Houdini Gumbo returns...

[Moe2076]

I came in to feed them some grapes, blueberry and pineapple and didn't even see him in the food dish with my other large crab. He blended in with the dry food with his greenish turbo. He saw me tho... then ran around the tank on the right side like a crazy person scared for his life and back to digging he went. I really wanted to just grab him and give him a good looking over and maybe snap a pic or 2 of this elusive crab I've only seen 3 times in 3 months, but I figured right when he was freaking out and running for his life was maybe not the best time for that.

I decided to open a new pack of Sphagnum moss and put it in the moss pit and misted it. They have magically displaced most the rest of the Beaked moss that has been in there a while now that they like to take out of the moss pit and then burrow under.
I fully intended to put him in the moss pit when I was done.... He buried himself in the spot where the moss pit goes... He was burrowing under the now empty plastic dish, I saw his shell for a second and then I look away for a minute or 2 to open the moss and reach in to get the dish to mist the moss and I see his shell right there and he's digging a bit and I mist the moss then he is GONE! Not just right there at the surface with the shell sticking out like this other boring, lazy, crab who just stays in that one spot all the time and hardly moves ( that I can tell) with his shell sticking up who got the benefit of the moss pit instead.... I mean like VANISHED into the sand.... no movement or disrupted sand, just completely buried... at least deeper than the inch of sand I moved thinking he was right there before I decided that digging much more to find him/her might not be the best idea... Houdini Gumbo strikes again! Now you see him, then you don't!

S/He makes me so crazy! At least he made a friend. I really thing that my big one in the long Babylonian shell might have coaxed him out. I put him in the fresh food dish yesterday or the day before and he immediately wandered out to the back left side of the tank where I suspect Houdini Gumbo had buried himself at the same night I put him in this tank. He was digging a bit and just laid there a while and then tonight Houdini Gumbo was in the food dish right next to him.

The best thing about waking up randomly at 2:30 am every now and again is that I can come in and watch them in their routine. They are watching me watching them and eventually either they get tired of the staring contest and go about with their business or I get bored of the staring contest and look away to my computer and sneak glances later.... I think it's about even at this point... One of my white shelled ones who has been playing hide and seek these past couple weeks is out again.

That I can tell I have 3 down and 4 up, but 2 of the ones up like to hide out a whole lot.