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April 14, 2005 12:45 PM
A sad note... one of my jumbos from Big House 1 (originally 2) passed away the other day,
attempting to molt. I also had to bury a small crab from Big House 2 on Easter
Sunday. The first I named Merlin II; the second, Easter. Merlin II was bought
with the third batch of "charity-crabs," the ones who had nothing wrong with
them (for the most part) except a bad water-dish.
seven in total--four jumbos, three small crabs. I'd been pouring water on Merlin
II, digging him in under the water dish, etc., giving him baths. It's a big
disappointment, and a sadness, as Merlin II was one of the more active crabs.
I'm pretty sure he had to be pretty near being totally blind near the end--his
eyes were so pale. I'm not sure why Easter died at all; it looked like he'd
never molted before in my care, and maybe that's why. He might've been from Arwen-Kali's
"batch," one of the small ones, and it's been about a year since I bought them.
On another note, the store in which I bought the third batch of charity-crabs and Arwen II-Kali VI, Bugs-n-Stuff, in Cincinnati Mills Mall, has closed. One of the employees there said they most likely would close, b/c people here in the suburbs just don't take well to giant millipedes, tarantulas, and giant hissing cockroaches. (Me, I don't like big spiders, but I held the rest and found them kind of cute.) This store was near the LensCrafters, where everyone asks about AK, b/c I bring her there with me in the warm months.
LensCrafters appears to be the only place she likes to go. Kali IV used to go everywhere with me, and she'd walk around and let people hold her (and sometimes pinch them b/c you could tell she was mostly comfortable when I was holding her.) Poor AK just pinches my shirt-sleeve or shirt with her little claw or the waschcloth in the small carrier and refuses to move at all. I might need a different "spokescrab," b/c part of what I do is show the crabs to people (especially kids) and try to teach them about them. Much as AK is the "favorite" she seems so scared of everything. When I brought her home last time she finally let go of the washcloth, obviously smelling "home!!!". She doesn't mind going outside, but as for taking her around places with me as I did with Kali IV, I don't know if it's going to work out.
I had all the crabs out the first nice day of the year (that I was off work and had the time). This was the first time both tanks mingled, and there were no problems, which is something, considering there are about 20 crabs left. Merlin II was still alive at the time (this is the day the above picture of him was taken). I put an ordinary front-door type rug on the floor of the Sandbox for them to walk on. Eventually I noticed there were less and less crabs. I lifted up the corner of the rug and found almost all of the crabs under there, all in this big, moving pile. Enough to gross out those co-workers who later saw the pictures. Some people don't like hermit crabs b/c they remind them of spiders, and a giant pile of hermit crabs isn't pretty to these folks. I thought the whole thing was rather cute, of course. Nevertheless I am forced to wonder if they are hiding b/c they don't like being in a different environment than their familiar tanks, or b/c they were too hot. The idea is to let them run around this big wooden Sandbox (3' by 3') and get them to actually move, not have them all hide like that.
February 28, 2005 5:53 PM I left Arwen-Kali (the crab on the home page, under Phobia) w/ Huge II's shell to play with while I ran my errands. Now she's in Huge II's shell. I need to get a picture. I would rather she were in her old shell, but it's all up to her, isn't it? Shall I rename her Arwen II-Kali VI-Huge IV? (She's already Arwen II-Kali VI.) This is the first period in several years where there hasn't been a Kali and a Huge together. The last was Huge III, who existed alongside and past Kali IV, and prior to Kali V, who lived less than a year. Ah, dynasties... Most of the newer crabs moved into shells of previous ones, thus inheriting the names. Aura II, George VII (tho I'm not sure what number I'm on), and there's actually an Arwen III alongside Arwen II-Kali VI. (There was, long ago, the strange instance in which George IV died before George III.) Even Saturn is in a different shell now. I found a bunch of shells and put them into the tank w/ all the little ones, the Miscellaney, and so they have all changed around again and I don't know who's who again.
