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I fell in love with crabbies when I was little. I didn't
think much of it until a couple of years ago when I took
my kids on vacation to Florida to visit their grandmother.
While we were there they got introduced to the usual Florida
children pastimes of trying to catch every lizard there.
When we took a trip to Cocoa Beach and they say their
first crabbies. I fell in love immediately and pretended
to relent to buying one. I bought the little critter keeper
to keep him in and ended up going back the next day and
buying a friend. I went to walmart and bought caves and
searched all the pet stores for shells. (By the way --
just cause your in Florida, doesn't mean the pet stores
carry shells) Anyway, I fell in love with my two little
guys (David and Goliath) and smuggled them onto a plane
by hiding them in the cave and hoping they wouldn't come
out of hiding while I went through airport security. I
concocted this amazing story of how the critter keeper
had sand shells and a cave in it to show the second grade
class what Florida looks like. I didn't get to use it
though, they let me through without a hassle. When I came
back to Colorado I set up a ten gallon tank and bought
more cool caves and within a couple of months I had two
tens and a twenty long. in January of this year I spent
$1,000 of my tax return on my crabbies. I bought them
a 100 Gallon tank, , tons of caves, I went to the hermie
hut and spent at least $100 on shells of all different
colors, shapes and sizes (mostly Turbos, it's their favorites),
heaters and a water fall. I also ended up with four new
crabbies for the welcome home(Four Jumbos, bigger than
a baseball, they don't even fit in my fist) I found them
crammed in a 10 Gallon tank at a pet store and brought
them home that day. It will never be over, I already have
about another $1,000 spent for next years on an addition,
probably another 100 Gallon tank, and definitely more
caves. You can't have too many caves
When I was in high school, I got a pair of hermies for
a friend for her birthday. It was my way of expressing
my secret desire to own some. Since I was getting ready
to head off to college, and I'm technically not allowed
to have animals that come out of tank (they get bathed
and played with behind closed doors), I waited to get
some. One day I was out at the mall with a few friends
when I saw a whole bunch for sale at couch house gifts
and impulsively brought a pair home with me. I was very
curious about my new pets so I began to research how to
properly take care of them. I then went through a succession
of Kritter keepers and tanks until the 15 Gallon one I
have now (its all that will fit in my closet of a dorm
room!) Since then, my pair as grown to 14 tiny/small,
and one golf ball-sized hermies. When I move into a bigger
dorm room next year, I plan to buy add either another
10 or 15 Gallon tank so I can expand my bunch!
From: Redjln
| 19/04/2004
I and the man I live with, are allergic to cats. With
our work schedules, a dog would not get the attention
it need to thrive, because it would be alone for about
8 to 10 hours during the week. My dear boyfriend is also
not a big fan of birds, and so we had a fish tanks While
that is great something was missing from it. I love our
fish, but I wanted something I could interact with more
than stare at. I have a bit of fear of Lizards, and did
not want to go there. I had a hermit crab once before,
when I was 17, not it was 10 years later and after a ton
of research on the internet (as people get to know me,
they discover I have this wonderful love of gathering
information on things). I then felt really bad, as I found
out that my poor hermit from long ago might not have died,
but molted and that bothers me greatly that the lack of
information. This time, I promised myself to get all the
information I need and ask questions when I had to. Beyond
that feeling of guilt, I decided to get a pair of hermit
crabs, Vader and Spongebob.
Little did I know that they were addictive. Two became
five which now has grown to thirteen crabs, and it is
basically because it is not very hard to have that number
of pets. There are not many animals that can live in that
number together in a single tank. I will admit, with that
number, sometime I get confused about who is who, so I
started a journal. I have lots of little crabs, and at
times I think they are very young like infants are learning
about their world, the bigger ones seem to have more stable
personalities to them. The little one do like to play
this game that I call "Let confuse mom" by swapping
shells all the times. We have about 3 shells per crab
for them to choose from, and they all seem to like shells
the other's have been in best. Turbos are a favorite,
and I actually enjoy trying to go out and find shells
for the crew that are nice enough for the humans to look
at, as well as wonderful for them to call home. I have
discovered that my crew seems to have great time interacting
with me, or each other, and sleep together in mass in
the tank. That they do actually know me from my boyfriend,
and actually a few crabs seem to respond better to his
voice than mine. (He calls them his crabs.)
