Out with the old and in with the new

Well now.  Been awhile since my last update.  College keeps one busy, but (thank heavens) it doesn't last forever.  Hopefully... maybe... with the start of summer I should be able to keep more up to date.

Since my last post, much has happened.
First off, soon after my move to college, Tiger died.  I was not surprised by this, as she hadn't been doing well in the first place.  I guess the move put too much stress on her.  Soon after Edlie decided she was going to molt.  Being a lazy person I am, I left her in the big tank.  I HAD thought that this wouldn't be a problem, considering that I had left Edlie to molt in the tank with Maui before.  However, I underestimated Maui's new size and strength. ... Yep, Maui killed Edlie and stole her shell to boot.  Lovely.  So, with only 1 hermit in the tank I needed to get a few more.  The reason being for this is because Hermit crabs are social beings, so they will eventually die without other friends.

Long story, short:  Ran to the store and bought 3 more crabs.  'Bout a month later, one of them dies.  That one didn't even eat to start with, so I'm not sure what was up with it.  Named it Alex, since I didn't ever find out it was a boy or girl.

Anyway, I am back to having three hermies.  Seems to be me lucky number.  The smaller one I just discovered was female, so with the help of a little sister she was dubbed Anastasia.  The bigger, who just so happens to be sitting beside me now, I have granted the name of Brumby.  Why? 
A) Because my elder sister and her boyfriend thought I should name it something from Austrailia,
B) I love horses and Brumbies have always been a favorite breed(?) of mine,
and C) Because it sounds pretty kewl.

Now I just have to discover whether Brumby is a boy or girl.  Problem is, this little one is the shyest crab (and I mean "crab" literally and figuratively) I have yet to own.  It doesn't come out for anything!  Except when I'm not looking, of course.  Anyway, other than that, not much to update on with this journal. Toodles.

P.S. New discovery made.  Hermit crabs LOVE eating dandelion flowers.  Who knew?!

Nothing New

Whew, am taking a little time to squeeze in an update.  Not much has happened with the hermies since my last post.  Tiger and Edlie have both buried themselves and now Maui sits alone all day, poor dear.  Anyway, due to the quick move and sudden amount of work, I had sort of dumped the hermie's tank on a top shelf in my brother's basement.  They were in this dark and lonely corner, just a horrible place for them to be!  So I bought a tank stand and moved them beside my desk.  Now they're much easier to reach and in a better lighted area.  Perfect for the hermies.  Not only is it better for them, but it's also great for me... now I have some study buddies! Hurray! I'll try to post a picture sometime later, but their tank looks a little stark since I got rid of a bunch of stuff (rocks and sticks mostly) when I moved.  Hopefully I'll get new stuff soon, but now that I'm a poor college student, most of it will probably come from the backyard. XD

New home for the hermies

I apologize for my lack of updates, but my summers have never been quiet.  It was filled with art projects, horses (volunteering for therapeutic riding), a trip to Spain for World Youth Day, and... a MOVE!  Yep, that's right.  I packed up my stuff, my dog, and the three hermies and we headed to college!  Some people reading this my think I'm crazy taking my dog with me to college, but long story short, my parents couldn't take him to where they'll be moving soon and my brother has a house with a yard, so Moses can spend his last days there.  When I say last, I mean until October.  Moses is a very old dog who just seems to get more health problems everyday (tumors, strokes, arthritis, etc.),  all of them causing him a lot of pain and suffering.  So we've decided that my entire family will say goodbye to him one last time in October.  Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it.  And that's an understatement.

On a happier note, the hermies have adjusted just fine to the new home.  My brother has a HUGE fish tank that he got for free sometime back.  He wants to put fish in it... I say he should get hermit crabs.  But for some reason the hermies creep him out.  He's the third guy I know that's creeped out by them!  What is up with these wimpy guys?!  Anywho, I want to get more hermit crabs sometime, but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.  Oh, last thing.  Maui is bigger than Tiger.  No, seriously!

It's been awhile.

