A big Texas Howdy Y'all from a former member!
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:52 pm
My crabby journey started about 12-ish years ago (2008-ish). I stumbled onto hermit crabs quite by accident. Someone gave me a 10 gallon tank that we thought was empty. She took it from a person giving it away on her local listserv and left it on her porch for 6 months. She then brought it to me and I put it in my garage for another 6 months. I also drove it around in the back of my car for several weeks or even a month or two. I finally decided it was time to do something with the tank so I brought it in to clean and found a live hermit crab in it!!
I didn’t know what to do so I gave it a little bowl of water straight out of the tap and it immediately submerged in the water and stayed in there for a loooong time. It wasn't even near enough water for it to fully submerge, but it got into the little dish. I then gave it some flake fish food I found laying around and it ate all of the flaked food. This poor crab went without food and water for over a year in temperatures that ranged from well above 110 degrees to well below freezing. It had about 1/4" of kitty litter in the bottom of the tank, some cork bark and a sea sponge. There were also a couple of empty painted shells.
After giving it food and water, I started researching and joined a forum (LHC) for more info. I fixed up her tank and she went under for a 6 month molt and came out fine. After coming up from her molt, I named her Molly Brown for obvious reasons. I started looking for another crab to add to her ‘tat.
I went by a pet store that was going out of business. They were about to throw away their crabs because no one wanted them. I bought a 40B with no lid or heater, and all crabs for around $50.00. It contained well over 100 live crabs in painted shells and a few dead ones. There was a shriveled up piece of pizza in the tank for them to eat and no water. The store clerk said, "They're scavengers. We feed them whatever, usually leftover lunch..." There was also a gigantic ship for large aquariums in there that I dubbed "The Mother Ship." There were crabs hidden in there for months. I couldn't dislodge them, so I left them.
I picked out two as mates for my original crab, Molly Brown. The rest of the them got sorted into various aquariums that I rapidly purchased off Craigslist and 2nd hand stores. I put the ones that were naked, had missing limbs and/or who were really lethargic into one tank (the sick tank) and sorted the others roughly by size into 5-6 more tanks. Most of the crabs molted and survived so I started re-homing them. I also started accepting new crabs for rehabilitation. I spent many $1000.00’s on these guys and re-homed them for free in lots of 5-10 crabs. I shipped them all over the country.
After a couple of years, I still had several tanks full of crabs and I was getting divorced. I didn’t know where I was going to live so I gave (for free) all of the remaining crabs and tanks to a 15 year old boy who ran a reptile rescue out of his home with his parent’s support. He seemed honest, knowledgeable and earnest. I hope to this day that those crabs turned out fine in his care. I kept the original 10 gallon tank with Molly Brown and her two companions.
They stayed in the 10 gallon until they were large size. During the divorce and for a few years after, I forgot about the forum and didn’t really pay much attention to the crabs other feeding a watering them. I moved four times in two years trying to get situated and recover financially from the divorce. I noticed how large the crabs had gotten and I also noticed that one of the companions to Molly was missing (was cannibalized, I’m sure). I moved them to my classroom at work where they've lived in the same 40 gallon tank since 2010-ish. Molly Brown is in a shell the size of a baseball. She has 4 companions. One, I hope, is her original friend from way back when. I did have a death in the tank a few years ago, but I hope it wasn't Prince William.
So now it's 2021 and I'm getting ready to upgrade Molly to a 75 gallon tank that I just scored from a Facebook fish group administrator. Hopefully Molly and her princes will be good for several more years.
If you made it this far, thanks!!
I didn’t know what to do so I gave it a little bowl of water straight out of the tap and it immediately submerged in the water and stayed in there for a loooong time. It wasn't even near enough water for it to fully submerge, but it got into the little dish. I then gave it some flake fish food I found laying around and it ate all of the flaked food. This poor crab went without food and water for over a year in temperatures that ranged from well above 110 degrees to well below freezing. It had about 1/4" of kitty litter in the bottom of the tank, some cork bark and a sea sponge. There were also a couple of empty painted shells.
After giving it food and water, I started researching and joined a forum (LHC) for more info. I fixed up her tank and she went under for a 6 month molt and came out fine. After coming up from her molt, I named her Molly Brown for obvious reasons. I started looking for another crab to add to her ‘tat.
I went by a pet store that was going out of business. They were about to throw away their crabs because no one wanted them. I bought a 40B with no lid or heater, and all crabs for around $50.00. It contained well over 100 live crabs in painted shells and a few dead ones. There was a shriveled up piece of pizza in the tank for them to eat and no water. The store clerk said, "They're scavengers. We feed them whatever, usually leftover lunch..." There was also a gigantic ship for large aquariums in there that I dubbed "The Mother Ship." There were crabs hidden in there for months. I couldn't dislodge them, so I left them.
I picked out two as mates for my original crab, Molly Brown. The rest of the them got sorted into various aquariums that I rapidly purchased off Craigslist and 2nd hand stores. I put the ones that were naked, had missing limbs and/or who were really lethargic into one tank (the sick tank) and sorted the others roughly by size into 5-6 more tanks. Most of the crabs molted and survived so I started re-homing them. I also started accepting new crabs for rehabilitation. I spent many $1000.00’s on these guys and re-homed them for free in lots of 5-10 crabs. I shipped them all over the country.
After a couple of years, I still had several tanks full of crabs and I was getting divorced. I didn’t know where I was going to live so I gave (for free) all of the remaining crabs and tanks to a 15 year old boy who ran a reptile rescue out of his home with his parent’s support. He seemed honest, knowledgeable and earnest. I hope to this day that those crabs turned out fine in his care. I kept the original 10 gallon tank with Molly Brown and her two companions.
They stayed in the 10 gallon until they were large size. During the divorce and for a few years after, I forgot about the forum and didn’t really pay much attention to the crabs other feeding a watering them. I moved four times in two years trying to get situated and recover financially from the divorce. I noticed how large the crabs had gotten and I also noticed that one of the companions to Molly was missing (was cannibalized, I’m sure). I moved them to my classroom at work where they've lived in the same 40 gallon tank since 2010-ish. Molly Brown is in a shell the size of a baseball. She has 4 companions. One, I hope, is her original friend from way back when. I did have a death in the tank a few years ago, but I hope it wasn't Prince William.
So now it's 2021 and I'm getting ready to upgrade Molly to a 75 gallon tank that I just scored from a Facebook fish group administrator. Hopefully Molly and her princes will be good for several more years.
If you made it this far, thanks!!