Crabsville: A very crabby place.

Settling In

2011-05-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

dude don't fart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pool time

line to the water

Well now all of our crabs are settling in and have stopped fighting instead they are cuddling and are loving our new water design, all day so far they have been siting in the water or next to it. right now we have two sets of twins Hannah with Monkey and Micahla with Apu once again sorry I haven't posted in a while I've been In school. our king of the tank is Fire Ball. I'll post soon again.

A New Beginning

2011-05-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

new tank
new tank change (water section)

old crabs meet new crabs

michaela after bath

4 new crabs

this is our iso tank with new crabs

i just got 4 new crabs their names are michaela, alexa,axel,and apu. they are E's our favorite type of crab. I just started a big project to my tank i had to clean rocks dry them while my mom put new sand in the tank I was so excited when we got our new E's at petco. E's are very rare to find in my city I'm sorry I have not posted in a while I have been at school but this summer I hope to post alot more than last summer. 4 of our E's ginger, toodles, sora, and emily have had bad molts and are no longer with us.In our new tank we have moved our shell shack to the other side of the tank. I have just built an exercise tank but it is realy a long clear bucket. our new crabs just got out of thier disgusting painted shells. now they have beautiful natural shells.

Monkey Sails to America

2010-09-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

My First Place Photo

This summer I did a photo shoot of my crabs to win a photo contest. I was so excited to find out that I won first place and a $10.00 gift certificate to the Hermit Crab Addiction Store. With the money I bought new foods for my crabs to try, everyone was very happy.

The funniest part about this photo shoot was how the crabs kept running away from the boat. I guess they were sea sick!

Toodles

2010-09-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

A while ago, we thought our crab Toodles had died because we haven’t seen her for a long time. When I woke up for school one morning, I looked into our tank and saw Toodles’ empty shell. So then I was sure she had died.

Then 2 weeks later, late at night, my mom woke me up and showed me that Toodles was up and climbing the net without a shell! We were surprised to know that Toodles had survived 2 whole weeks without a shell underground. Later that night, she found a new brown and yellow shell, then went for a soak in the water.

When she came up, we saw that she was missing 2 legs on one side. She was acting kind of sick for a few days, so we fed her some honey and then she got very active, climbing all over the net again.

Before we knew it, she was back to her old self and she is getting along great with all the other crabs. So far, I think she likes having company with her and she has made great friends with two of our crabs. Ever since Toodles came back she has looked smaller to me because I haven’t seen her in a long time.

A month later, Toodles dug back down under the sand for another molt. Hopefully, she’ll grow back her missing legs and come back with a shell this time.

Seven New Cute Crabs

2010-07-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hana always gets sad on rainy days.

Ever since I fell in love with crabs, I wanted Ecuadorian crabs. I wanted these crabs because they are more active during the day and they have very cute eyes. Ecuadorian crabs are also known as the “Pacific Crab”, “Evil E’s” or just Es. They are called “Evil Es” because at night they like to tear apart the tank to make it more their style. They don’t do this to be mean, they do it to have fun.

I have been looking for Es for about a month. The closest ones I found were sold in Berkley, CA. Then I found another crabber from Fresno, CA who was looking for somebody to adopt her Es because she was moving across the country. I decided to adopt her crabs last week.

They arrived by UPS around 9 in the morning in a small tub of wet moss. When I saw them I was very happy that all of them survived. She said they were going to be small but one was so much smaller than I thought and one was so much bigger than I thought. It was very exciting to see them.

The smallest one that arrived turned out to be a different species, called a Ruggie, which are even more rare than the Es. It was the smallest crab I’ve ever seen, called a micro. It was the size of a pistachio nut and looked more blue than all the others.

Here is my micro Ruggie “Rocky” next to my Biggest E “Ginger”

When I moved the new crabs into Crab Heaven, Fireball went up to one of our new crabs, Sora, and started raffling up a fight. After a day, they all started calming down. Now Fireball is sleeping with them.

Now that I have Es and a micro Ruggie, I think my collection is done. I am very happy about owning 11 crabs!

Check out my new section in the right column called Brother Talk where my 7 yr. old brother shares his opinion on my crabs.

Here are my crabulous photos:

Here is Sora playing hide-n-seek.

