I must be doing something right! :)

[Rose7314]

Hmmmm no I don't think I have seen any of my crabs act like that before. That's really interesting though. Poor thing, she's probAbly afraid of heights and timid. Plastic canvas sounds good. I'm contemplating on taking what little money I have left and heading to the craft store to find new things for them. I really still haven't seen much of my crabs, especially McKenna and Rocky. They're my only ones that haven't molted yet so I'm wondering of that's what's going on. I hear them knocking around at night so I know they're still alive at least lol I got apples yesterday, contemplating on smothering them in honey like you do lol

[Rose7314]

So I guess today was national "Bully Crab" day in my tank. My crabs all decided to come out and Hermie, Mckenna, and Hermie Jr. had a little jaunt and then they went back into hiding. Apparently they didn't get the memo. Rocky was sitting by the water dish minding his own business when B.J. walks up to him real close, face to face, and everything seemed fine because they were just touching each other with their feelers. Then B.J. decides to rear up and place his claws on Rocky's face and I swear I thought he was going to pinch off poor Rocky's eyes! Rocky didn't even do anything, he just sat there letting B.J. invade his space. Then B.J. must've got bored and he got off of Rocky and just walked away. Then Hurby walks up behind Rocky as Rocky was trying to get into the water dish and Hurby wrapped his legs and claws around Rocky's shell and pulled him backwards so that Rocky rolled back and was on his back. Rocky pulled into his shell a little but leg his legs hang out. I was like "What the heck is going on?!". Then Hurby strolled over to the water dish and climbed in and then climbed out. Emperor of the water dish much? It was kinda funny because Rocky just laid there on his back with his legs sticking out and he finally came out. Then Hurby decided to go over to Hermie Jr. to where she was half buried and tried to pull her out of the ground and roll her over. ugh

[Nia]

Sorry it took me a bit to reply. Lol yea my boys have those days oy male PMS it is worse than ours . My boys have these days too but not very often lol once a month, *nudge* see what I'm sayin lol. They do have bouts of dominance and seem to change it often lol. I only have two boys and Herc can have tude for 10 on his pms days lol. He rears up to everyone which usually sends everyone in a "Godzilla panic run", a run for your life its Godzilla type of thing. Never seen them scatter like that before lol. They aren't even that afraid of me esp when I first got them lol. He has his moments too where he is king of the apple, food bowl, water, calci bowl, n what ever else he thinks he is king of lol. If you try to put in something new then honey it it goes over better . Mine love them without the honey now too. I made the mistake of giving them a bowl of honey so I could continue packing n essh what a mess lol. That took about a 1 hour out of my work to scrub them all n everything out of there down lol. Once I get them in the bath I can't get them out . If you bowl honey just give them a few drops lol. I gave mine a 1/2 a tablespoon since they are piggies lol.
I threw in a bowl like their salt water bowl (a small but deep container). I could fill their water 10 times a day lately. It has been really warm in here ><. Think I nee to take a few eggs out tho cause they get mad that it isn't as deep as it was lol. I was worried about hearts tho since she a lil clumsy lol.
Managed to find my box of flowers so I set that aside with their stuff for the move. Still packing lol I think I am holding it up cause I am trying to go thru stuff and get rid of as much as I can n its driving the hubby up the wall lol. Its hard when you only have 2 ppl to move 4 and a house hold of stuff ><. Not to mention things just keep coming up n they are never good ><. To much to fast and not a second to really have a reaction. Lol think all of this is going to send me to the crazy farm, ugh lol.

