What are your crabs up to?

[YYWW]

I have 5 crabs in almost identical green turbos now. How the heck am I supposed to tell any of them apart?!

I got some new shells on Friday and finally got them put in today. Mario is obsessively checking them out. Earlier he was eating dinner, tried to leave the food dish, lost his balance and rolled out of sight. Sigh.

Oh, AND my UTH pooped out on me yesterday, so I had to do a fast order for an Ultratherm. I've been wanting one anyway, but that was a hit to the bank account. Fortunately my tank is holding at 80 with my 2 heat bulbs so they should be fine until it gets here.

I agree, this thread is awesome!

LOL you can only take pix and keep a log. Their leg markings like dots and stuff is supposed to help you identify them.


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[megmaholm]

LOL you can only take pix and keep a log. Their leg markings like dots and stuff is supposed to help you identify them.


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I actually do have pics, but it's a pain to go through and compare. I guess if I really need to ID them I can pull out my logs, but in the end they don't care what I call them. I hope.

[shanedaman112]

You could put all my crabs in perfectly identical shells and I could still tell them apart. guess that's because there are only four though lol

[shanedaman112]

Well Lulu finally caught on to crabby's tricks (and its so cool + cute! :D)

[moonbeam]

Well speaking of unidentified crabs, I'm starting to think that when I saw squirt the other day it was actually Thumbelina. I thought it was weird that squirt was in her old shell but she had changed from a turbo into a magpie so I thought she just liked the turbo better. But I saw her climbing earlier and that tiny red leg Thumbelina just grew back was unmistakeable. It's significantly smaller than the rest of her legs and bright red. Which means squirt is still down. Oh and I got some cute pictures of Madison and Bash. They're trying to figure out who is more dominant and who is gonna get the hunk of cuttlebone. Seems like Madison has some spunk in her but not when taking pictures!

Bash Madison was playing peek-a-boo with me and every time I'd move over to take her picture so would she.


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[moonbeam]

Whoops hit send too early haha. This is the picture of Madison playing peek-a-boo. and then I moved way over and finally caught one eye that says it all. Oh crap. and then one of both crabs playing peek-a-boo. I had to get on my tip toes for this angle.


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[Ryry]

Lol moonbeam I love the pictures!
For the most part my crabs are pretty easy to tell apart- though I now have 10. But my littlest and one of my newer crabs keeps switching shells around- so every once in a while me or my sister see little Foxface and think it's Bruce come up from his molt, we start to party- and then we realize it just little Foxface in a new shell... Sigh.
There are two medium crabs that I sometimes have a issue identifying. But other than that all my other crabs I can pick out of a line up. Unless my violas switch shells. Haven't had them long enough to be able to tell them apart.

[megmaholm]

I'm jealous of you guys who have no trouble telling your crabs apart. Out of 17 crabs I can consistently identify at least 10, so I guess I'm not doing TOO bad. 3 of the 5 in green turbos I can tell apart if I pick them up, but I have a feeling if I learned their individual shells they would switch just to mess with me.

Speaking of which, 2 crabs changed shells last night. I guess they like the new ones! Which reminds me, if anyone needs relatively cheap, smaller shells (especially green turbos), check out this guy on Etsy. I got a total of just over 30 shells for around $27, including shipping. 20 green shells, the rest are tapestries. The green turbos are in the 1/2-3/4" opening range; some of the tapestries are 1" or so.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

You could put all my crabs in perfectly identical shells and I could still tell them apart. guess that's because there are only four though lol

I have 27. Not as easy. Mostly because of the 10 that are down about 5 of them dug down immediately to destress and molt before I even had a day with them. There are a few that I confuse for that reason. 2 purchased at the same time, same size and changed into similar shells and went down immediately.

I worry that several are dead under there. It is so hard not to dig just to see my babies again and be sure they are ok. I won't, it is just difficult to refrain.

[moonbeam]

Holy crabs! I can't imagine having 17 or 27 crabs! My 8 are plenty to keep me busy (for now anyways...) no wonder they get confusing to keep up with! Wish all the hermies could wear name tags. Then we'd never have these issues but those would be some TINY name tags lol.


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[megmaholm]

Holy crabs! I can't imagine having 17 or 27 crabs! My 8 are plenty to keep me busy (for now anyways...) no wonder they get confusing to keep up with! Wish all the hermies could wear name tags. Then we'd never have these issues but those would be some TINY name tags lol.

Trust me, there are actually some days where I regret owning 17. There are so many to take care of and worry about, I feel like I don't get to 'bond' with them as much. Ah well, with this many it means I always have at least a few crabs up.

[moonbeam]

How big is your tank? I'm just curious because I have a 55g and I'm wondering how many more crabs I could adopt into my colony safely (and eventually when an adoption comes my way )


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[megmaholm]

It's a 55. My biggest crab is a large (1.5" shell opening), and I have a couple mediums that are in 1" openings - the rest are all in shells that are less than 3/4". They're all PPs, which can make a difference since they can handle the crowding more. I've had up to 11 buried at a time and they don't have any issues. I keep my substrate about 9" deep so they have more digging room, and I think that helps also.

[moonbeam]

Awesome! I also have about 10" of sub so that gives me a lot to look forward to with adoptions! So far I only have PPs as well and have no intentions of having exotics till I get a "big" tank


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[megmaholm]

Awesome! I also have about 10" of sub so that gives me a lot to look forward to with adoptions! So far I only have PPs as well and have no intentions of having exotics till I get a "big" tank [emoji1

I want a big tank too...don't tell my hubby. I'm hoping to get a 90 gallon next year if things go right. I'd love a 125 gallon but have no room for 6 feet of tank. If/when I upgrade, I'd love a few exotics. I offered to buy my husband a hermit crab for his birthday, but strangely he wasn't interested. Ha!