Posts Tagged ‘hermit crabs’

Crab Races!

{ July 24, 2008 @ 2:49 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Today we took out four of the more active and friendly crabs and played with them.  We discovered that we probably don’t take them out enough as a few of us got pinched! Despite this (and the fact that we had to lock up Mr. Biscuit to keep him from eating the crabs!) it was quite entertaining. The crabs crawled all over the chair we put them on, the pillows and each other. After a bit the kids even decided to have a crab race!

Here are the four contenders; Mr. Crabs, Olive, Irma and Zippy.
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And they’re off!
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Mr. Crabs crossed the finish line so quickly that I didn’t get a picture! Irma was a close second.
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It was a close finish, but Olive won third place by a hair.
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The winner’s circle :)
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OK, it was pretty silly but we had a good time and the crabs seemed to enjoy their excursion as well!

 

 

 

No crabs were harmed in the making of this blog.

Crabby Update

{ July 17, 2008 @ 9:04 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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There have been a few changes in the crab tank since my last blog post on the subject. Namely the addition of Zippy, Violet and Spaz. That brings the total to nine crabs, although three are small enough to only equal one ;)

Spaz was a Mother’s day gift from the kids :) =) and was rescued from the Crab Kiosk while Violet and Zippy were purchased on a whim one day while picking up rat supplies at Petsmart. Spaz was in pretty bad shape and changed his shell immediately upon being placed in the tank. It was really kind of sad :( He has spent most of his stay with us buried so far, but he did come up today and a managed to get a shot of him.

That’s him in the spotted shell, Zippy is behind him. They were conversing with their feelers.
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In case you were wondering he got named for his personality while we were transporting him home but he has rather failed to live up to the name! Zippy too was named for his speediness, but he is still zippy ;) Violet has an absolutely gorgeous violet colored pincher claw that I was unable to get a picture if since she’s underground at the moment.

I think it’s funny how they all have such distinct personalities! Irma is very active and outgoing. Here she is doing the *Attack of the Killer Hermit Crab* routine.
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She loves climbing the towers and the netting behind them.

Mr. Crabs is very much like her when he’s above ground. He has been buried for awhile but emerged today so things should start looking lively around here!
dscf1159.jpg Pigwidgeon is very active as well and friendly, as is Zippy.

Edmund, Demeter, Spaz and Violet spend the magority of their time under the sand, Edmund even to the point of going under every day and only coming out when everyone is in bed to eat and drink. Angel is also shy and lazy. She rarely moves from her favorite spot behind the castle ruins and will pull into her shell at the slightest provocation. Edmund will threaten with his claw, but has never pinched. Demeter pinches all the time but is so small it hardly matters LOL!

The biggest change to the tank itself is the addition of the Tower Bridge that you can see in the pictures above. They love to dig under it
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Here is a view of the whole tank
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A new Crabitat!

{ April 18, 2008 @ 3:31 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Last weekend W, the kids and I took a trip to the local mall. At said mall, they have a *crab shack* kiosk. I’ve never stopped at it before, but it caught B’s eye and so we went over to have a look and play with the crabbies.

Ugh. I shouldn’t have. Those crabs were not happy crabs! They had barely any water and some were so big they were literally busting out of their shells! Poor things :( K was nearly in tears (Ok, maybe she wasn’t  that upset but she’s a sensative child) and both she and B were begging me to let them *rescue* one. I caved and let them get one crab, which was sent home in a plastic shopping bag with a scoop of sand (where’s the really angry icon when you need it?).

At any rate, once we got Sir Edmund (what? He likes to climb!) home we were faced with a dilema. The 10 gallon tank we had set up as a Crabitat was barely big enough for the five crabs we had, and Edmund was no tiny crab! Hmmmm…..what to do? While we thought, I put the poor guy in the travel tank.