Boy oh boy.  It's been a long time since I last posted.  My life has been horribly busy.  Since my last post, Maui has molted at least twice again and Edlie once as well.  Tiger, unusually, hasn't.  She refuses to leave her old shell (she's still in the one that I bought her in) and seemed quite content when Maui and Edlie were molting at the same time.  Tiger is an odd-ball.  Not that I don't love her, but it's a little strange.  Normally, hermies love the company of other hermit crabs.  In fact, it's not unusual for a hermit crab to die of loneliness if it is kept alone.  Tiger is the exception.  She doesn't like the company of the others and doesn't want anything to do with them.  Edlie and Maui, however, are inseparable.  They spend all their time together.  I must keep this post short due to lack of time, but I will give a small update.  Maui is no longer the smallest.  In fact, she's now about the same size as Tiger.  She has also changed her shell to a much larger one which she seems to be quite pleased with.  Out with the old and in with the new!

Tiger - Day 1... Edlie - Day 1?!

Drat.  Just when I was beginning to enjoy all three of the hermies together again(scratch that, I've enjoyed it since the get go, so do we so often say that...?), Tiger has to bury herself.  At first, I thought it was just her extreme intolerance to the cold.  About a week ago, we got a nice cold front.  I love the cold, but it turns out Tiger absolutely hates it!  I haven't been able to go buy an Under tank heater yet, so I keep a blanket over the tank to keep it insulated.  When I finally did get the tank warm again, Tiger came out and enjoyed herself. 

However, two days ago, Tiger buried herself again.  I checked the temp and the humidity and everything was fine.  So, like I did with Maui, I left her there until this morning, where I moved her to the molting tank.  She immediately buried herself(within the hour no less) and I currently hear her digging at this very moment.  I'm not sure what she's doing... making her underground cave bigger? Who knows...

Anyway, after I moved Tiger over to the MT, I found Edlie totally buried! Not her too!  Again, like with the others, I'll leave her for two to three days before taking her out of the main tank.  However, Tiger's in the MT, so I might have to get a gallon-sized bucket and fill that with sand for Edlie.  Joy.

Poor Maui is going to be all alone.  Perhaps I might get new hermies sooner than I thought... but wait!  Hermit crabs will often molt after you've brought them home from the store because the conditions weren't ideal.  I refuse to have a bunch of buckets and pails lying around my room! GAH!

It's time to celebrate!

I am very happy to announce that just a few hours ago, my older sister went into my room and found Maui sitting atop the sand in the MT!  She called to the rest of my family, and all of us raced up the stairs and into my room.  True enough, there was Maui looking pleased with herself.

I must admit that I was beginning to get worried, and I wondered if she had died or something awful like that! Yesterday was Day 20, so we're all very please that Maui has decided to join the surface world again.  We looked to see if we could find any of her exoskeleton(we didn't) and we placed Maui back into the tank.  Currently, she's still sitting on top of the shelf.  I'm hoping that I'll catch when she moves down and rejoins Tiger and Edlie.

As a side note, I've been thinking that I should get a couple more crabs.  Edlie and Tiger were very lethargic and slept most of the time while Maui was gone, so I think another crab might stir things up a bit. In a good way, of course!  A larger family will keep things more active and alive, and since hermit crabs are very social, it would do them some good.  However, I don't think I'll get another crab until after or during Christmas.  Probably after, since the Christmas season is so hectic in my family!

Anyway, a great big "Welcome back!" goes to Maui for her return!

Playground Time - Day 10

The hermies have been a little anti-social lately.  Of course, I've been really busy the past week, so I haven't spent hardly any time with them, other than giving them food and changing their water.

So today, I took Edlie and Tiger out of their tank and placed them in their playground!  Tiger had a blast crawling on the pile of rocks and Edlie pretended to be a bulldozer.  She literally pushed all the toys to one side of the box!  While they had fun, I also did my school at the same time.  I'm going to try to do this everyday now.  Put them in their playground while I do my school in the morning.

Maui is still buried in the MT and today is Day 10.  Yesterday, when I was misting the MT, I noticed a little hole in the sand.  I figured that it must be where Maui was buried, so I didn't touch it.  Today when I misted the tank, I gently spritzed the little hole and part of it collapsed!! Oh no!!  Hermies like total darkness when molting, so I took an extra water-bowl shell and gently placed it over the hole to keep things dark.  I just hope that little Maui is doing a-okay under there.  Of course, she's done this before, so I'll just continue to let nature take it's course.