HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been working on several adoptions which are pending and today I picked up two new crabs! The woman I picked them up from had said they were Jumbos, and honestly I didn't think they would be because they were her teenage son's crabs he'd ordered online and lost interest in and she didn't seem to know much about them. I'm thinking one may be a Jumbo, the other a large (just by eyeballing).

This is Barge. Barge was in a huge fox shell but he already changed into this too-small turbo.


And the larger of the two, Marina came in this gorgeous, but heavy cabbage murex and changed into this turbo. It is so small it only covers her bum and when she retracts into it her eye stalks barely fit. There are plenty of other choices, including turbos their size but both chose too small shells.



In my last post I forgot one of my E molters, Fifi (shame on me). She is kind of the color of buttered toast now.


And Admiral finished his molt up and changed color quite a bit and I think looks amazing. He finally switched that pica shell he came in.


And just because they've been so active tonight here's what they've been up to.

Slipknot is up to no good, as usual-clearly.


Titanic is dreaming big.


As you can see, shy Marina is about the same size as my cochut.


Barge and Shoal share a meal.


And the twins, Buoy and Gangplank are trying to mess with my head agian, but I know which is which.

The twin E's!! Eeekkk. So cute!

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Beautiful adoptees ... and BIG! Love that they both moved into too-small shells -- maybe it's a security blanket snugness thing or they haven't been exposed to shell choices in so long, they have no idea of their current size and just grabbed the first ones they could get into. My largest crab, Big Enzo, has a penchant for small shells, checks them out daily and you can just read his frustration that his crabbie butt is way too big for any of them .

The Es are adorable: Fifi's coloring is gorgeous and the twins' shells are lovely -- I don't think I've seen that pattern before but they certainly have good taste. You can just hear them shell shopping: "I saw this pattern first!"..."But it looks better on me!"..."Well, we can both take them as long as we're not seen in the same place"..."Better idea! We'll both wear them and confuse everybody! HeeHee!"

Thanks guys!

It was a bit of a strange adoption, the woman and her son where characters, let's just put it that way, and the crabs were kind of pawns in a power struggle between warring divorced parents......But now they have a new home, and they appear healthy, happy, normal crabs. They'd had a pretty decent set up which the teen wanted to sell me but I didn't want to buy.

Crabinski wrote:Beautiful adoptees ... and BIG! Love that they both moved into too-small shells -- maybe it's a security blanket snugness thing or they haven't been exposed to shell choices in so long, they have no idea of their current size and just grabbed the first ones they could get into. My largest crab, Big Enzo, has a penchant for small shells, checks them out daily and you can just read his frustration that his crabbie butt is way too big for any of them .

They are WAY bigger than I expected (even though she told me they were big-many think mediums are huge when they are used to seeing the little guys). They look really silly in those shells, especially Marina-hers looks like a diaper. LOL

Crabinski wrote:The Es are adorable: Fifi's coloring is gorgeous and the twins' shells are lovely -- I don't think I've seen that pattern before but they certainly have good taste. You can just hear them shell shopping: "I saw this pattern first!"..."But it looks better on me!"..."Well, we can both take them as long as we're not seen in the same place"..."Better idea! We'll both wear them and confuse everybody! HeeHee!"

So many funny pic captions for twins.

beautiful crabbies!! You photos come out so nice and clear. All of their colors are just amazing! The twin E's couldn't be cuter

Thanks Miranda. Thank goodness for digital cameras-you can just keep shooting until you get a decent pic! Everyone is settling in nicely. All the crabbies are being very nice and social with each other. Well, Slipknot was a little nasty in the first few minuets, as I've learned he is prone to do, but as he is also prone to do back offed quickly when push comes to shove.

I have two more adoptions I'm working on and then I'm DONE, at capacity, and I'll have a wonderful little colony with half my crabs having come from adoptions.

They are all so gorgeous!

Thanks JC! I'm so smitten with every single one of them!

I have noticed that E's tend to go for smaller shells, though, it might just be a species preference, but still pretty cool. Beautiful crabs of course, I just adopted four myself, two of them have already buried down.

Thanks Jarteta!

Marina has changed into a gorgeous jade turbo that fits here great! But Barge is still being stubborn.

When I got my adopted guy, he was a bordering on large pp in a painted yellow nautica type d-shaped opening shell. He could not fit back in there at all. It was just a butt cap basically. And even when he changed shells he didn't go back and tuck in the shell for a while. I think he was so used to not being able to that it didn't occur to him. It has made him a very bold and friendly guy though. Weird how they pick their shells!


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I can totally picture it!

OMG i love the crab thats "dreaming big" because i had a crab that changed into a huge shell and just couldnt handle it he quickly changed back out.