This summer I bought two crabs at the pet store in the mall and took home a care sheet. I ended up losing one of the crabs within about a month. The other one, Trooper is golf ball sized and is still with me. The other one I’ve replaced twice only to have the last one die last week. I found this website and see there is much I need to do to make sure my crabs are happy. So I bought some new stuff and new supplies, I built an ISO tank too. I can see now how the conditions at the pet store are not the ideal for crabs. Then on Saturday I went to a privately owned store and bought three new crabs. They went into the ISO tank and stayed there until Monday evening. The first night one of them, Pearl, switched shells while I was at Wal Mart! I’ve yet to see this happen Anyway her old shell was very tiny and had a hole in it so she looks much better now. She is very pinchy and grabby though! Monday evening I put the three newbies and Trooper in a bath. This was my first time bathing ‘properly’ and I’m not sure I left them in long enough, I was afraid of drowning but I tried to do it according to what I read here and on the hermit-crab.com site. Trooper refused to come out of his shell for the longest time in the bath. They ran around in the big bath tub on a towel to dry off then went back to the main tank. No incidents there. Later that night I got Trooper out to walk in his ball. Cora was in the sand crawling around so I brought her out too. I wanted to hold her some but she keeps trying to pinch onto my hand. Pearl and Sandy were roosting on the wire so I didn’t try to get them down. They ran around on the floor for 15 mins or so then back to the tank they went. A before bed check found Cora drinking, Trooper climbing and Pearl and Sandy still up on the wire. I got up this morning and looked in to change the food and water and Cora is GONE :O Okay so I’m not going to panic. Reading here tells me she may still be in need of some quiet time. So I will be patient and see what happens. After the new food was in, Pearl came down off the wire to have a bite to eat before going back up. Trooper was just inside his shell in the sand but right before I left he was out and scaling the wire as well.