I am planning mentally a tank remodel, and thinking of
getting 55 gallon long tank, but I am not seeking to get
any more crabs. I currently have a 29 gallon tank that
I have named "Crabville". I use three types
of substrate, as I have sand and Forrest bedding in containers
so if someone digs down for a molt, I can remove the whole
container. The main substrate is some oceans stone gravel
that is smooth. I also have a climbing toy and rock ledge
for them to climb upon. A choya log, a coconut hut, a
coconut hut that my boyfriend specially made for the "big
guys" and a rock cave. I also have a 10 gallon molting
tank with Forrest bedding in it. I have Kritter Keeper
as well for an ISO unit for my larger guys. I also have
two rubber maid containers (the tops have wholes in them
for air exchange) that I can use for isolation units in
the ISO, and a tank divider that becomes climbing toy
when the crabs are done molting. They usually climb to
the top of it when the molt is over. I have not idea how
much I have spent on them, and I am always looking to
make their living conditions better. However, I know because
they are molting and surviving, and are fairly active
they seem to be happy. Plus, I have no concerns about
leaving them alone while I am work. That's why I am happy
to call myself a crabber.
From: Dawn
| 19/04/2004
Many years ago I had a marine aquarium and discovered
the fascination of marine hermit crabs. I even had a successful
molt for a couple of them. Totally fascinating but keeping
salt water aquariums is very difficult and was even more
so back then (1980's) so when I finally killed all of
them by accident by heating their replacement tank water
in a coffee maker with copper tubing I left the marine
aquarium life behind. In March of 2003 my son went to
6th grade camp on the coast of California. He met a cute
little marine hermit crab there and told us lovely stories
about it. I heard they had land hermit crabs at a mall
kiosk and wanted to get *him* a few pets that would spur
his interest in science. When I visited the kiosk I was
not impressed with the instructions they gave, knowing
that the marine ones required special care so I kept looking
for somewhere they looked better cared for. We brought
two home from Petco and I learned more on websites about
their care. We bought several more and upgraded the 10
gallon tank to a 25 gallon. Then several more and more
hidey places, climbing things, water dishes, sponges,
and finally a 60 gallon tank found at a close-out price.
Now I'm cleaning sand and inspecting for PMS (pre-molting
symptoms)..I'm the crab wrangler at our house. Not the
boy - he's interested but not nearly as much as hubby
and me. Hubby gives the baths when I'm cleaning the tank.
We're hooked.
The love of these little creatures stems probably from
the fact that without our care they could not survive
in our part of the world. They are totally dependent on
us for every aspect of their lives. They worry us with
their molting and their needs. They thrill us with their
antics during the night and their successful molts. We
worry over little displays of dominance and possible shell
fights but we just couldn't imagine not having them in
our lives. I've had every type of pet in the world, just
about but these are the best pet I've ever had. They each
have a different personality and even when they all wear
the same sort of shell and appear to look the same, I
can tell them each apart. Hubby loves those little eyes
and their little feelers. With lots of luck and as much
knowledge as I can gather I hope to have these little
guys for 2 dozen more years (or more!).
From: dee
| 21/04/2004
My husband and I started crabbing 2 years ago this month.
Our daughter and family moved here from Florida 2 years
ago and brought us a little hermie. We didn't even know
what it was. We called him hermie. Our daughter told us
where we could get him a buddie here in Ft Worth. Well,
we checked them out and now we have 50. We love them better
than any other pets. Anyway hermie will be 2 on April
24th. He hasn't molted or changed shells yet. We keep
hoping.
crabsie
From: BlueMoon
| 21/04/2004
I bought my first hermit crab in 1981, at my mother's
recommendation. She had seen hermit crabs in the classrooms
while a substitute teacher. First crab only lasted a year,
because the books that were out back then were terrible
and there was no internet. I decided not to crab again,
because it was just too sad.
