Crabby Bath Time

We have Hermit Crabs. Yes, I know we are weird. We had six, but we lost one since our major tank clean in April (it appears it was a bad molt). So we have 5 now... we gave them all a dip in water to clean 'em up and let them dry off while Tom put the tank back together. The kids LOVE it when we do this... I took some pics... these guys are getting big! 2 of these we got when they were little micro-crabs. The big one was small when we got him, he's now HUGE. The one I didn't get a close up is named Skitzo because he's insane. When you pick him up he leans so far out of his shell you think he's either going to pinch you or fall out. I pick him up only when absolutely necessary. I don't really like messing with them, to be honest, but they are the perfect pet for us... don't need a lot of attention, don't make a mess... and the kids think they are cool. Right after we put them back into the tank, the kids were watching them move around and came running into the room I was in... Shy Guy finally changed his shell (this is an exciting thing in the crab world, second only to a sucessful molt!)

Freshly bathed and climbing around.

This is Giganto - he's always been the biggest one, he's getting huge

This is Shy Guy. I'm so excited I got him to come out for a picture. This one is hilarious. I like to do it to tortue him - when you walk by the tank, he immediately pulls into his shell, it doesn't matter if he's climbing on something or not, he will fall rather than you see him. LOL.

This is Baby Crab - this one was a very small micro when we got it.

This is Momma Crab... so named because she/he/it protected Baby Crab from Skitzo (who killed a crab late last year over a shell fight, and then got put into isolation for 2 months).