Osippi's Hermits

New Hermit!

2006-03-06T12:04:00.000-05:00

The day before yesterday I went into my local petco, the one that I got the strawberry from that gave mites to my hermits and Alteaque was killed because of it. I went over to the regular species tanks. They have the "fancy" crabs and the regular crabs seperated. It looked like sand had been sprinkled over the top of the sand. When you took a look closer the sand was moving and had legs. Mites. Really, really bad mites. The worse case of mites I've ever seen. There was a medium PP sitting in the tank, good looking crab. Looked JUST like Alteaque. Being that Alteaque was killed from mites that she had gotton from that store, it was very upsetting for me. It was like Alteaque sitting in a pile of mites. So I told the guy that they had really bad mites in the crab tank and he replyed with, "I know that, I just redid the tank yesterday, I guess I'll have to re-do it again." My foot he did. That tank hadn't been cleaned out for months... more realistically a year. Well, later that day when I was telling my sister and mom about it I cried. It was so terribly bad. So, yesterday one of my bearded dragon's basking lamp burned out so we had to go down there again and get a light. Puanani died from streaking, so we had to try to find an indo. When we got there the lady was digging through the tank roughly, manhandling the crabs badly. Anyway, no crabs in the regular shelled tank. So I looked through the fancy tank and found no indos. Just PPs in the regular-shelled tank and just PPs and rugs in the fancy tank. There were two jumbo PPs there that had bad mites. Both the fancy tank and the regular tank had terrible mites. I chose a female jumbo PP in a black painted shell that had neon green and pink stripes on it. *rolls eyes* But anyway, I carried her in the car, didn't want her in that box. She was very sweet and docile. She's a gorgeous crab, I was very suprised at how healthy she looked in that tank, so she hadn't been there very long, maybe a couple days tops. But anyway, I gave her two throughough salt water baths and made sure she was clean as clean gets. So I added her to the main tank and she switched into a beautiful Tapestry Turbo. It's a bit small, but not too bad. There's a jumbo-sized tapestry turbo in there that she apparently hasn't found yet. She's doing great, yesterday she drank tons of salt water and ate tons of over-ripe mango and kiwi.

I'll get pictures ASAP! I need new batteries for my digital camera, that thing drains batteries like there's no tommorow!

Pictures of Kaimana and Rose

2006-03-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here's some recent photos of Kaimana and Rose. Rose is my female, small-medium straw, Kaimana is my male, medium rug.

Kaimana -

Rose -

New design for the crabitat and new humidity gauge

2006-02-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

I had to re-moisten the substrate today, so I thought I might as well give it a new design. So, I did! :-P I'll get pictures ASAP. It took me 2 liters of dechlor water to moisten the FB. I suppose that's what I get when the tank is perfectly positioned so it gets the brunt of the heater.

My old humidity gauge broke so now I got another humidity gauge today. It cost $13.00 USD! If you can believe that. Oh well, it's zoo med so I suppose it's worth it. I just need to recalibrate it still. :-/

Welcome home Mango!

2006-02-21T10:31:00.000-05:00

I've rescued a male PP from a local petstore. I kept seeing him in there for weeks, and my family and I went in to get crickets for our lizards and I went to check on the hermit crab cage. He was still there, and still in his very badly cracked pica shell. So I asked my parents if I could get him and they said yes. I brought him home and gave him a througough bath, and he's in the 55 gallon main tank now! I believe Mango's dug down now. He also has gotton his middle name (yes I middle name all of my hermits) his full name is Mango Kiwi :-D I'll post pictures as soon as he destresses and comes back up. He has a missing leg, with a tiny tiny gel limb so he's in premolt, too!

Gill problems

2006-02-21T10:28:00.000-05:00

Puanani, my female indo, her gills have turned red and swollen, almost like an infection. She's become lethargic and spending so much time in the salt water pool she's nearly drowned several times. I'm very worried about her, but I'm afraid I'm just going to take the best care of her possible and see what happens. :'-(

Welcoming home Kenda, Nova, and Tadi!!!

2006-02-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

I've adopted 3 new hermits from the local petstore. Kenda (PP, Female), Nova (Eccie, Male), and Tadi (PP, Male)! So far I've only gotton some pictures of Kenda, which aren't very good, but hey it's better than nothing, eh?

$50 worth of artificial plants at walmart!

2006-02-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

I spent $50 worth of plants at Walmart, plus suction cups. Below is a picture of my 55 gallon crabitat after being attacked by all of the plants! (There's a total of 16 hermit crabs in there now)

Little Tabasco, up n' down!