In 2002, 20 years after first crab's death, I was chatting
on the internet with someone who was kidding around about
buying 5 hermit crabs and naming them after the members
of *NSYNC. This was based upon a clip on MTV of JC Chasez
picking up a tiny hermie on a Caribbean photo shoot, and
pretending to be the crocodile hunter with the hermie
being the croc.
Anyway, I told my online friend...forget about it. The
hermit crabs are too delicate. They just drop dead. Then
it suddenly dawned on me to research on the net, and to
see if there was any info on how hermit crabs actually
should be kept, for I instinctively knew I had done something
very wrong with my first crab. I just didn't know what
I'd done wrong. I stumbled upon several great websites,
and two years later, here I am. I have been crabbing with
my 21st century crabs exactly 2 years today. I have 12
crabs, mostly Caribbean, but a few exotics in the mix
too.
My original crab rescued on April 20, 2002 from a frog
setup, is still alive, knock wood. His name is Atlas and
all the girl crabs fight over who gets to hang around
with him. He always has a circle of girls around him at
nap time, for he is very handsome, and doesn't mind if
they climb on his shell. The key was 70% humidity. None
of the 1982 books, which sadly are still on the library
shelves, mentioned this. The info back in the 80's was
really terrible.
In July 2002 I was visiting my hubby at Ft. Sill. We
went to the local mall to look around, and came upon a
Coach House gifts with an FMR set-up. Being an inland
girl, I had never seen a hermit crab! I was fascinated
by the small creatures climbing all over the set-up, in
their brightly colored shells (yes I know now, YUCK!).
They were the most exotic looking critters I had ever
seen, and it was love at first site. I had a birthday
coming up, so I told my husband that was what I wanted
for my birthday, one of these amazing creatures. He gave
in, but thought I was nuts. The sales lady did know enough
to tell me I needed a pair, as they were social and needed
a buddy. So, I got a 3 gal KK set-up, a care book, and
a pair of purple pinchers. Fortunately I insisted on buying
a bottle of commercial food also, even though the lady
told me that they subsisted on a diet of popcorn, once
a week!
I took them back to the housing, and set up their little
crabitat. Sure enough, at about 10 o'clock PM (after I
turned out the lights) they slowly started to stir, and
began checking out their new surroundings. They had a
little wire climbing background with coral and sponges
attached, and were all over it. I wanted to stay up all
night watching them, but hubby insisted I sleep. By the
time we set out for home, I was already wishing I had
gotten a few more!
Once home I began researching, fortunately learning about
temperature/humidity needs, molting, PPS, etc. I went
to the local petstore to check out supplies, and to my
delight they had a crab set-up- so of course I began slowly
adding to my collection. I upgraded to a 10G, then a 20L,
and now have a 40B and 2 10G tanks. 2 years later, I am
still hooked- I intend to make this a lifelong hobby,
and still spend countless hours staring into my tanks.
I got my first hermit crab when I was about 5 or 6 years
old. Mom and I are both ardent animal lovers, and have
always had at least one pet, usually several. We had a
huge hermie (well, when you're five years old, it is)
and I named him Hermes. [ I was five. I shouldn't have
to explain myself. ] He only lived a short while, that
I remember, but it made an impression, for sure!
About four years ago, I decided to get hermies again.
My first one was Scooter, I had him two years. I didn't
really know much about hermies, or their care; I've had
several since then; a few were lost to PPS; one had a
fungal infection; Big Ben had a bad moult.
I now have 7 hermies: Mike (rug.), Ike (rug.) and Spike
(Carib) in one tank; Teeny (Carib), Tiny (Ecu), Naked
Guy (Carib), and The One In The White Shell (Carib) in
another. I hope to get a big tank eventually, so all my
hermies have room to explore, dig, hide, climb, soak,
eat, doze, and moult.
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