Coolest thing to watch

[jgoal55]

So I my mom gave me a bunch of empty shells that she has been collecting over the years at different beaches around the world. Most of them have been out of the water for at least 5 years so I figured no harm in dumping them in the tank.

It was but 30 seconds later that blue leg after blue leg found a new home. It was amazing to watch! All the mid size blue legs upgraded and all the smaller guys jumped into the ones the mid sized crabs left. Ive seen crabs switch homes but never this many at once. It was really fun to watch.

The funniest part was when a tiny crab decided that he needed a huge shell and when he got in he couldnt walk because his legs didnt reach the substrate.

Silly Crab!

 

[delloman]

thats funny

 

[seedless reefer]

People don't think about this but keeping extra shells on hand will help keep crabocide in check.

 

[coolsurf]

Dontcha just love them little guys! It's never boring with hermit crabs around!

 

[kr561]

cOol

 

[jamos5790]

Yeah in my 24 gal i have @10 or so shells in the front and call it the used car lot, cause htey all do alot of switching of shells there.

 

[jgoal55]

yeah Loren, it definitely helps to have them around and the freakin crabs grow fast too so its always good to have empty ones of all sizes in the tank. Just remember, its not so much the size of the shell, its the opening that matters most (lee taught me that).

I just took another look at the tank to see a few more of the shells occupied, one thats from a beach in Italy so now I have an italian hermit crab!

 

[weaglereefer]

Haha, yeah, I got some cool shells at the beach last week. One of them is black/gray with orange spikes. Some bad arse crab will be in that one.

 

[jgoal55]

Im going to try and snap some pics of some of the shells in the next couple of days....much cooler than your typical blue leg shell.

 

[smoothie]

Watch them at night. The hermits go from being slow grazers to ninjas that jump and flip off of the rocks

 

[weaglereefer]

My favorite thing to see is sometimes they play "cliffhanger" and fall, and there's this little white thing tumbling down the rocks! ROTFLMFAO This also happens a lot when one gets brave and tries to climb the silicone at the corners.

 

[jgoal55]

lol......yeah thats awesome....I have a bridge connecting my two "islands" of rock and they try to cross it all the time....I say they go 3 of 5 successfully.....its awesome....its like watching the bridge crossing in Monty Python:

 

[thedeper]

I love watching my pistols trying to move sand in the front of my tank only to have the vortech undertow ''reposition'' the sand and they have to start all over again. It is like a groundhog day that happens every 12 seconds.

 

[weaglereefer]

thedeper;317374 wrote: I love watching my pistols trying to move sand in the front of my tank only to have the vortech undertow ''reposition'' the sand and they have to start all over again. It is like a groundhog day that happens every 12 seconds.

Haha, *picturing shrimp/goby while hearing "I Got You Babe" in head*!

 

[smoothie]

I have never cleaned my back glass so I get to witness the cliffhanger scene all the time. They do good until they get to a spot the powder blue has stripped clean and then noooooooooooooo......... Back to having A.D.D. like the rest of the guys. That's for the younger folks. The older guys refer to it as curious and energetic including me, so me so no meds for my blue legs just yet

 

[thedeper]

We should all get together and have a blue-leg climb off. See whose hermits are king of the mountain in someone's tank lol.

 

[weaglereefer]

Oh, and now my horseshoe crab and conch are out stirring up the sand, knocking over frags. They're cool to watch also. The conch moves in big steps, you see the whole shell lift up, then clunk, back down again. The crab can occasionally be seen swimming around upside down in the water column.

 

[thedeper]

How long have you had your horseshoes? I heard they are kind of hard to keep alive, but man are they cool creatures.

 

[smoothie]

That would be neat to see. Just saw a post that laid their aquascape out around a horseshoe crab. Going to the next meeting?

 

[weaglereefer]

I've had it about 4 months now. It was about the size of a half dollar when I got it, and now it's 3", maybe 4" head to tail. I've found 5 molts since he's been in there.