Hermes the Hermit crab

We visited the Pet Store on Sunday to check out Tetras (to replace Mr. Piggy) but we'll need a small heater coz Tetras are tropical fish. The fish guy also recommended we wait a few days before dropping in some Tetras, and also do a 50% water replacement, stir up the gravel on the bottom of the tank, basically give the tank a chance to settle down. Ammonia and Nitrate levels were a little high, nothing off the charts, but high enough that he recommends a 50% water change which is extreme and would kill any fish if they were in the tank when I did that. The Tetras will be much prettier fish, plus we can get a small school of 6 or so of them for our 10-gallon tank.

We also picked up a couple of extra Hermit crab shells, for Hermes, our Hermit crab. No, not Herpes, Hermes.

One of the shells was a round, snail like shell, such as he already wears, but in a more natural "shell" color (his current shell is red). The other shell is a more pointed shell. Both are of a similar size and unpainted.

I popped the shells in a pot of boiling water the other night, then went upstairs and forgot all about them until I could smell the scum burning on the inside of the pot. I ran downstairs and sure enough the pot had boiled dry, but all around the inside of the pot was this brown scum which had come out from inside the shells. I boiled some more water, poured it in on top of the shells, then poured the whole thing into a bowl to cool. The next night I removed the shells from the water and dropped them into Hermes tank. Despite giving him fresh food, several hours later he was still under his log, although he looked like he was thinking of coming out in an hour or two, but maybe only if I stopped looking in at him.

This morning when I had breakfast I looked in on him, and he'd switched shells. He didn't go for the plainer version of his current shell; he went for the more streamlined, pointier shell.

He's looking pretty sharp in his new threads. As soon as I can, I'll get you a picture ;) Only problem is he is nocturnal. I know, I know. The Hermit crabs in the pet stores and malls run around in that huge tank all day, under that bright light. That's because they're running around trying to find shelter to go to sleep, because it's obviously daylight, there are predators around, and they need a safe place to sleep. Hermit crabs in stores and malls must live a very stressful life.