Crab eating the sponge

Crabby Abby · Post by **Crabby Abby** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:57 pm

We run a/c in my house so I have the two vents in the LR shut but wanted to up the humidity a little so I added a plastic dish of water with a sea sponge in it. I saw Sport sittin on top, king of the mountain if you will, pressing the sponge down onto the rim of the cup and sqeezing off drops of water. I thought he wanted to wet the substrate more but then he climbed down and faced it and I noticed he's not squeezing out the water, he's eating miniscule pieces of sponge. Makes me glad I boiled them earlier. Just another odd crabby behavior to be noted. Need more fiber Sport?

NewCrabber · Post by **NewCrabber** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:08 pm

It's not really all that odd. Some of mine had a fancy for sea sponge when I used them. They would go so far as to drag them out of the dish and on occasion, pull/carry them into their log hut or under greenery. So don't be surprised if it goes missing. LOL

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:14 pm

Sponges have cellulose in them....so does popcorn. Maybe he's trying to tell you something?

Crabby Abby · Post by **Crabby Abby** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:23 am

He just needs more cellulose I guess. They do get shrimp exo, popcorn and corncobs rather frequently but maybe I'll increase the offerings and look into getting some mangrove plants.Anyway, I just visited Epicurean Hermit to see what other ways I can offer it and found this little morsel on popcorn which I thought was interesting enough to share. Note the last line. I didn't realize just how much nutritional value popcorn had.From EC:Popcorn is a great treat for your crabs. It is full of cellulose, which they need for converting to chitin during the molting process. It is high in carbohydrates, which should be one of the three building blocks of their nutrition. And surprisingly enough, it is moderate to high in the following vitamins and minerals: magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, thiamin, riboflavin and B6.