HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Apparently, she was disturbed by me changing the crabitat around right over her head.....

But up she came, in her dusky purple goodness! As sad as I am to have disturbed her, I'm so relieved to see her up and about. I was very worried...She's been down for a loooooong time, and I had feared the worst.

Of course, Valhalla (an E) had to check her out immediately. "HEY! Who are you? Do you live here, too? I've never seen you before, are you sure you live here? Hey, is that a shell you're wearing? That sure is nice. Hmmm...I'd sure like a shell like that. Hey, gimme that shell! I said I like that SHELLLLLL! Mine! MINE!!"

Oy vey. Out for maybe 5 minutes, and she's already been evicted from her shell, the poor thing. She's in a land snail shell right now, and it's a little big for her, but it isn't bad for an emergency clothing change. It's a nice lightweight one too, so she's having an easy time getting around in her weakened post-molt state.

She's been gingerly exploring, eating honey, and munching on what's left of her exo. She's made her way over to the fresh water bowl, but having a hard time getting over the edge. I'll put in a shallower dish for her if she keeps having troubles

I'll post a pic as soon as I can. She looks so pretty in her new dusky pinky/purple Exo.

It's a two-fer!! Shelldon came up today, too! At first I didn't know what that yellow glob was in the corner, and as I got closer, I realized it was Shelldon, STILL in his painted big bird shell.

That shell is so small for him, he can't even pull his legs in. When he saw me coming, he couldn't even pull into his shell...he just ducked his eyes down and pulled his legs all close together--poor boy. I'm beginning to worry that he's painted into his shell. How long can they survive being painted into their shells?

woohoo!!! amazing! cant wait for pics. i feel sry for her tho with the whole shell thing oh well i bet she's gotten bigger anyway! lol again congrats

I love the post - the E chatter is just so typical. I have several PPs who I NEVER see unless I do a major clean or rearrange. It's fun, despite the hard work, right? We just deep cleaned our 55G and 10G tonite so we had all kinds of chaos. Congrats on spotting the MIAs.

MamaZelly wrote:It's a two-fer!! Shelldon came up today, too! At first I didn't know what that yellow glob was in the corner, and as I got closer, I realized it was Shelldon, STILL in his painted big bird shell.

That shell is so small for him, he can't even pull his legs in. When he saw me coming, he couldn't even pull into his shell...he just ducked his eyes down and pulled his legs all close together--poor boy. I'm beginning to worry that he's painted into his shell. How long can they survive being painted into their shells?

Congrats on the molt(s). If you haven't done (or known) so already, you may try dabbing some extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil lightly on the openings and surfaces of clean, empty shells to coax hermit crabs into changing shells. Good luck!

I'm 99% certain that Shelldon has no idea where the shells are. That's not helping. I've got two soap dish shelle shoppes up on the wall, and since this is the first time he's been above ground since moving him into this crabitat (months ago!), he very likely has no clue.

I'll dab some olive oil on the shells and see if he figures it out.

Mishell's been sitting in the worm castings/cuttlebone dish behind some leaves, so I haven't been able to take a pic....Maybe if I'm feeling brave I'll take her out to get a pic. I usually don't handle my crabs, and I feel SO guilty when I do!! But she looks so pretty in her new exo, I'd hate to miss getting a pic while it's still new.

Ooooh! Congrats on the molts!

I hope Sheldon swaps over soon.

Here she is!



And our resident mischief maker, Valhalla, who chased her out of her comfy old shell

Cool!

And Shelldon finally changed out of his Big Bird shell!!

All I know for sure is that he's in a turbo...I have so many extra shells in there that I couldn't tell exactly which one was missing. I'm just glad he's out of that awful painted yellow thing. I haven't seen him since the change--He's probably back in the moss pit. Seems to be his refuge of choice.