This is Orga and Hermecles. in their tiny little crabitat.
home sweet home.
A few weeks (? I cant really remember, maybe it was a couple) ago I was at the pet store buying some cocunut fiber substrate (new bedding) for Hermecles, and decided to pick up another crab for him to be bros with. Hermecles is tough. He has been with me ever since a coworker brought him back from the beach nearly 2 years ago. I got him a girlfriend once, Hermaphrodite. She couldnt handle his Awesome. She die. Hermecles and Orga got along pretty well, as you can see. they didnt fight or fuss, they just crawled around and did their little hermie things. They even played with Go-Go.
Hermecles, hauling ass. Orga has no idea.
Fast forward to a few days ago. I go to check on their sponge and food to make sure they are good to go, and Orga is super active...Frantic. He is naked. NAKED. No shell to hide his nudie crab parts, which, are quite hideous. I know this isnt normal so I do what any red blooded American does, I consult Google. who tells me something is amiss; he is sick, doesnt like the temp/humidity levels, or wants a new shell. Well, he is doing this...weird thing where he is extending his limbs up and out and then drooping them back down. It was like watching a flower wilt, and come back to life.Then he just . sat there. motionless. I would post a picture but he just looks so damn pitiful I dont think he would want anyone to see him like that :( I didnt know what to do. the next morning he was still alive. He hung in there.
I went to the pet store on my way home from work and got him some shells. Then i started looking at aquariums. and aquarium stands. and the floor model aquarium / stand combo was being sold at a discount. Well maybe Ill give them some more room to play, I thought. Well then it has to be decorated, so I got some fake plants, and some sand, and some more substrate. and a guage that measures the temp and humidity. and some fancy dechlorinator for the tap water, and a different kind of hermit crab food (besides the dried cherries and mangs, and besides the powered fish meal or whatever the hell the stinky shit is that they eat. and some fancy salt, so they have salt water. and a new sponge or two, and some non porous food and water dishes to eat out of. Because you know, had I had all of these things before, maybe Orga wouldnt be sick.
I brought the tank home, and set it up, and it was beautiful! the substrate looked good, plants looked good. everything looked good. Except Orga. still naked. feelers not moving. ugh. So I sprayed the substrate off of him and gently scooted his butt into a shell. he just kinda collapsed under its weight. He would still move his claws every once in a while but not feeling good, at all. Turns out, I needed more susbstrate. so I went to the pet store. and picked up some more crabs.
new home for my crabbies!
group shot, kinda.
Noone bothered Orga, and I put him in the salt water and he moved around (while i gently held onto him). If he is dying, he is a t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tough guy. I put him in the old crabitat for now, just under the small chance that he is molting, where he will stay until he becomes a new crab or starts to stink. I just dont have the heart to flush him. He is still hangin, ya know?
anyway, heres the rest of these cute little jerks, crabbin it up, hermie style.
Shelly-the cute one
Clawdia-the sassy one
Hermecles-one tough motha
Lobster-the shy one
So lets hope that these dudes and dudettes like their new place and get along for years (?!) to come, maybe someday ill have a 6 foot tank CHOCK FULL of hermit crabs, a good start for Kim's Pinching Army of Awesome. And lets hope that Orga pulls thru , I dedicate this to him!
so sorry about your sick lil guy =( but i laugh because when I had sick fish i totally did the same schpeel and spent $200 at the pet store trying to cure him with everything possible. you are a good crab-momma. the new ones are happy in the home...btw the nicest one i have ever seen!
what a mouthful. thats what she said. things have been busy as hell at the studio as of late and I havent had much time to do many paintings. Im still catching up on some scragglers (drawings I need to get done) to be completely caught up from my Sick Week of WTF. So here are two, and I feel like a bamma because I only have two to share but I like them both alot, it definitely feels like I was taking my time and not just banging them out. so heres an 8x10 I finished the other day , an old school rose junx like my giant stamp in the corner? i need to make a smaller one. Im still working off the Strathmore watercolor paper, I have a whole pad of Arches I got for my birthday I havent even opened yet, Im whittling down my other paper and making sure Ive got a good hang of things before I break out the good stuff ;) and heres another 8x10 I finished last night who so blurry? A traditional tattoo style horseshoe and some flowers. You can definitely tell a girl did this. th
This past month I have really surprised myself, cranking out a painting damn near every other day. Most of them are 4 x 6, I have a couple 5 x 7 and (as of right this moment) 3 8 x 10's. Watercolor makes for quick work, its much much fast than acrylic and I really enjoy it. I can finish something instead of walking away from it and taking a break, which I hate doing. The process is like tattooing in the sense that you have the rough draft, the outline, and fill in. It feels really natural too. I dig it. With the 7 Deadly Sins artshow coming up at the studio I didnt think I was going to have much to contribute. then came this...new thing I fell in love with. I hope its not a passing phase because I asked for another set of inks and some fancy 'spensive watercolor paper for my birthday. I have not painted in a couple days since I finished the Reaper , and I know I need to take a quick breather... but I have started another one, its laid out in pen and I started some of the bla
I started this project a week or so ago naively thinking it would be done by October 1st (pssh, yeah right) with the 'Carnival' Art Show at the studio coming up (Oct 15th!!), trying to get paintings together for that and trying to organize and plan for a Halloween party at my house, get my costume, etc...uh. well lets just say Im only submitting two paintings to the art show. I wanted to do 3, but its probably not going to happen. Ive wanted to do a tattoo flash set for a while, and basically its just a bunch of designs I did, for the occasion and some of them compiled from sketch books I've had for a few years. Altogether there are about 60 designs, ready to get hammered in your flesh I cant say I will offer them at a discount, because lets face it, tattoos are not one of those things you want to get at a discount. however!!! I will say that it is no secret that there is nothing more rewarding than doing a piece of your own artwork on someone, and coupled with the
so sorry about your sick lil guy =( but i laugh because when I had sick fish i totally did the same schpeel and spent $200 at the pet store trying to cure him with everything possible. you are a good crab-momma. the new ones are happy in the home...btw the nicest one i have ever seen!
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