as we were certain at least one was fairly recently molted (though with no exo around anymore). We've never done the mass bathing before (usually we just dunk newbies and iso molters in the water dish when introducing them to the main tank). The only crab I think enjoyed it was Coconut, one of our strawberry hermit crabs.

We only had one pinch the whole time, our smallest crab, Ghost (a white ruggie) nipped my finger when I took him from the bathing pool to the main tank. Poor little dude was pretty scared.

We did interrupt three molters though :( I knew we would interrupt at least one when we started, and by #3, I was praying for no more! We only have three spare tanks!

Right now General Lee (large PP), Lacky (med straw), and Legolas(small ruggie) are in ISO. General Lee is the only one I'm really worried about. He's been under for a few months, and all that time must have been preparing to molt, because he'd eaten hardly any of his exo.

The first one we found, Legolas, we put in our KK. He was missing two legs when we bought him, so hopefully he'll regenerate some of those. We found Lacky second and we put him in our 10 gallon tank. The last one we found was the General - and the poor guy was relegated to some tupperware until we got all the other crabs out of the 20GL tank. We ended up putting the KK inside the 20 gallon, because it doesn't have a heat source of its own, and those things don't hold humidity at all well.

We should only have to disturb the molters one more time for today, to give them food and water. I hope I have enough water dishes to give them each fresh and salt! (maybe, if I use some shallow dishes)

Then, a sheet goes over their tanks until time to check on them tomorrow so it stays nice and dim.

Bill & Ted

Two new crabs! Bill and Ted. We think Bill might be a 'cav', Ted is probably a PP. Bill also may be dead as he hasn't moved since we got him, he is very snugly pulled back in his shell. Ted is definitly not dead, he has been running about like a crazy thing and has already changed shells.

We also purchased 'Hermit Crabs for Dummies' to add to our Hermit Crab Library (Amy will be reviewing it for the site soon). I have read it already and its probably one of the best Hermit Crab care books i've read, I was very suprised.

RIP George

:( This morning we woke up and found our jumbo PP, George, dead. I don't know whether it was post purchase stress (we only got him a month ago), the stress of his naked escapade a few weeks ago, or something more sinister, like an infection.

Sad twist: The second batch of shells I ordered for him (the ones that were sized reasonably) came today. And now there's no crabbies with big enough butts to go in them. I think we'll keep them though. You never know, another jumbo might worm his way into our home again someday.

I'm going to have to set up tupperwares with graduating sizes of shells in them to keep them all straight (and to stop the tiny ones from getting lodged in the large ones) when we aren't using them.

Oh, Sonic...

Poor Sonic was trying to eat a little bit ago, and was getting very frustrated - you see, it tasted like food, and he could get his claw over it, but it wouldn't break off so he could eat it!

Yes... he was trying to eat the food dish (in this case, a green ceramic dish). No... it didn't work.

After awhile he got the idea and started eating FROM the dish instead of trying to eat THE DISH.

Oh, Sonic. It's not even a new dish.

Sonic the Spy

He's watching me... he is keeping his beady eyes on me. Seriously the silly crab is sitting on top of a tree staring at me :)

Shells of Giant Proportions

So, when George was going through his exhibitionist period, I ordered some more jumbo shells from Naples. Now, granted, I was kind of panicky at the time, but the shells came today and when I opened them I just started laughing.

THEY ARE HUGE. I went a little crazy. A couple of those shells would require a grapefruit sized hermit crab to fill it. I don't even want to think about the size of the snail that made them.

So... I don't know yet whether we'll keep them for tank decoration (the little e's would think they had new condos), or whether we'll send them back. They are definitely kind of cool.

In any case, I'm headed back to Naples to try again.

This time, I'll try to aim a little smaller.

The fantastic three

This is my first post to the crabzilla blog, hurrah.

Looks like three hermies are up right now: George is hiding under the driftwood (as well as a jumbo hermit crab can 'hide' anyway); Coconut is on top of one tree and 'little brown guy' aka Simon is nearly at the top of another tree, which I have to say is quite a feat considering he only has one full leg now!

Crabzilla: Team Blog

Yay! I figured out how to make this a team blog, so now my husband can post too! It's not just me - we're all obsessed here.

