Belle and Rainbow

Introducing....RAINBOW!  Not sure about the name as I recommended Herman or Hermie, his sister recommended Rainbow, and guess who he listens to.  To be honest, we usually call them by the name of their owners, but this crab's official name is Rainbow.

This is Belle, or Bella depending on the day, or Jewel, or Rose, or Misty, or sometimes Sara.  It just depends on the mood of the owner, the alignment of the stars, and the relative humidity. 

Nahla is responsible for Belle and Rainbow and the children couldn't be happier.  They have actually spent much more time with the crabs than I anticipated.  In fact, we cleaned out the cage today and the Little Bean spent a really long time arranging the cage before putting the crabs back into their clean home.  We discussed the fact that the crabs would immediately move everything around and make a big mess but she was undeterred.  The cage looked amazing, we will see how the crabs have redecorated in the morning.  They are like tiny deadbeat renters, never paying, wrecking the house and having all night parties.

They have played with these guys nearly every day so far.  They lay on the floor with their arms in a big circle and let the crabs crawl around.  This works beautifully until a crab touches an arm or gets near a face, then there is a bit of squealing and heebie jeebies. 
The children have begged to have the crabs in their room but after we have heard how much noise the little critters make at night, we decided it is probably better to keep them downstairs for now.

I always thought hermit crabs were pretty easy to take care of, I mean they sell them at every beach shop in the US.  I just thought they had a short life span or something....until I did the research.  They actually require quite a bit of maintenance.  From what I have read they have adapted gills that allow them to breathe air, but are still in fact gills, which means they must live in a humid area or their gills will dry out and they will slowly suffocate.  Disturbing.  After much research I think we will be able to take good care of Belle and Rainbow and ensure they do not die a slow painful death, but rather live to be happy old crabs.

Thanks Nahla!