Recent Pick-up: New C. Clypeatus!

[Vasiliki]

Figured that was a better title than "Flashing my Crabs"

I might be newer to reptiles, but hermit crabs? That's something I've been doing for years. At the local reptile society, I'm the official 'hermit crab lady'. Not far off from crazy cat lady, I suppose.

Yesterday I picked up an awesome new addition to my colony. A lady e-mailed me a few months back, asking if I could adopt their crab, Hermie. You see, Hermie's buddies passed away and the family didn't want to get anymore crabs to replace them. But, neither did they want little Hermie to spend the rest of his life in an isolated tank. So I agreed to take this little crab. Found out this family lives over 16 hours away! Oh my goodness.

Yesterday, the family drove all the way out here for a family event, and brought the little crab along with them. Met up with them and found them to be a delightful family. They were well versed in crab care, tracked his molts, told me his diet, how they'd kept him, etc etc. It was great. The little girls had great questions! "Why do they do this?" "How does that happen?"

I took little Hermie out and examined her (turned out to be a female). She was a bit pale, but going to molt soon so that's expected. She came right out and said hello and crawled all over my hands without flinching. Their jaws just dropped. Apparently she had just pinched their mom a few minutes ago. And now I could pick her up, flip her over, move her legs around to check her for mites and she didn't even retreat into her shell. Haha. Crab whisperer.

For reptiles, they get QT. But for crabs, there aren't many known diseases for them. First issue is PPS, which shows up after shipping and this crab had been with them for 3 years, so it was past that stage. Next is mites, which this crab is clean for (mite treatment is HARD for crabs. Can't use PAM or Nix, because they both will kill the crabs too. We need to physically remove the mites, over and over, until there are no more mites to lay more eggs. Takes about a year or so, usually). She was clean. No shell rot. No missing or broken limbs. Active alert eyes. Strong leg response. Clean gill cover.

She passed the physical exam, so I was able to put her into my colony without worry. There's nothing she could transmit to the other crabs that they wouldn't have already been exposed to in the wild. Plus she'd been in captivity for so long, if she was sick, she would have died a while ago.

Took some shots of her before she happily dug down into the moss pit. And snapped a few other photos of my other crabs that were out.

Hermie:


Zoidberg:


Clamps:


Byte (he's only 1.5" in size haha):


Soup:



Most of my crabs are rescues, and tend to keep their original names, haha. I love that. Hence the randomness. Zoidberg and Clamps came together, along with Citizen Snips. Byte came with Bit, who unfortunately didn't make it. Soup had a broken leg, so I picked her up and my other half named her. The others have more 'normal' names

[Coleslaw007]

Huh.... Today I learned more than I've ever known about hermit crabs. Good job on taking in Hermie!

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[Vasiliki]

Huh.... Today I learned more than I've ever known about hermit crabs. Good job on taking in Hermie!

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks :-)!

People tend to pass over these animals in the 'serious animal keeper' category. Truth is, every single one of my reptiles is easier to take care of than these guys. Hands down. No question. Even my picky BP is easier to care for than these guys. A shame everyone just kind of glances over my threads, haha. "Oh, you have crabs. Neat." It's like:

"No, you don't understand! I've kept these guys alive for 5 years now and they're still going strong!"

[KTyne]

I love your new pick-up Danielle! It's awsome that the family you got her from took such great care of her as well.. that's always awsome to hear.
Every time I hear about your Crabs it makes me want some of my own even more, lol.

[BWyant]

Do they ever trade shells?

Is there a pecking order?

[PorcelainxDoll]

I used to have a 6 crab colonie when i was about 13. They really are not easy pets but very interesting. Wish i still had them!


Anywho congrats on your new addition! Glad shes healthy!

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[KTyne]

Do they ever trade shells?

Is there a pecking order?

Yes they trade shells as they grow. And from what I've read there are pecking orders, some crabs will be more dominant or submissive.