Fish Eyes to Rule Them All

So, two nights ago, the crabs had a smorgasbord of smelt (1), coconut chunks (2), a pineapple chunk, and grated sweet potato to garnish.

They were enjoying it so much I left it in the tank last night as well (even though it was starting to get a little ripe).

That poor used and abused smelt. The first thing gone were the eyes. Now they've thoroughly eaten the guts out of it, and the mostly gutted skin is just sort of sitting there. Hermit crabs can be so gross. lol Gotta love 'em.

Simon's Hideaway

Simon, one of our small E's, has decided that one of our jumbo shells makes a great hiding spot. He goes in, shell and all, practically enough to disappear. It's the cutest thing ever. Hopefully Mike can get a picture of that sometime soon!

In other news, Alvin (our other little E) is Mr. January in the Hermit Crab Association calendar!

George is being modest again!

I'm so relieved - after more than an hour naked, George put on a shell! It's a slightly-too-small turbo, rather than the slightly-too-small japanese land snail shell he was wearing before, but hopefully he stays in it.

George the Naked

Our jumbo PP, George, has decided it would be a good idea to go naked today. :(

First, he streaked to the nearest shell, which was much too small for him, then he went to the water dish and took the small shell off. He's been naked since.

If he doesn't shell up pretty soon, he'll die. The land hermit crab has a soft abdomen, which must be kept both damp and protected. Hermit crabs carry water in their shells to keep their abdomen damp and to keep their gills hydrated. Without a shell, neither of those is much of an option.

He won't let us move him either, the little bug. :( So I can't even separate him from the other crabs to keep him safe.

Will update more later, but I'm feeling pretty hopeless right now.

It's new food night in the crab tank

I got inspired reading one of Julia Crab's posts on http://www.epicureanhermit.com/ today.

Her post was about the importance of foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin to the diet of crustaceans (this is the link to an article she wrote; the web site is not working at the moment so I can't search for the post).

So, the crabs got some crabby scrambled eggs - an egg with rough chopped romaine, shrimp, peas, and spinach. Then, I sprinkled on spirulina and kelp powder to make it even more smelly and garnished with the shrimp tail and some egg shell.

I also put in a shell full of crushed walnuts, because I hate to leave them without some kind of dry food as well.

This will be a grand experiment, because they've never had romaine, peas, spinach or walnuts.

So far, Coconut and Sonic were sampling the walnuts - Coco even pushed him out of the shell at one point.

Originally, this was going to be a meatless dish, but we've got some new crabs and we've got some (probably) molting crabs. Normally we let the crabs molt in the main tank, and we've never had a problem, but occasionally nutrient deficiencies in hermit crabs can lead to cannibalistic tendencies - especially victimizing molting crabs who are at their most defenseless.

I'd much rather they take it out on the shrimp.

Shrimp are very closely related to land hermit crabs - shrimp, lobster and crayfish are probably their closest cousins. A meal of any of those (especially if you leave them some shell as well as meat) will satisfy a whole lot of nutrient deficiencies.

We have names!

We named the little pure white ruggie Ghost, the brown ruggie that's missing a walking leg on each side we named Legolas, and the larger white ruggie we named Dougal.

Yay for named crabbies!

Newbies!

We stopped at Petco tonight to browse, and ended up with a new Habba Tree, and three new ruggies! Two were white, and one is a more traditional brown - we haven't come up with names yet, but I'm sure we will soon!

Crabby Update

The crab tank has been pretty quiet recently - after a couple of weeks of hubub after we changed to a new, larger tank everyone seems to be digging under again. Even the strawberries have disappeared!

This morning, I see Sonic, Alvin and George up and about, but no others, though there's plenty of evidence of overnight activity that (probably) wasn't just those three.

Historically, Sonic has been a quiet hermit crab, not as shy as some, but dug under a lot and not terribly active, at least during our waking hours. These past few weeks, he's become a lot more active, even climbing (?!) which is something he's not done much of in the past. He's almost always kept to the ground level previously. Lately, anything goes. He's even climbing in the tree now, which I've never seen him do!

Also, I'm glad to report that George seems to be doing a lot better. I don't think we'll probably lose him to the stress of his previously poor conditions after all. He moves around some now, rather than confining himself to a cave, and has even partially buried himself, which I think is a sign he's getting stronger.

I suppose I better find something for them to eat now. They completely dumped their food dish (again!) last night.