HCA: Hermit Crab Association

All is well in the kingdom.
The fellowship has gained 4 new E's.

The new E's have been exploring. Only one seems to have dug under. They clanked all around last night and a few of my crabs I haven't seen for a while made an appearance.



That is Elanor. My lady with the orangey red leg.



Not sure who this is. Possibly Boromir.



Gandalf is back! Fresh up from a molt in time to see the new kids before they decide they all need to dig in.



He was a bit taken aback to see more ecuadorians! He had a long "feeler talk" with one in the log. The new little E's seemed more than happy to have a big guy to follow. So cute.

Finally, here are some pictures of the new kids exploring and some pictures of the slightly different layout. Water is messy cause I just got back in town.





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Awe those E's are adorable!!! Love your set up too! Congrats on the new guys!


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Love all of the pics! Crabtopia will be attracting all crabs in the area, so be ready for a migration to your tank. Right now it looks like Es rule Crabtopia! That first little E looks just like my Buoy who came up from a molt looking way more bluish.

Glad to hear the new kids are settling in and are busy exploring the wonderful world of Crabtopia. Bet Gandalf's feeler talk with the newbies was to clue them in about PPs and to let them know where to find the best shells and hiding spots !

Thanks, all! The E's are king at the moment. My tiny PP's and my bigger two guys are down.

Gandalf looked shocked to see another E. It was so cute and funny. I'm glad he finally has some buddies. He does pal around with the PP's but he gets very whiny and chirps if they try to do the typical "I'll go over you instead of around you" crab thing. I look and see the newbies and come back in a minute and it looks empty and then they reappear in another few minutes. I really love the E's. They are goon to spice up life in the tank.


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Wanted to share some more pictures of the kids and tank. Gandalf (E) always looks like the shy guy in the corner of a room at the party in all his recent pictures. haha




These two were having a bit of a scuffle over a Deliciously Crabby sunset cookie.

I'll just add this story in here since I don't know where else to put it.

I went to my sister's (and ended up visiting three other rooms) first grade class and read a "House for a Hermit Crab" to them. I then briefly explained the difference in marine and land hermit crabs. I brought four of my recently molted PP's in a heated and moss and Eco earth filled kk and walked around to show them to the kids. They were not allowed to hold them and the crabs were not harmed. The kids loved them, but I explained that they can and do pinch and are hard to care for and probably won't make good pets. We discussed how they were all caught and taken from their homes. Several kids told me they had had hermit crabs and then they had died. It made me sad but I did everything I could to discourage them to get them as pets. The teachers really liked them. They couldn't believe how active they were (since ones they had seen were most likely near death). I talked a couple out of getting them as classroom pets. It really was fun. I passed around shells and we talked about how they grow. I can't post pictures of their cute little faces with their crafts for privacy reasons but trust me it was adorable. I will be going back so I will be able to discourage any further notions I hear to get them as pets. I may even offer to take in hermits that some of them have currently.



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What a terrific adventure! Bet the teachers appreciated it even more than the kids, being warned off "those easy to take care of" hermit crabs as classroom pets.

Oh, and as always, Crabtopia and its denizens look great !

Thank you, Crabinski! I had fun being an animal expert/ambassador for the day! Only problem is my sister told them about my gecko and they all want to see him!


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Little Sam getting a drink. I'm looking to get different dishes. These are wonderful and BIG but the round shape take sup so much floor space they are over 8 inches in diameter. Anyone want to point me to a pretty large Container that will take up a bit less floor space? I'm thinking of these 10.8 cup ones I saw on Amazon. 8x6x4 ish but being rectangles I can fit them back against the side so more floor space. Decisions.


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Definitely go with rectangular containers -- crabs don't care about the shape of the pools and rectangular fits into a tank so much better. My tank is only a 29g so two clear plastic 6Lx4Wx3.5D fit neatly into one end with enough space between and around them to let the crabs climb around and dig under. I desperately need to re-seat both pools from the last round of molters, two of whom decided to do so under the pools, causing them to start sinking into the abandoned tunnels ).

A miracle has occurred in Crabtopia. Something I was sure I'd never see.



Gandalf changed shells.

He's so stubborn and has shown so little interest in the shells (at least that I've seen) it caught me off guard! My niece has two E's and at least one of hers wears turbos! I was starting to think he'd be in that shell for the foreseeable future and maybe until it just fell off his bottom. . Anyway, he looks fabulous.



Also, check out last nights dinner before it went in the tank:

And again this afternoon:



They scattered around the fruit pieces but other than that they were little shelled piggies.

Oh, the life I've chosen. Crazy buggers!


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Whoops! That second dish picture is tonight's dinner!

There we go!


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I love the shell dishes! they are awesome, aren't they?! Its nice to tell what they eat most of. Although, sometimes they just drag the food off, but you can get some what of a good idea! It looks like you had the same problem as me with the little sprouts in the middle coming un glued?

Oh and Gandalf looks so handsome in his new shell! An E changing shells is always exciting, or so I have been told Hopefully I will have a couple cute little bug eyed E's in the near future. And again, I LOVE your set up. All those levels, ugh- so pretty and I bet its so much fun for the crabs.

marandashermies wrote:I love the shell dishes! they are awesome, aren't they?! Its nice to tell what they eat most of. Although, sometimes they just drag the food off, but you can get some what of a good idea! It looks like you had the same problem as me with the little sprouts in the middle coming un glued?

Oh and Gandalf looks so handsome in his new shell! An E changing shells is always exciting, or so I have been told Hopefully I will have a couple cute little bug eyed E's in the near future. And again, I LOVE your set up. All those levels, ugh- so pretty and I bet its so much fun for the crabs.

Yes the green came off! I don't mind much.

Thank you very much! They seem to enjoy it so that's what matters!


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I scrolled up to see what Gandalf looked like in his old shell, and I must say, he is Good-Lookin' in that new shell!