HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Husband Freddy is wonderful with the crabs. They were my idea, he humored me and he has come to love them as much as I do. He plays with them every day, feeds them fresh fruit, helps me clean out the tanks, and we go together to The Crabbage Patch to get new crabs.

So here's the problem. In our main tank we have 15 crabs, all with names. Fred just can't remember their names and constantly gets them mixed up, which confuses me and frustrates him when he talks about them. I put a color coded chart up with each crab's shell in color and a description of their shell. Doesn't help Fred much.

Now Honey is a crab we've had since June and she's been in the same shell for at least 4 months. It's brown with even stripes of white dots about 1/4" in diameter. It's a very distinctive shell and none of the other shells are remotely similar.

This morning Freddy was playing with the crabs and stuttering over Honey's name while he was trying to tell me what she was doing. About 30 minutes later I glanced in the tank and I saw a crab in a brown shell with even stripes of white dots about 1/4" in diameter - with HONEY written in 1/2 inch letters on the top of the shell. In his frustration, Fred took a magic marker to her.

So, this isn't about how dangerous it is to use something to mark their shells (like nail polish). I am going to have to find some way to put their names on their shells.

Anybody out there - what can I use or what can I do for Freddy that won't hurt our hermies or frustrate him?

Haha! It must be kinda hard for him... honestly I can't think of any way to help!

hmm, this is hard, if a crab changes shell and its old one is taken by someone else, its gonna be even more confusing. maybe just get him his own tat and crabs, that way he will remember there names

I can't believe this. When I wasn't looking, Freddy went and labeled five more.

And Brad, thanks, but two of the ones he labeled are his. And the last thing I need is another tank to clean - I've already got three.

HELP.....PLEASE!!

Hmmmm...that was, erm, surprising.

To be honest, I wouldn't know how toxic they are, but presumably much less than nail polishes and paints. Just a guess. As long as they don't give off a fume in the tank, it should not pose much of a problem.

There is one more problem; what if they decide to take a dip? I recently tried to put a mark on the shell (the seashell, not the carapace) of a crab to identify it from the other 2 to which it looked similar. Unfortunately, the first thing it did after I marked the shell was TAKE A DIP IN THE SALTWATER POOL...thus removing all evidence of the marker.....UGH!!!!

Anyway, I decided not to do that anymore.

Well, I don't have much any ideas; hopefully your hubby will find a better, more permanent way to ID the crab (one of the reasons I keep crabs to a minimum number in my keeping at any one time).

If the markers say non-toxic I guess it can't be too bad, but I find it a little unlikely that 2 crabs would switch shells with eachother in one night. Usually I can tell by size and color, and if one crab changes a shell I can usually tell before another changes into his.

Wow... he labeled MORE! ...

Okay, here's a possible remedy. You could devise a diagram of sorts for him: take recent pics of each, attach them to a board, write their names under their pics and hang it near the tat. Do one for each tat. It may be time consuming and would require maintenance, meaning you'd have to be sure to keep updating pics when they switch shells. But it might help. ...I hope.

Just a thought

Herm-Ez & I both went through a period of having several Es, all wearing similar shells, all of similar size & temperament. We both decided to get "Sharpies" of several different colors, and put a dot of a different color on the back of each of their shells.

Yes, we color-coded our crabs! It worked, with no ill-effect to the crabs. I haven't talked to her lately to see if she still practices this method, but I occassionally still use the markers.

Kathy

Someone else in a post said she used sharpies. I need to go to Office Depot and I'll pick some up. I also thought I'd see if they maybe have something like non-toxic permanent markers in colors.

I also have thought about taking pictures. I have a few in a roll that needs developing. Lets see what happens.

Thanks everyone for the ideas

Whew! A little bit of good news. I just saw the pen Freddy used and it's a Sharpie!

Ok, this is going to reveal just how nuts I am LOL! The way that I keep track of everybody is in a notebook. The notebook in ONLY for crabs. Each page is dedicated to one crab. On each page I have the species, place obtained, color, distinguishing marks, size, shell type, sex, crab name, and date. That way, if you have a crab change shells, you look him up in your book and usually through distinguishing markings (broken leg tip, missing feeler, special mark on big claw etc..)figure out who he is. Then make notes about shell changes, or molts or whatever. It's kinda neat to look back through too. .

Actually anish, you do it the correct way. Others experienced crabbers do what you do. Going by what shell they're in at any given moment isn't very smart. But I've found I can only tell a few apart by physical attributes. I tried by measuring and recording their BP sizes but guess what, four of each have the same size claw.

I went out and bought a package of colored Sharpies. Looks like the only way hubby will even get close to figuring our who's who.

What I did so that my dear beloved boyfriend can tell them apart, because my 4 that are the same size he mixes up is we took pictures of them... three pictures of each, one just of the shell, the other of their backs... because all seem to have different markings, and we have a sheet next to the tank. That way he can call them by name and I don't get confused... though it didn't help that my Reese molted, changed shells, and his coloring is different now, but then its process of elimination.

dANNIlYNN

Great for bf, especially if you have four. We have 15. Could you imagine what my tat would look like it I posted 3 pictures of each crab? There would be no room for the crabs!!