February 24, 2005 8:21 PM I don't think I'm going to make that deadline after all. I added a lot of pictures today and I wrote a few more "articles" but everything with HTML takes so darn long! I also let everyone know what's updated and what's coming soon, as some of the links lead to things I haven't even created yet. My special favorite: check out the "Extra Shells" section for pictures of Digital changing shells, taken in rapid sequence--you can almost watch the process in person, as I did! My real-life hermit crabs have been largely left alone while I sat at this computer all this time, all these days. I'd say the site is now about 2/3 complete. I have a full-time job, so my time is limited, unlike when I used to work in a computer lab and got paid to sit around and work on computers. There is a definite end in mind for this site, even if the means to get there seem to be taking forever! When it's finished, I'm going to continue updating it with info learned here and there, and also from people's responses and questions, both to my e-mail and to the Hermit Crab Paradise Forum. I never intended this site to be an "informational" one--just a journal and some pictures. There's such a demand for information out there that I ended up adding it anyway. It's all based on a 7-page double-spaced 'article' I wrote for a college course a year and a half ago. Each "article" online is based off of a section or paragraph of that original article. Some things are so hard to explain, like molting and anatomy. For lack of references, I'm going to have to do my own anatomy sketches, and that's probably going to be the last section finished as a result.
February 17, 2005 1:22 AM I now have a deadline: there is a teacher who is going to let her class view this site in about 12 days! Now I have to work on the darned thing... finally. I've updated the Links page tonight. This place will probably look a little confused for a bit as I change the entire format. This entry is also for the benefit of a certain local individual who wrote me a letter asking why I hadn't updated this journal since August. Arwen-Kali goes out "visiting" with me in warmer months, and this is one of her "friends." People ask about her, which is nice. She is part of my family. And I now have proof that someone is truly watching...
As to the other hermit crabs, there have been a few recent molts. In Big House 1, Mean Little S. (name edited slightly) molted at the beginning of January. Very successful. A week or so later a small crab named Digital also molted. Would've been a success if not for MLS stealing Digital's shell before I even realized Digital had molted! Poor Digital was found "nekkid" in the water-dish. She immediately took the shell-choice I offered her, and I put her into the iso tank (not yet fitted out for temp and humidity). (See the "Shells" section for a frame-by-frame photo gallery of naked Digital moving into her new shell.)
Next night, I came home to crab-tracks in the sand. "Ah, good, Digital is moving around..." Naked again!! She wandered around in that state for a few hours (allowing me to get some much-needed anatomical photos for this site) and then finally calmed down (or just cooled off, temp-wise.) I located a shell I was sure MLS wouldn't want and gently "unwrapped" her and put her into it. I put her back into Big House 1 w/ a bottle-half (lid side up) around her, down deep where MLS couldn't reach. I think I was stressing out more than Digital!
Today, Digital is still in the same shell from that night. MLS is still rather blatantly wearing Digital's original shell. I am seriously considering giving MLS his own tank, as he was originally exiled from Big House 2 for attacking a new medium-jumbo crab.
August 8, 2004 1:12 PM Rebuilding the site after it was accidentally deleted a few months ago. Only the main index page was mysteriously deleted; everything else remains intact. It's a matter of cutting and pasting, and finding my printout of the main page and redoing it. Fun, fun, fun.
March 24, 2003 6:09 PM I recently lost my TraumaCrab. She molted and then died, probably on March 15. I would have had her for 2 years on June 6, 2003. She was perfectly formed . . . but I found her dead. Trauma was interesting, in part, because she had a claw that was permanently frozen in the "open" position. She was a big crab, and this was a very scary prospect, until one day I realized she couldn't close that claw. I looked closer, only to find that she'd been injured, probably in a crab-fight, and there was a large section of claw missing right at the inner joint, where both sides of the claw come together. The area had healed over, but you could still see what had happened. And she couldn't pinch at all.
I first realized this about a month after I got her. I saw her trying to eat an oak leaf. I sat down and watched her - she was having a hard time eating it, because she couldn't hold onto the leaf with her big claw. That's when I realized she couldn't close that claw, because surely she would've been using it to hold down that leaf.
Trauma was a beautiful crab, even though I mostly knew her in her lengthy pre-molt stage, and she looked pretty decrepit towards the end of it. She was so active, and she loved to get out and explore things, as much as Kali does. (The others are always so scared that I tend to leave them alone, since they seem quite content in the aquarium, especially since I added the backdrop for them to climb on. I'll miss my poor TraumaCrab. No one has died since last March. The other crabs are eating her exoskeleton, so in a way her death is for something, since the others will be more healthy for the nutrients provided . . . even if that does strike me as a tad creepy somehow. Rest in peace, my beloved T. XX
June 11, 2002 8:08 PM On June 8th, Saturday, my medium- sized hermit crab, Kali IV, molted. She did the deed in my hand, b/c I just happened to pick her up right as she got started. I've never before witnessed a molt, especially this up close and personal. (Kali is a very trusting hermit crab - she once actually switched shells in my hand, too! I got to describe the whole process to my mom, who was watching.)
December 30, 2001 c. 4:34 PM Saturn is buried under the water dish now. Dug in last night. Still hasn't molted, tho.
December 29, 2001 c. 4:40 PM Saturn is REALLY starting to look pre-molt. When I got home, she was kind of languishing in the water dish, like she'd been in there forever. So I rubbed her all over with StressCoat, as best as I could. She's starting to have difficulty moving now.
December 28, 2001 I'm feeling very guilty, and will most likely put the crab house back the way it used to be. Saturn was pathetically sitting where the water dish USED to be. She's all pre-molt. Still moving, eyes normal . . . but she's very sluggish and hanging around the water dish.
December 27, 2001 4:15 PM Bathed the crabs last night, after deciding I'd been sorely neglecting them. Then I rearranged their house. Which confused them. They were pretty active in there for quite a time, actually. Especially Phobia - she couldn't seem to find anywhere to hid her big old self. Saturn found her big "hidey-shell" pretty quickly. Little Guy's getting a little darker but still looks so frail . . .
Christmas Day, 2001 4:05 PM Gave Kali cranberry sauce last night. She reached for it w/ her whole little body. I just laid there for awhile and watched her eat, because she's cute. Kali is cute doing almost anything. Rrought them some celery, broccoli, and carrot from the Veggie Tray from the work Christmas party, but none of the crabs showed any interest. Even Kali, the 'little crustacean eating machine on nine legs.' (She's still missing that tenth leg, of course.)
December 21, 2001 7:25 PM Mom's friend came over, only to be pinched by Huge III. Kinda funny, b/c huge is normally NICE. Upon reflection, I realized Huge was a bad choice, b/c she PANICS.
December 2, 2001 6:05 PM Last night I - on a whim - decided to see if Kali would actually eat dog food. So I grabbed a little round brown "turdy-" looking one from Misty's bowl. And got the most enthusiastic reaction from her this side of Tetra BabyShrimp just after a molt. She reached out w/ her claws, and then with her legs . . . that's what so cute about them - that whole-body "MEEE!" reach . . .
Only she couldn't get it to break, beacause the damn little thing was practically petrified for some reason. Sooo there she is, all wrapped around it, kind of rolling around with it, and getting all frustrated . . . So I grabbed a little yellow bone-shaped thingie from Misty's bowl. Even MORE enthusiastic response for that one. She even managed to crack that one in half. I heard this "CRRRUNCH!" and I was like, "DAMN!" Whole thing was so CUTE.
I've had Kali IV, Huge III, and Saturn long enough where I'm REALLY attached to them. They each are individuals with real little crab personalities. Kali, of course, is the little tame hyper one. I think her size is the most "comfortable." Most of the Favorites have been her size.
I just wish Huge III would get around to molting. Except Saturn actually looks more pre-molt than huge does. Her exo's more dull, and all. Little Guy II was looking pretty healthy. Still think she's TOO small, like she shrank a little after that last molt . . . but her legs have gotten a little darker, and her claw seems a little shinier . . .
November 11, 2001 6:35 PM Kali IV was really, really hyper yesterday. She finally got tired c. 11 PM or so. Vanessa (from Hermies) had said her crabs would sit on her shoulder while she wrote . . . so I tried it. And this led to Kali trying to climb DOWN, so that if I leaned back I'd smash her, and THAT led to her hanging onto the chair for dear life . . .which I took a few pics of. *g*
November 6, 2001 c.12:30 AM Ended up giving Kali IV her own big claw, which I'd saved for some reason from her earlier molt. The remains of her exo. She grabbed right onto it, rather obnoxiously, When I put her back in her house, she ran off into a corner with it. She was wrapping all around it, making me feel guilty for not having given it to her earlier. (They say online that crabs won't eat the big claw - it's too tough. Apparently they are wrong.)