this is about hermit crabs.

This is Orga.

Orga on a better day.

 

 

 

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!