The solution became obvious soon enough. We had a 29 gallon tank set up as an aquarium that currently housed an ornery cichlid. He refused to share his tank, promptly eating any critter we put in the tank. I figured if he couldn’t share, he’d get the smaller tank!  We decided Edmund would be fine spending the night in the travel tank and we would begin the transfer in the morning.

Come morning B and M pitched in and helped W and I put the other five crabs in their travel tank, clean out the 10 gallon, transfer Pierre, clean out the 29 gallon, get it ready for the crabs and (finally) put them in their new home.  *phew!*  B was very helpful, carrying buckets of water to the sink, helping measure the depth of sand in the large tank and cleaning up spills.  M mostly *took care* (read held the travel tank and talked to) the crabs. 

After a morning of hard work the transformation is complete! The crabbies now live in the swanky digs you see below and Pierre the cichlid is actually much happier in the smaller tank. Go figure!

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The crabs are very much enjoying themselves, moving around the additional space and co-habitating peacefully with their new friend.  At least now they are, Edmund buried himself for the first 4 days and only emerged today.

Here’s a pic of the new guy: dscf0653.jpg

Here are the big girls, Irma and Angel, with Mr. Crabs climbing up:
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and here is little Pigwidgeon! dscf0661.jpg

and a better picture of Mr. Crabs dscf0688.jpg

Can you tell I just figured out how to use the Macro setting? ;)

Just for the record, I reccomend doing your research before owning hermit crabs.  The habitats sold at the kiosk are really not all that suitable.  We recently found a very good book on crabs at our library.  It is called Keeping Unusual Pets-Hermit Crabs by Tristan Boyer Binns.  It gets nearly everything right and is easy for kids to read with lots of pictures and easy to understand directions.

Learning all the time-Hermit Crabs

{ February 15, 2008 @ 6:16 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Every once in a while we have something happen in our everyday life that becomes a huge learning opportunity all on it’s own.  Becoming the owner of five hermit crabs last fall was one of those things. 

When  a friend asked if we would be willing to take them since her kids were no longer interested in them I though *sure, what’s another tank of critters?*.  We are pretty well known in our circle of friends as The Zoo so they know who to ask LOL!  Once confirming they came with a place to live, delivery was arranged.

They arrived in a five gallon tank with a soap dish for a bathtub a few extra shells, some goldfish pellets for food and a book about hermit crabs.  They seemed happy enough and the kids were really excited.  They named them Angel, Irma, Mr. Crabs, Pigwidgeon and Demeter. 

Being the obsessive person that I am, I quickly went on-line and did some research into hermit crabs.  All the sites I read said the same things; they needed more room, more stuff and more heat and moisture. 

Sooooo…we headed to the pet store.  We came back with a ten gallon tank, a tank warmer, some more sand, two deeper *bathtubs* (one for salt water, one for fresh), a piece of cork, calcium chews, sponges (to keep the air moist), two small pots (for hiding), one fake log and some fake plants.

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Now the crabs live in the marvelous *Crabitat* you see above.  Not only was a great deal of money spent, but a lot was learned as well. 

The kids learned about:

Hermit Crab care

how hermit crabs breathe (with gills)

humidity and how to measure it-what a hydrometer is

best way to monitor temperature in a tank

which plants are poisonous to hermit crabs

what molting is

difference between crabs and snails

depth and volume (while filling the tank with the correct amount of sand)

measurement (of crab shells)

cost analysis of various types of sand and other substrate products, foods and decorations

where cork comes from

They even Incorporated some other subjects by:

Painting pictures of their crabs (art)

setting up the crabitat to be visually appealing (interior design? art?)

talking about the crabs to M’s class and the kids at mom’s group (public speaking, oral reports)

We even have a book list (you knew this was coming right?)

A House for Hermit Crab

Is This a House for Hermit Crab?

Hermit Crabs for Dummies

Hermit Crabs-a complete owners manual

And a list of websites

http://www.hermitcrabs.org/

http://www.hermit-crabs.com/

http://www.crabbytalk.com/