A Very Strange Hermit Crab

Occasionally really bizarre things happen in the field of pet keeping.

On Thursday i was giving my hermit crab Portia a bath. As I was lifting her out of the water she she suddenly dropped OUT OF HER SHELL!

I decided that the best thing to do would be to place Portia, her old shell, and several new shells into a "critter catcher". I put this in my closet thinking that the dark would encourage Portia to go into a shell.

The next day, I checked on Portia. She looked lifeless except for the slow movement of her legs. It was very sad. I knew that crabs that do this usually either go into a shell or die. Since my other crab foster had died a day or two previously, I thought perhaps the crabs had fought and Portia, being substantially large had killed Foster.

I desided to put Portia into a five gallon tank lined with cloth (stones could damage the soft end of her body). I added some shells and a coconut shell to hid in. Portia stayed in the shell all of that day, looking like she was dieing.

Than today, she was crawling around the tank like nothing had happened. But she still didn't go into a shell!

This is the weirdest hermit crab thing that I have ever heard of!  

Three More Pets!

Yesterday I got three more additions to my menagerie! I got Two hermit crabs and a Betta fish. The hermit crabs are named Portia and Foster. Like my other crabs, they are named after characters in the books Gone away Lake and Return to Gone away Lake. The Betta is named Victory.

The hermit crabs are still too scared to leave their shells. Portia is the one on the right.

This is my female betta Victory. Isn't she beautiful!





Update: Sadly, Victory died of Swim Bladder Disease not long after I got her.