Toodles is checking the weather forecast for the day.

Here is Monkey walking on the ceiling.

Here is Ginger hanging out in the salt water jacuzzi.

Emily hangs out with Monkey.

So who is your favorite Ecuadorian Crab?

Winner!

2010-06-21T10:04:00.001-07:00

This month I entered a photo of one of my crabs into a contest online. I found out last week that I won an “Honorable Mention” and won this cool ZooMed T-Shirt.

You can check out my “Mr. Crabs” photo caption at the ZooMed website under my Mom’s name “Susan” at:

http://zoomed.com/cm/resources-stuff/Clever%20Caption%20Winners.html

Check back soon for my next post because I have some very exciting news, can you guess?

Last Crab Back!

2010-06-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Meet Emma, she was the last crab to go down for a molt. Last week, I moved her into Crab Heaven with all the other crabs. She likes to sit on a log and she loves to eat coconut.

Alyssa is offering a “helping claw” to Madeline.

The 3 amigos meet in the dark of night to plan their escape route.

Alyssa puts on a second shell to roam the crabitat in disguise, while

Madeline is disgusted that Alyssia is playing with their food.

Alyssa tells the moss not to reveal her secret identity.

Crabs Rise Again!

2010-06-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Photo Above: Alyssa smelling Fireball’s molting smell

left behind in his old shell.

I’m so excited to tell you that all my crabs have dug up from molting. Alyssa dug up first, Madeline dug up the next day, then Fireball came up third, then last but not least, Emma came up from her molt.

Since then we’ve moved all of our crabs over to Crab Heaven, except for Emma because she is resting from her molt.

I’ve had fun watching Alyssa for the last couple of days in Crab Heaven because she is up non-stop playing and bouncing off the walls. My favorite thing to watch Alyssa do is jumping off the ceiling. Once she landed into the Jacuzzi and almost hurt herself.

After Alyssa was done molting, her personality completely changed and so did Fireballs. Alyssa (my smallest crab) is now more brave and Fireball (my biggest crab) is now a big scaredy cat hiding in the moss pit all the time. Madeline only comes out during the night, she looks so much bigger than she use to be.

I’m having so much fun crabbing all over the world. I hope you like my pictures!

Photo Above: Alyssa hanging out on a vine.

Alyssa molted underground for 6 weeks.

Photo Above: Madeline hanging out on the cholla wood.
Madeline molted underground for 6 weeks.

Photo Above: Fireball hanging out in the 2nd level moss pit.
Fireball molted underground for 12 weeks.

Photo Above: Fireball and Alyssa getting to know one another.
Here you can see the size difference between my smallest and biggest crab.

Check back soon when I post Emma’s first pictures when she joins Crab Heaven with the other crabs. Before you leave my blog, let me know which crab is your favorite so far!

Crabby Heaven!

2010-05-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to crab heaven! I decided to uprgrade to a 29 gallon tank so I can enjoy my crabs even more! In this new crabitat, I added a bubbling jacuzzi and a coconut hut for hiding. I also created a second level, called the “Moss Pit” for the crabs to climb up into.

Here is a side view of the crabitat and all the cool stuff to climb on.

Here is a view of my new bubbling jacuzzi!

Good Shells & Bad Shells

2010-05-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

When you get a hermit crab you should at least have 2 different shells for each crab. When you are looking for shells make sure that they are not painted shells. If you haven’t seen a painted shell, you can see them at pet stores. They will usually have a cartoon character painted on the shell. Painted shells are bad because the paint is toxic to them. But you can still find beautiful shells.

I got my shells from Walmart and The Hermit Crab Patch (an online hermit crab store located in Florida). The natural shells are prettier than the painted shells and they are cheaper! But you can also find shells on your own like on a beach.

Hermit crabs need extra shells because they grow to about the size of a softball so they need bigger shells every time they molt. Sometimes they will change shells because they are very picky with their shells, like we would change our clothes.

I can’t wait for the rest of my crabs to change their shells, I’ve recently bought them a bunch of new shells so when they come up from their molt they can see their new shells waiting.

Can you guess how many shells I now have? I’ll tell you the correct answer in my next post.

