The Fish Bowl: Now With Crabs

As I mentioned awhile back, I recently brought home some new companions. [link] I adore hermit crabs, and kept them for years as a kid. Due to lack of the internet for crab research and knowledge of proper care, I believe their poor little crabby lives were cut short despite several living a number of years. After the last one died I didn't get anymore for a long time. I wanted them again for a long time, and after a bunch of research that showed me that, indeed, I was not caring for them properly when I was a kid, I resolved to try again.

Bringing home new hermit crabs is always a dicey business. They're not like gerbils and hamsters; they require a specific environment to thrive, with a properly maintained temperature and humidity, varied diet, and lots of hiding places, and most pet stores don't care for them properly to begin with. So when I brought these 5 home I just let them be at first to settle in. Four immediately hid for a month. I was beginning to worry they'd crawled off and died, but they eventually popped back out, and then the 5th vanished for almost a month. I assume they all molted, and they're all lively little things now, mostly use to my presence. I was only pinched once.

Hermit crabs and goldfish are often looked at as "disposable" pets, bought for children mostly to teach them that "things die." However, like goldfish, with proper care they can live quite a long time--30 years or more. So hopefully these little guys will be around for awhile.