The Great Hermit Crab Escape

Hermie in his habitat

We have a hermit crab, Hermie, that has been traveling with us. When we lived in Albuquerque his habitat was a big fish tank (at one time there were 6 hermit crabs). We never saw him! He stayed buried in the dirt all the time. When we got ready to travel, I bought a good size plastic habitat for him. He seems to be a lot more active now... he plays in his water, climbs, and crawls around everywhere.


He has a "crab hotel" that is shaped like a big shell. He sleeps in it, and he uses it for climbing. When he climbs to the top, he can reach the plastic mesh lid. He will then proceed to climb around upside down on the plastic lid. Skyler jokingly has said that he is planning his escape.




Hermie climbing on his crab hotel


Yesterday we were running around all day. When we left, Hermie was climbing around upside down on the lid. When we came back, I checked to see if he was still climbing around upside down. I looked... no Hermie. I checked in his hotel... still no Hermie. I moved the dirt around and checked everywhere... no Hermie anywhere! I looked at the lid and found that the plastic square door that opens to access the habitat for feeding was not latched!!


HERMIT CRAB ON THE LOOSE!!!


The habitat was sitting on Liam's bunk, so we started the search there. On the bunk, Liam keeps a mesh collapsible bin with all his stuffed animals in it (to keep them from getting chewed up by a puppy). Down in the bottom of the mesh bag, was Hermie. He was hiding amoung the stuffed animals.




Hermie is in the mesh bag among the stuffed animals


So... back in the habitat he went. Now we will be more careful about making sure the access door is closed. We don't want any more great hermit crab escapes!