Wednsday November 5, 2003

Last night the crabbies were out for play time. I was really looking them over and I realized that Trooper is missing a section of one leg and Sandy is missing a section of two legs. Now this didn’t just happen, that I know. But I wasn’t familiar enough with their bodies to know when I bought them that they were missing bits of their legs. I have read enough on the message boards to know this isn’t a cause for a alarm. After watching one pet store remove a crab from the wire screen, I have a feeling this may be how Sandy lost her legs, they wrap them snugly around the wire so they don’t have to hang on by their pincher I guess. And sometimes when I try to take them down, they grab on with their pincher. Now they seem to be okay with me taking them down and they let go easily. If they don’t, I leave them be.

Trooper seems to be a bit gray and has started digging. I put him in ISO today to see if he’s getting ready to molt. I’m really scared he might be and that he may die in the process. He’s really not very active unless he’s out of the tank and running around on the floor. He’s not a day crab either, you can’t coax him out of his shell for nothing during the day. Evenings he is friendly and ready to socialize but by late evening he’s back to snoozing.

Pearl is named for the Spongebob character and her personality matches. She has been outgoing from the start and loves to climb on everyone and tear around. She loves wood and loves to climb on everything possible.

Sandy is shy and likes to perch. Somehow she managed to climb from the wire onto the humidity gauge and was hanging there this a.m. I have no idea how she would have gotten herself down without just letting go and landing on the resin cave. So I took her down.

Cora is hell bent on escape no matter where she is. I’ve caught her on the lid of the tank upside down before. So I shortened the wire wall to about 3 inches below the top of the tank. This weekend I had the lid off for a bit while I was filling dishes and I come back to find her on the top of the tank in mid escape!! She must be watched closely or she’s going to make a break for it.