HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I read this article http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 072759.htm about how hermit crabs can feel and retain pain. This really shows how smart they are. It's pretty instreasting besides the shocking of hermit crabs.

I hope they get, or have gotten, the legislation they need to ensure that lobsters, shrimp, and the like are killed with minimal pain (since people are going to keep eating them regardless). I'm all for science and experiments, but that kind of made me sick to imagine what those poor little hermits had to go through. I really do not like testing done on animals...not even for science.

Did people really think that just because they're tiny and don't form shells of their own that they can't feel pain


Mommy to 4.
3 crabs; Bert, Ernie&Junior (All PP's)
1 puppy; Roy

I've found it to be true that if an animal is small they don't get half the intelligence credit they should. Yes, their Exo fuctions like armor, but what do you THINK happens when that armor is punctured? Same reason I think molting is stressful. Not only are they vulnerable, that new skin ( after the old Exo is shed ) looks super sensitive!

I thought for sure they held some form of memory! I don't really understand how else they'd remember human = food
Or for those who do hold them--- human = safe

I'd guess the same way our sense of smell can trigger memories, certain things trigger a memory for them? Obviously this may work differently for some, I just hold a belief that all animals can hold some form of a bond with humans. It's up to us I guess whether that's a good or bad thing.

Drakezilla wrote:I've found it to be true that if an animal is small they don't get half the intelligence credit they should. Yes, their Exo fuctions like armor, but what do you THINK happens when that armor is punctured? Same reason I think molting is stressful. Not only are they vulnerable, that new skin ( after the old Exo is shed ) looks super sensitive!

I thought for sure they held some form of memory! I don't really understand how else they'd remember human = food
Or for those who do hold them--- human = safe

I'd guess the same way our sense of smell can trigger memories, certain things trigger a memory for them? Obviously this may work differently for some, I just hold a belief that all animals can hold some form of a bond with humans. It's up to us I guess whether that's a good or bad thing.

Very true!

Haha, my sense of smell is the best for memory. I'll smell something, and it will cause me to remember some random thing from years ago that I had believed I had completely forgotten about. I always wondered why that was

I've been doing a lot of reading on pain in invertebrates, and thinking about their consciousness. Although it seems incomprehensible to think that they could not feel pain, the people who say that they don't point to the fact that their nervous systems really are much simpler, in general, than vertebrates'.
Pain has been demonstrated in true crabs as well as in hermits, and I'm really happy that people are recognizing that there is more going on in these guys' heads than they might've thought. In insects and spiders, there's still quite a debate about whether they feel pain. Although I believe I have reason behind my sentiment that they can, I suppose that I can see both sides. It's a very mysterious subject.