[Rose7314]

Hmm I should try a small dish of honey, that's a good idea. Lol omg I can only imagine what a mess it would make! I wouldn't even want to hold them after lol I feel bad because Rocky just takes the abuse like a man instead of fighting back, and he is ten times bigger than them and could do some real damage. Stupid teenagers bugging the old man next door lol Hopefully the PMS will not happen again anytime soon! Lol yeah male PMS is probably worse than ours! Lol I worried about mine too when it comes to the salt water dish but so far so good and they can all get out without any rocks or anything in it. I love seeing them cruise around the edges and hang out by it Ugh I don't even want to think about packing up my house! I don't have to move until May and I am not looking forward to it Are you moving into a bigger house at least? Yeah I don't blame you, it would all send me to the funny farm too! This will be my third time moving and we still haven't found a good place within our budget. *sigh* Hopefully I can keep my crabs in this next house. If not I will be extremely sad. It was so hard having to give my dog and chinchilla away, don't want to have to do it again. Good luck!

[Nia]

Yea its much bigger for us then what we are in atm. It is a temporary situation tho since we will need a bigger place later. Plus more yard room cause there isn't much there atm lol but its a leg up in the right direction. Best you can do if you have to tell them about the crabs is say they stay in the pen n never get/come out lol. That is usually what they worry about anyway.
Lol yea mine seem to only happen at least once a month. It does seem to diminish when they have other things to do tho. Since the vines they are to busy playing lol. Now when he wants to be moody he just goes in the back n hides rather than get moody to the others. Now mind you it is apple night so that may change lol. There is usually a minor tiff if someone touches the apple slices before he does lol. Mr. I have to be first to the apple bowl . He is clearly the boss atm lol.
Yea I worry just cause they aren't very wide bowls that someone will stand on the other n then they can't get out. He doesn't often pay attention to who his big butt mows over lol.

[Rose7314]

Aw man temporary moves stink! Do you rent? That's what's hard for us is that we have certain requirements for where we live. In the country, backyard, three bedrooms, etc etc. ugh. Omg I put honey in their dish last night and a couple hours later I found three of them swarmed around the bowl like they worshipping it. I have never seen them do that before! Honey really is like a drug to them lol yeah they're like children, as long as they have something to do they are happy lol a crab pile up! That would be hilarious

[Rose7314]

I went to the dollar store and found fake vines and flowers! Soooo excited!

[Nia]

Oh you will have to let me know how they react to it lol. Mine are on it all the time so I am curious if yours will too. Glad that yours loves the honey too. Lol they are very funny with it. Did yours run around like crazy kids on a sugar high after they ate it the first time too?

Oh I forgot to mention: If it has wire in it try and take it out. Sometimes they slide out really easy if they do. Others not so much lol but it makes it easier to glue in strands without the wires too.

[Rose7314]

They must've been exploring the vines a little by last night because they were moved but I haven't seen them show too much interest yet. The other vines dried out and died lol well after I saw them huddled around the food dish I went to bed so I'm not sure if they were running around with sugar highs lol but I do here them knocking around all night long so I'm sure they must yes they do have wires in them, I'll have to try to take them out cause they are just awkwardly sitting in the dirt right now. I am so proud of Hermie! She's finally becoming less scared and shy. I had them all out and the kids were playing with them while I was redoing their tank and I saw Tyler putting Hermie down on the floor and I was shocked. She was totally relaxed and chilling out of her shell when he picked her up and put her down. Normally she shuts right up in her shell and will not come out for hours. Then when I put them all back in the tank she normally runs and hides in the hut but this time she was the only one that stayed out for hours exploring. My little girl is growing up! I kept telling her how proud I was of her and Tyler kept looking at me funny lol I was holding McKenna and telling her how cute she is. They were all piling up on each other and we had to save McKenna from the madness lol it was so much fun. How's everything going for you?

[Nia]

How do they like their vines? Sorry things have been so very crazy here as we wrap things up. Just more n more crazy everyday lol. Crabs are crazy as ever well they were mad at me until today lol. I forgot to give them apples on fri for the first time ever >< So not happy. Oh did I get terror lol. They have been banging everything, knocked over both their pools. Moved everything around n broke some shells, oh it was really the worst temper tantrum ever lol. Melt down that only my son could match lol. They had their apples for 2 days now to make up for it n now they are calm lol. Other than all that they are doing good lol. How are yours?

