BUBBLES!

We hit the pet stores tonight after work, just seeing what they had. Mike was talking about a water feature (waterfall type thing), and it made me think of how some people put air stones into the pools in their crabitat to keep the water from becoming stagnant. So, we decided to try.

We got an air pump, some aquarium tubing, a T valve, a regulator valve, and, of course, two air stones. We got it all set up tonight so the water dishes are bubbly!

There has been a lot higher than average interest in the pools so far tonight, but no swimmers yet.

One of the Es is already showing far too much interest in the tubing for my taste... LOL

I also got a new hermit crab book! Hopefully I will get it reviewed and up on the site soon.

A House for a Hermit Crab

(No, I didn't get confused enough to post a book review in the blog section)

Not too long ago, we bought an aquarium ornament to put in the crabitat. You can kind of see it here, but it also has a face on it, etc. that the plants are covering up.



Well, there's been tunnels under it for the past week or so, and we've seen Midnight disappear down there.

What we didn't know is that he was not only climbing UNDER it, he was climbing up inside the hollow bottom! I'd never even considered that! Mike picked it up the other day and was surprised at how heavy it was... turned it over, and there was Midnight!

A house for a hermit crab indeed!

We're going to have to check it once in awhile or find a way to block the bottom off to make sure no one's stuck...

Hitchin' a Ride

All together now... "Awwwww!"



The little E in this picture is Alvin "Little White Guy" and the straw is Coconut. :)

WOW!

I've never seen the crabs scarf any food like they did the yam I put in yesterday. I've fed them sweet potatoes before, but SHEESH.

Yesterday I was amazed by the amount that Peggy ate of it by herself (you can see in the pictures I posted yesterday), but today when I came in, it was practically eaten down to the skin. I've never seen anything like it.

I've fed them sweet potato before, but I think always grated or minced, never in a big chunk like I gave them this yam... but I just don't think they've ever gone quite so crazy for the sweet potato. Absolutely amazing.

I'm going to have to start cooking more yams, so the crabs can have these feasts more often!

Someone even managed to get it out of the bowl last night, which both Peggy and Coconut tried desperately to do yesterday when Mike was trying to photograph them eating it - the lip on the bowl was just too much for them.

Crabzilla.net - New Section

In preparation for the upcoming new introduction page (which is actually, you know, going to be an introduction to land hermit crabs), Mike and I spent the evening making a new section all about our hermit crabs.

I promise I'll finish the new introduction page someday, I really do. :p

Say cheese!

This weekend, Mike put on his crabtographer hat and took some pictures! They can all be found in his gallery, but I wanted to post some of the highlights - including some of the crabs we've never had pictures of!

	Coconut would like everyone to know that like the aliens in Mars Attacks... he comes in peace!
This is Simon "Little Brown Guy", snoozing on a habba tree. Since his last molt, he's been missing the bottom segment on all but one of his legs.
	"Look Ma, no hands!" Coconut again - this time in a slightly less sinister pose!
Introducing Midnight - he's one of our two newest hermit crabs, and is certainly our darkest colored PP.
	And here's Midnight with his fellow newbie, Porky. So named because he's, well, kind of a pig.
"If I just creep along real low, maybe he won't see me..." (once again, Coconut - what a ham!)
	"Whew! This tree is bigger than I thought!" This is Legolas, one of the small ruggies we bought a few months ago.
Ghost is one of the little ruggies as well, though he's darkened up a whole lot since coming to live with us! He's almost not white anymore!
	"What kind of a shop is this, there's nothing in my size!" Alvin "Little White Guy", one of our small Es
Peggy, one of our older ruggies. She's got very pretty coloring right now, however she doesn't always look quite this green! The camera flash has enhanced it a bit.
	A few hours ago, we put some raw yams, peas, and red bell pepper in the fresh food dish (along with a marine cuisine cube). Peggy enjoyed the yams a lot - that dent in the yam is all her, and when Mike scared her with the camera, she just about hauled the whole chunk off with her too!
Soon after, the same story happened all over again with Coconut. These crabbies, they love their yams!

Two Peas in a Pod

So, yesterday I made the crabs a fruit hash (basically, I grated frozen chunks pineapple, coconut, mango sweet potato, etc), and in their dry food dish they got some Gardner's Tree Crab Food, some krill chunks, and some dried anchovies - all with a sprinkle of spirulina powder.

Coconut (strawberry crab) is always the first to the food dish, it seems like, and yesterday was no exception. Within moments of me putting the food dishes in, she beelined it over to the dry food shell and was munching on an anchovy. Mmmm, right? :p

The cutest thing happened an hour or two later. Both Coconut and Lacky (our straws), were gripping the side of the fresh food dish, propping themselves up so they could get to the food better. Since they were right beside each other, it was VERY cute, and a real photo op (and the food didn't even look TOO gross compared to sometimes) - unfortunately for us, no batteries for the digi cam. :(

This morning when I woke up at least half the crabs were up and about, and the food dishes were a mess. Out of the three anchovy chunks and two krill chunks in the food dish, there was one lonely krill chunk still in there this morning. At least they're dried right? LOL I think we're going to be digging for dried fish before too long. There was also a very colorful trail of crumbs coming from the fresh dish... so I'm going to guess someone ferretted away some fruit too.

Midnight Cricket Feast

The crabby food was looking a little low, so I added some dried crickets... now they've all gone barmy for them. They're all up stuffing their faces with crickets :D.

Coconut is looking especially cute hanging his craws over the edge of the bowl and resting his mouthparts right on the food!

I also noticed a lot of 'chirping' going on, after a short investigation it appears that 'Midnight' was digging a hole in the eco-earth, unfortunatly 'Ghost' was just under the surface and did not appreciate being dug in to!

Oh yes, they call him the streak!

"Here he comes, boogie-dy, boogie-dy
There he goes, boogie-dy, boogie-dy
And he ain't wearin' no clothes."

As you may have guessed from the Ray Stevens song in my head tonight, we had a streaker. This time it was Porky, one of our newer PPs. We've noticed that lately Presto (another PP) has been agressive toward the other crabs, especially - but not exclusively - the newbies.

We noticed him harrassing Porky earlier and moved him over by an empty tapestry turbo, figuring maybe he was cranky because something in his shell was bothering his bottom. When he changed into it, we figured all was well. A few minutes later, I asked Mike to check and see whether a tapestry turbo Presto was manhandling had a crab in it - neither of us put the shell there, and it hadn't been there minutes before. But we didn't put two and two together yet then.

It wasn't until later that Mike called me in from the other room because we had a naked crabby. :(

Luckily, he shelled up right away when we put some freshly rinsed shells around him.