My assumptions concerning crab communication

[Keg]

My crab Azazul has learned that she can wake me up at 3am if necessary by staring at me. I was unable to sleep due to all the phantom itchiness, so I got up to see why she was messing with me. I believe this is a common occurrence with crabs, although it takes a certain kind of person to admit it. I stood there looking into the eyes of the creature for awhile until worked through all the possibilities of what might be wrong - and what my assumptions were concerning her facilities for communication.

She seemed to be indicating something was wrong, yet it was something new and different than anything in the past. Eventually I decided she was uncomfortable with the amount of humidity being sprayed on her by the sonic humidifier. It was stuck on full, but I thought it was the right amount so I kept on using it up to that point.

So I unplugged it, threw it away, and switched it out for one of my spare units (They have to be rotated daily or they will cultivate mold and algae, which the crab will complain about in a different way). Then I went back to bed, and so did the crab, since the problem was solved.

She only has a few semiotic gestures at her disposal: The independent gestures of two sets of antennae, claws and pointy leg gestures, general postures, situational positioning (mostly related to environmental gradients and other things I don't know about) on top of that, there is the context (present) that these signals occur in, and the larger context which has resulted in assumptions related to the communicative environment between this crab and this person.

I suppose there's more to it, like the crab's capacity to express emotions through gesture and actual emoting.


yours
keg

[CSTAR2001]

My newest addition, Sam, also does some of the things you have mentioned. I've found it very strange and I haven't told anyone about it in fear that they might call me crazy! A few nights ago I woke up with a sense of something being wrong. Once I had turned on my light and looked around, I realized that my cat, Lucifer, was staring at Sam, and same, in fact, was staring at me. Once I shooed Lucifer out of the room and locked the door behind me, I made sure to check that the cage was still secure (I have clamps on my lids) and I refilled her water (which had somehow been knocked over between the time I fell asleep and the time I had awoken). Once everything was settled, Sam was still just staring at me! I sat there for a few minutes wondering what could possibly be wrong (Sam had never acted like this before!) before I thought to check on Dean, my other hermit, who lives in a separate enclosure (due to some aggression between the two.) As it turns out, Dean was sitting in his water bowl without his shell. Once I crossed the room to see what I could do, Sam started to loudly chirp at me as if to say, "There you go, dummy!". I inspected the shell that Dean was previously in only to discover that he had somehow cracked a piece of it off, making it sharp and dangerous. I removed the shell and placed a few extra replacement shells next to the water bowl that he was in. After a few minutes of fidgeting, he settled himself into one. I found it very alarming but also neat that I had this sort of bond with Sam, especially since she is so new to my care. Although it was eerie, it was also heartwarming. After that, we all went back to bed.

[GotButterflies]

Everything happens for a reason!

[NovaBelle]

Crazy. I hope to have this bond with my crabs at some point. Got 40+ years to cultivate it, so patience is the key.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk