HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Oh my sweetness!!! He is absolutely adorable!!! I can’t believe how teeny-tiny!!! I want him, or her!


♡ Rod ♡ Salty ♡ Bob ♡ Squirt ♡ Crabina ♡
»-♡-> Our Purple Pinchers »-♡->

Oh wow! How would you keep track of them once they are on land? They could pretty much hide in plain sight. I'm assuming they probably molt every day or two and won't stay that super tiny very long.

It's amazing what you and Stacy are doing. It is definitely a huge labor of love and massive amount of dedication most of whish we had. Keeping crabs is on thing, raising them is a completely different dedication for sure.

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Perhaps it's like March of the Penguins but it's much warmer, and happier at your house!! That movie makes me sad!
Sixty-six?!!! That is crazy cool!!!!! You better start finding a huge tank now!!! This is only the start my friend!!!

Just moved #150 in a shell over to the land tank. I don't have time for a bigger update, sorry, I'm barely keeping up, and there are more still in the water in shells. Will need to figure out a bigger baby tank very soon. Thanks for going along on this crazy ride.

That is so amazing! Congratulations!


♡ Rod ♡ Salty ♡ Bob ♡ Squirt ♡ Crabina ♡
»-♡-> Our Purple Pinchers »-♡->

Here's one who came to land in a trochus shell, the crazy crablet! I have more still in the water (maybe 20-30? Hard to tell), but as of tonight I have officially moved 207 babies in shells onto land, a mix of PPs and Es. That's a huge improvement over the TWO I managed to get to land from my first batch of eggs. (The original two are doing well, btw, about 88 days old now, active, and one is a real shell fashionista--trying on a new one every day or so.) That number (207, not 2) also represents about a 20% survival rate because I moved roughly 1,000 megalopa over into the transition tank. Yes, one pipette at a time. I wonder why my hands and wrists ache?

Anywho, the land babies are moving around well, eating, and climbing. I can't imagine that anywhere near that many will survive for the long haul, but this seems like a super crazy number of babies even to come to land. I'm shocked and confused and don't know what to say except HOORAY! And also YIKES! I started a new land tank today as so many in one small space can't be good--even when they're minuscule. It's so much fun to watch them toddle around and explore. I just want to sit beside the tank the whole day. I've got a video of the baby tank (from Facebook) that I will try to share below.

https://www.facebook.com/mary.akers/vid ... 4MTM5ODA5/

So amazing! I couldn’t even imagine, I would want to sit there and watch them all day too! Congratulations, you deserve everything you worked so hard for!


Rod♡Salty♡Bob♡Squirt♡Crabina♡Who
»-♡-> Our Purple Pinchers <-♡-«

This is beyond exciting. I feel like I could DIE of happiness right now reading through this. I'm so proud and just in awe and so happy! You are AMAZING and dedicated.

wolfnipplechips wrote:This is beyond exciting. I feel like I could DIE of happiness right now reading through this. I'm so proud and just in awe and so happy! You are AMAZING and dedicated.

Aww, thank you. Your posts in here and your amazing photos inspired me to try! And A BUNCH of the babies are wearing YOUR shells, Auntie Shadoe. Thank you!

!!! Whoa!! Grats! Updates?

Did a land count yesterday and there are currently 215 moving around, eating, and climbing. There may be more underground finishing up molts, so I'll keep the empty tank warm for a few more days to see if more emerge. Here's a video from Facebook.

https://m.facebook.com/mary.akers?fref= ... up_comment

Hi Mary, Where are you moving the babies to now? 215 will need heaps of space when they get bigger. hehehe
Congratulations on sooooo many babies. Brilliant job momma crab.

So amazing! I want a baby when they’re old enough!


Rod♡Salty♡Bob♡Squirt♡Crabina♡Who
»-♡-> Our Purple Pinchers <-♡-«

I couldn't view the video link as I am not on FB, but I loved the video you texted me! Your success makes me SOOO happy!! I love looking at baby hermie pictures and videos!! They are too adorable!!

On January 8th, I confirmed 204 survivors. Each count is an exhaustive process that takes days since some are always molting. I'll do another count sometime in February. This pictures is one of the Es from the surprise batch that hatched on October 18th. He is now 106 days old. Most of the Caribbean babies have moved into 4-5 mm opening shells but many of the Es are still in smaller 2-3 mm shells like this tiny turbo. (It's a Shadoe shell! ) The Es are definitely a slower growing crab, even though they eat everything. This feisty little fellow was even picking off and eating tiny bits of dead skin from the callouses on my palm. Yikes. If it wasn’t clear by now, I’ve definitely got some skin in this game.