Empty shells for hermits

[avant]

haaa...maybe can try taking a snapshot of a naked hermit..

[Justikanz]

Oh, definitely seen it... either dead ones or the one that I made the girl swap shells for the crab when I was buying the crabs earlier on... But that is NOT recommended... The process might hurt the crab... A flash when it is swapping the shell might be too stressful for the poor creature...

[avant]

ah...choose crab also can choose shell?? haa.. lucky she didn't say that accessories (shells) are sold separately for hermits.

well..you can take pics of them without the use of flash

[Justikanz]

She was not very happy... But we've talked so much, she doesn't mind... And she advised against it... In case I ever thought of doing it again...

[avant]

as in she forced the hermit out of the shell???

[Justikanz]

Yes, the poor fella has to be 'encouraged' to get out, so, she has to poke a piece of wire into the shell, the crab will be irritated and climb out and it will be switched over to a waiting shell nearby... All done within like 30secs... Fastest being the switching shells... No joke... I will NOT want to do it again... The poor fella must have hated me...

[avant]

wah...poor chap..being forcibly evicted from its home...tsk tsk.. please leave them alone next time

[Justikanz]

Yupz... I didn't know the process was like dat... No more forced evictions for me...

[stormhawk]

haaa...maybe can try taking a snapshot of a naked hermit..

Imagine a flimsy and soft rear end, plus the hard front ends.. that's a naked hermit for you.

Forcing them out isn't very good because the inner section that's hidden in the shell is very soft. If the process was not done properly it can hurt them badly and kill them.

[Justikanz]

Yes! Try taking a dead hermit out of its shell... The soft belly actually will 'hook' on to the shell curve and is VERY difficult to take the body out... I will NEVER perform a forced changing of shell again...

[avant]

ah...so u took out the carcass from the shell and re-use the shell ah?

[Justikanz]

Use it as deco for the ikan jelewat tank... If I put back the shell into the hermit tank, someone will wanna change shell and they might fight... Better dun give them the chance...

[avant]

ah... serious? are they really so crazy over changing shells?? ha.. i think you can start a mini-site to report on their antics!

[stormhawk]

Haha good idea. Kanz, get a webcam and then live feed the video online.

[Justikanz]

Haha... Me technology-challenged leh... Anyway, can update on the thread in the vivarium section... Very interested in sharing experiences... Haha...

[avant]

hee...can someone volunteer to set up the live feed in justikanz's place?

[stormhawk]

Somebody sponsor for webcam and webspace hosting costs then can do lah, otherwise we all can just wonder what the hermits are up to.

[mordrake]

actually saw my hermit changed shells in the tank.
dropped a few new shells (bought empty - no forced evictions ) into the tank.
the hermit came crawling over to check them out. turned the shells one by one over to inspect. finally decided one of them was a nice fit.
crawled out and into the new shell.. very fast.
a naked hermit really looked like the one in sherman's lagoon comic strip when it decides to walk ard without it's can

[Justikanz]

Maybe I should isolate the crabs over the weekends to have them change shell and/or molt... They are getting sluggish these days... Maybe it is time for molting soon...

Err... Should this thread be moved to the vivarium side?

[avant]

finally got an empty tank... anyone seen hermits on sale anywhere? c328 doesn't have them anymore