2006-02-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

Little Tabasco, my micro micro E, molted about a week ago and than within days she was hardened and released back in the 'tat! I was amazed at how fast she hardened, such a healthy little boogar! :-P

Tapestry Turbos Come In

2006-01-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

The 6 Tapestry Turbos came in yesterday, in great condition. I ordered them from Ebay, from the Hermit Crab Shack. They are gorgeous shells, Kaimana was looking at one of them yesterday but eventually decided not to move into it. I'll post the pictures from the auction ASAP.

Wierd plants growing in crabitat...

2006-01-18T11:27:00.000-05:00

There are odd sprouts growing in the crabitat. They don't seem to be bothering the hermits, so I'm leaving them alone for now. Even though one is getting rather large!

Two new straws

2005-11-16T21:28:00.000-05:00

I adopted two new strawberrys today from PetCo. They got mixed into the regular crabs, so I got two strawberrys for $12.00!!! ($6.00 each) They both are considered small sized crabs, but the girl is slightly bigger than the boy! :-D

Haven't updated here in a lonnnnng time!

2005-11-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

:-P I apologize everyone, I lost the URL to this blog. :-/

I will try to update everyday, and boy do I have alot of updating to do! Hehe

New crab!

2005-06-29T20:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it all started when we went to the petstore to get some crickets for our bearded dragon. My dad came out a few minutes later with what looked like some wax worms and crickets. Than he handed me the "wax worms" container and told me to open it. I suspicously opened it. It was a little PP!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! Well, it was a cute little male crab, I named him Clawd, after Clawdette. He dug down and he's very healthy! The other crabs seem to like him too! :-) *hugs my dad* Now I have 15 hermit crabs! O.O :-)

Soooo many molts!

2005-06-29T20:11:00.000-05:00

My hermit crabs have been molting like mad!!! Over half of my 15, have molted!!! O.O hehehe.... but I'm very pleased because I know my hermies are very happy and healthy! :-)

Niele, is an eegie???

2005-05-31T12:19:00.000-05:00

Niele, what has been thought to be an E, and a ruggie. Well, I came up with a theory, could he be an eegie, which his parents would be a ruggie and an E? He has candycorn-shaped eyes, sorta, but they look paralell, too. His back leg is deformed like a ruggie, but it's toned down more. His cervical groove is wide, but he's kinda in-between ruggie and E with wideness. Please post your comments, I'd love to hear what you think of my theory.

Second level

2005-05-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

I've had a second level for a little while now, and I just extended it, here are some instructions as to how you build a second level similar to how I did it.

Materials needed:

2 caps of two tupper ware bowls
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8 two-inch PVC pipes
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1 roll of ducktape
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Instructions:

Pair up the 2-inch PVC pipes and ducktape where they seperate. Ducktape both tupperware caps together, long ways. Make sure the ducktape is very secure. Ducktape both sides of the caps. Ducktape the PVC pipes together, all four, secure well.

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Ramp way up

If you have a giant clam shell, which you can get in a shell packet at Michael's, lean it up against the second level. It provides a cute little natural way to make a ramp, you can also make your own, or use some choya/cholla wood! :-)

Say bye bye to old tank!

2005-05-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

I redid my tank, AGAIN! I'll post pictures later, I extended the second level, boiled the sand dollars, put them in the water and in the tank, put some more greenery in there, moved the coconut hut, moved the food/water dishes, etc.! :-D

Got sand dollars for hermies!

2005-05-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

We got a pack of 75 little sand dollars for the hermies! I crushed some up and put it into the food bowl, than put a few randomly around the tank, I put a few next to the salt water pool, too! I'm sure they're going to love the sand dollars!

Fruit flies....

2005-05-26T11:52:00.000-05:00

Fruit flies... oh boy, I just had an outbreak of fruit flies... not good... there is still lots of them... They are slowly going away, though. I put a trap, a bowl of sweet liquid, I caught a couple, but it didn't work to well. I've heard of permanent traps, but I'm trying to just smoosh them all... they aren't bothering the crabs much, but the smell of the fresh fruits I feed them is just irresistable to them I suppose... I don't have a picture of one, they move way to fast. :-(

Main tank is redone!!!!

2005-05-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

The main tank has been redone! :-) I mixed the forest bedding and play sand together, moved the salt water pool to the other side, moved the second level to the other side, and all around redid the tank! :-) My hermies love it! The especially love sleeping under the second level! :-) Oh, there is a little substrate at the bottom of the salt water pool, no, it's not harmful, they actually EAT substrate! It gives them a little grip on the bottom when they're climbing out from taking a dip also. :-)

Lolana passes away...

2005-05-26T11:32:00.000-05:00

Lolana was rescued from Petco while she was streaking. She overcame that challenge, but she got a deadly virus. She passed away with in three days of getting this virus. Bless her heart, she tried to fight it off but was to weak. She was a beautiful and playful white ruggie. She had the will to live.

I love you so much Lolana!