A Crabby Tale

One time I had my hermies out and gave the a treat of peanut butter. Well two of them Henri and Ricki enjoyed eating it so much that Ricki put one of his claws around Henri as if he was leaning against min saying "This is some pretty great grub, right mate!" Henri just wiggled his chillepeds and replied "It sure is Ricki

- Rosie from central jersey

Ricki's Tarzan Adventure

As I do every night, I took my hermies out in their play box for some fun, well as I was taking roll call to make sure none of them had escaped. I looked around but couldn't find Ricki.

I proceeded to lift everything in the box up and when I lifted the coral and plastic tree there was Ricki staring at me between the branches as if he was playing hide and seek. So I left him alone to have his fun and put everything else back into the box. After awhile I checked on him again, this time he was on the top of the tree with his chelipeds going a mile a minute say ME TARZAN Ruler of the hermies.

One thing you should know Ricki is only about quarter-size and fairly small, but that wasn't stopping him. We all had fun that day.

-Rosie central jersey

Jason's First Pinch

One day I came home for lunch, as is my usual habit. I always go straight to the jumbo tank to check on the guys and then go to the small guys' tank to check on them.

Well, what should appear before my eyes???????? Twister (second largest jumbo) was on top of Thunder (my largest jumbo) and they were fighting! I began to scold them; saying "Let go!" "Let Go!" "I SAID…LET GO!!"

My son Jason came into the room and asked "Mom, what the heck are you doing? They are only crabs! They don't understand you!!! Gee whiz, Mom can't believe you are talking to hermit crabs like you would a child."

Now Jason is 18 years old and those of you who have or have raised an 18 year old, you can appreciate that! I told him that I had to stop them before they hurt one another… but couldn't pull them apart because they were locked onto each other and I didn't want to risk hurting them!!

Twister finally let go, and I moved him to the other side of the tank with an admonishment of "Leave Thunder alone!!!" I told Twister he would go into the "sad" tank if he couldn't behave! The really funny thing is… when I got home from work that afternoon: both crabbies were in exactly the same place I had placed them.

Guess they understood the concept of time out! I do talk to my hermies all the time. Thunder will even come out of his shell if he hears me call his name!!!

Well… the next day when I came home for lunch, my son was sitting on the couch nursing a pinched finger!!!!! I asked him what happened to his finger and he proceeded to tell me that Thunder had pinched him!!!!!! Thunder broke an all-time record in the Rogers household!!!!!!!!!!

In 12 years of owning hermies, none of us had EVER gotten so much as a nip, much less a pinch…. and by a jumbo, no less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jason had come home, checked on the jumbos and saw Thunder and Twister at it again, and he picked up Thunder -- who proceeded to pinch the fire out of him!!!!

Needless to say, Thunder, and my son Jason avoid each other like the plague!!!!!!

-Karen Rogers- (Kish)-South Carolina

NEVER KISS A HERMIE!

I have a funny tale to tell…. please excuse the smudged text… they are tears of laughter!

After spending a good few hours cleaning and redecorating our hermies tank, David, 10 yr old son, was given the task of putting the hermies back into their sparkling clean home. He picked up each hermie in turn, whispered something to it, kissed it, then placed it in the tank.

Well, wouldn't you know it! Big Boy our most handsome and outgoing hermie of the lot, seemed to be very interested in what David was whispering to him and promptly came out of his shell to listen more intently. This happened at the exact time David was ready to plant a kiss on Big Boys shell. Upon seeing these two pursed lips heading straight for him, panic set in.

Big Boy's large cheliped did what large chelipeds are supposed to do, pinch and hang on for dear life. I was alerted to the situation by loud screams of pain. I spun around to see what had happened and there was Big Boy hanging from David's upper lip in proud defiance!

"Try to kiss me will ya!" was the thought which sprung into my head at the sight of Big Boy hanging there.

It was soo funny to watch. I know that poor David was in a lot of pain, but I couldn't help laughing at such an unusual sight. We did eventually coax Big Boy off David's lip with some tepid water. The swelling took about 2 days to go down on David's lip. I wish I had a camera.

Funniest Home Videos would have had a feast day with this one!!!

- Mary Francis, Melbourne, Australia

June 12, 2001 - My first Jumbo Molt

ARGH!!!!!!! I came home from lunch that day only to discover that Twister, my second largest jumbo, had molted. He had NO warnings….. NO "signs", but there was a perfectly shed exo(exoskeleton) still intact… and shed all in one piece, perfectly! I must admit… after I calmed down I was quite proud of him for shedding it sooo nicely!!!!

BUT…. in the mean time, I panicked!!!! Jumped on my trusty computer, and frantically e-mailed Carol Ormes, Vanessa Pike-Russell and Jenn Borgesen for advice…. and of course, the responded promptly with tons of good advice. Mostly importantly….. they "held my hand" and walked me through it Got my ISO set up, carefully lifted Twister and his exo up and placed them into the ISO.

Now for some background information so that you will understand why I panicked! I have owned hermit crabs almost 12 years. In all that 12 years, I have never had a jumbo… Or a large crab for that matter! I had only owned teenies, smalls and occasionally medium crabbies, so I had no what to do for this guy!!!! Panic set firmly in…. and so, I decided I would call in to work and tell them I couldn't come back. This was the truth…. as it was my first week back to work after having surgery… I was hurting and extremely tired… I just forgot to mention to them that I was also worried about Twister.

With this being my first jumbo molt, I 'hovered' quite a bit, but he didn't seem to notice! He is now back in the jumbo tank and reeking havoc as usual!

-Karen Rogers-(Kish)-South Carolina