How To Keep Your Crab Alive

2010-04-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

The first thing you should do to keep your crab alive is to create a perfect crabitat. A crabitat is a habitat for a hermit crab. These are things I used to make my crabitat.

First, I picked out a 10 gallon tank.

Second, I filled our tank with sand and coconut bark. One side had coconut bark mixed with sand. The other side had just sand. I did this so one side can be a wet side and the other can be a dry side. I mixed water with the coconut bark and sand side to make it moist. I had to make this substrate 3 inches deep to allow my hermit crabs enough space to tunnel down and molt.

Third, I picked out 2 water bowls. One for salt water and one for fresh water. I used dechlorinated water for both bowls because chlorine can kill the hermit crabs. I change the water bowls every other day to keep it fresh.

Fourth, I put two pieces of drift wood for the crabs to hide under and climb on top. I also added plants for them to hide under. I put a climbing wall in the back of the tank for them to climb on.

Fifth, I put a digital thermometer and hygrometer inside the tank to find out how warm and humid it is. The temperature should be between 72–82 degrees and the humidity should be 70–80 degrees. I keep it warm by using a moon light and a under tank heater I put on the side of the tank. I keep it humid by squirting dechlorinated water over the wet side of the tank. I also used damp moss to help with the humidity and moss also is a perfect fluffy bed for the crabs. I’ve seen Emma sitting in the moss many times.

Sixth, I use a large shell for a food dish. I feed them every night before I go to bed. Hermit crabs eat a variety of foods. So far I have fed them eggs, blueberries, lettuce leaves, sesame seeds, organic honey, organic peanut butter without salt, chicken, baby foods, steak, olive oil, almonds, strawberries, blood worms, pears, carrots, blackberries, bananas, apples, grapes and red bell pepper. Hermit crabs have a much better diet than me because I am very picky.

Seventh, I put in a piece of cuttlebone to give them the calcium they need.

Last, I put in 2 larger natural shells for each crab because they are picky with their shells and will change shells a lot.

If you follow these steps you will have happy, alive crabs. What would you put into a crabitat if you had a hermit crab?

Why I Got A Hermit Crab

2010-04-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

I decided to get a hermit crab because I couldn’t get a dog. I couldn’t get a dog because my Dad and little brother are allergic to them. So I went to the pet store and saw the hermit crabs, at first I thought they smelled like garbage and looked like a big bug. But now I think hermit crabs are the best animal in the world and they don’t smell like garbage anymore.

The first two crabs I got were purple pinchers. Purple pinchers are the most common hermit crab. The rare crabs are called Stawberry, Blueberry and Ecuadorian. If I ever got a Strawberry crab or a Blueberry crab, I would name them “Strawberry” and “Blueberry”.

If you want to know how to tell if you have a purple pincher crab, you look at it’s claw. If you have a purple pincher, the claw should look a little purple.

I like hermit crabs because they are very interesting. Hermit crabs are nocturnal, which means they sleep all day and are very active at night. At night it is so cool watching them eat and crawl around. Hermit crabs like to climb on things such as driftwood, plants, nets and each other. They also tunnel down into the sand. If you don’t see your hermit crabs for a very long time they might be molting.

Molting is where hermit crabs go down into the substrate (sand mixture) and shed their old skin and while they are down there they eat their old skin before they come back up. Smaller crabs will stay down in the substrate for at least 2 weeks. Larger crabs will be down there for more than 2 months. Sometimes hermit crabs will not survive molting. Besides molting they also go down into the substrate for fun or de-stressing.

So far I have 4 crabs in a 10 gallon tank. Their names are Madeline, Emma, Fireball and Alyssa. Recently Emma has changed into 4 different shells. She changed into a big shell that doesn’t fit her, but so far she likes it. The other crabs have all gone down to molt we think. They are all under the sand. Fireball has been in the substrate for about 2 months. I can’t wait until he comes back up because when you pick him up he comes right out of his shell and starts fighting you. He looks more red than the others and he is the largest crab we have.

I hope to have all my crabs more active in the day. We are thinking about upgrading our 10 gallon tank to a 29 gallon tank to give them more room and to buy a larger crab.

If you had a hermit crab, what would you name it?

Photo above: First day with my new crab Alyssa