[Rose7314]

It's okay, I've had a lot happening here too. When do you guys make the big move? Hahaha omg that is a terrible melt down! Shows how smart they are im glad they were happy after you made it up to them but shame on them for acting like spoiled brats lol they still didn't show any interest in the vines so I just took them down and I will probably try using them for something else. I live 20 minutes from a beach so I went to the beach and got a big bucket of sand and redid their whole tank. I got tired of seeing it look so crappy with hardly anything for them to climb on so I got some branches from my backyard and broke them up and put those in. Well they absolutely love the branches and love to climb all over them and sit on them like little birds. B.J. has a spot where he sits and stares into the kitchen and watches me cook lol the tank looks ten times cooler now and I think they are much happier because they can actually get away from each other now when they want to. Their shell shop is on a second level an last night we heard a loud bang and my boyfriend jumped out of bed and I was like whatever, it's probably just the crabs. This morning I see that someone pushed a lot of the shells out of the shop. I hope no one was below! Hurby was bullying B.J. this weekend and I put them face to face and Hurby grAbbed B.js big claw and they locked claws and I heard this awful crack and I freaked out and made them split up and I thought that someone's claw was surely broken but they seem fine. Lesson learned, don't make crabs make up lol McKenna molted and I didn't even realize that's why she had disappeared for so long. I thought she was just being shy still lol I'm so happy because I looked at her this weekend and saw her big claw was purple and she was all shiny and had her little nails and no stubbies. Yay! And I found her little leg and some of her old body in the dirt when I was cleaning their tat and that made me even more thrilled lol so now I'm 5 for 6 crabs that have molted. But wait, there's more! I have had a streaker incident and I thought for sure my crab wasn't going to make it but he seems to be doing just fine with the great advice from people on here. I saw B.Js old shell empty and I got all excited and was rooting around for him to see why new shell she had moved into. Well, I lifted up their bridge and saw this awful pale looking crab laying on his side under it and my heart sunk and I thought for sure it was a dead crab. The poor thing even had a small shell over it. I saw some exoskeleton under it and I thought two crabs must've got in alight and one was eating the other. I wouldn't even let my step daughter look because I didn't want her to see dead crabs. Then he moved and I was like ooooh, he's molting! But then I started freaking out because I read stories about crabs molting above ground, but you never really know what to do until it happens to you. So I left him alone and made sure he was all shaded until I learned more about what to do with him and I was so scared The other crabs would hurt him. So I built a barrier and put him in a bowl on his side of the tank and sat his butt in a big shell and put the hut over him and left him alone. I don't have money to make a different tank for him. So luckily he adopted the new shell and slid in after a couple of hours. I was really confused because B.J just molted two months ago. So then later that day I was glad to see that Rocky was out moving around because he hasn't been very active lately. So I decided to take him out and hold him. A half hour later he still didn't come out of the shell so I picked the shell up an was looking at it and I'm like omg, this isn't Rocky! Rockys legs hang out of the shell when he is curled up in it and this crab is able to curl up all the way inside of it. Well, here's the big shocker. Apparently one night Rocky left his shell to molt and somehow B.J stole the shell from Rocky, whether it was right next to Rocky or not I don't know. So now poor Rocky was left without a shell, but luckily I had one that I had been waiting for him to move into and that was the one that he had to en up adopting. It's a lot bigger though because he can curl all the way up inside it. Hopefully he wi be able to with the new exo. So I feel bad because he obviously didn't find a deep enough spot to dig and molt and just gave up. With this Sandinista made a really deep end and dug him a little hole and put him in it with his exo and made sure he could breath and he seems to be doing greAt. I can see him and he's starting to turn a pretty purple and he's been munching on his exo. Anyway, sorry for rambling, that was my excitement for the weekend. Now all my crabs have molted and that makes me sooooo happy

[Nia]

Lol no worries. I know that excitement well . That is why Miss Hearts moved into a shell 100xs bigger than her . This shell was so big that she moved into the tiny point at the top and you couldn't see her at all. When she molted I guess she came out of her shell n Reese stole it. Boy did he get a stern talking to. He ended up leaving her shell anyway well not happily I should say. I stole it back away from him when he was checking out a new shell I put in to distract him lol. So I took her while she was in the huge shell and placed it opening on the side and placed her shell into the opening of the turbo. This worked well cause she moved back into her old shell with in a few days. She hasn't let that shell out of her sight since lol. Reese still is holding a bit of a grudge but he likes his new shell better so he has stop trying to steal it, well that n Herc bonked him on the head for it lol. No one messes with his girls n gets away with it . Oh n they are spoiled brats LOL. Sadly I probably do spoil them a bit to much . For me every life is a gift so I do over spoil em lol. I try and give them the best life possible while they are here and make them as happy as I can. I was the girl who would take that disabled or sick pet home n do my best to nurse it back to health/ give it as much love as possible before it passed. I usually get the call for ones who can't find a home cause of a disability or deformity. I never mind it and wish others realized they deserve love to . They can't help being different n its what makes them just that much more loveable.
We were set to have moved by now but with my Aunts death it may be having to be put off another month idk. We just don't think we will have the money to move and then turn around n come back with in a month. But idk what is going on atm. My Grandmom can't travel yet so we are waiting to see when she can n how long it will be until the funeral. If its months than we can go but if its weeks there is no point cause than we couldn't come back. Just basically waiting on a health update cause she just spent over a week in the hospital due to a blood clot cause her blood was so thick that it took that long to thin it out. In a way its a good thing they found that cause she wouldn't have know how thick her blood was actually getting without it. She faces a vein having to be drained, 6 to 8 months on blood thinners and possible surgery to remove the clot. So we are really concerned with all of that and if she will get better. What can I say lol when it hits the fan it always does it all at once lol. Well at least for us .

[Rose7314]

Yeah I hear ya, it does for us too. I'm sorry to hear that that's very stressful because either way your life is unsettled because you have your life packed up. I'm stressed out just trying to find an affordable home. In one ear I have my boyfriend saying we any buy a home of our own because of our debt and in the other ear I have everyone else telling me that we should go buy our own home and our debt shouldn't stop us. Ugh :/ it's like that with everything in my life. I'm at the point where I say screw it, it's our life, not yours, no matter how crappy it may seem. Anyway, I hope you guys are able to move soon. Yeah having to travel back and forth is no fun either. Yeah I was tempted to try to get Rocky his shell back but honestly that shell was getting to small for him anyway and this new one is ten times bigger. Lol your crabs are too funny yeah I'm the type of person that does the same thing for animals. I take in the unwanted ones. I've been helping my sister care for her crabs and she finally is listening to me and making them a proper crabitat so her crabs will molt and be happy and more active. I don't want them to die

[Nia]

Yea I'm the same anymore lol. To much yapping n you can't think at all lol so you just have to put on a headset n do your own thing . Idk what happened today tho for some reason Bat girl is in Reese's shell and Reese got booted into a smaller one ><. Bat girl crammed herself in his shell to cause she is way to big for it. The girls are being jerks to him today. Rushing him n picking on him. Idk if his big pincher is hurt or not but he won't open it at all n well he is rather sluggish . I hope that He is ok. He came out to eat a little honey off my finger but is acting afraid which is so unlike my Reese. Herc was even hiding from the girls today n he is the biggest. They surer are extremely crabby today n idk why at all. They have more than enough stuff in there esp food wise. I hope that his claw is ok tho it is unlike him to not open it when I hand him something. Its a lil unnerving how afraid he is now since he was always fearless. I'll let you know how things are soon.

[Rose7314]

Awwww poor Reese I hope he's okay too. Now it's the girls turn to pms I guess. Can you put a divider between them? Wow that was really mean of Bat Girl. Crabs are so weird. I caught McKenna spooning with Rocky this morning




I guess she must've missed him. It's too bad you can't take crabs out of their shells yourself, then you could switch them back. Defintely let me know how he's doing and give him some extra TLC