Sad News....

Oh, and I went to feed Mr. TicTac before I left for New Hampshire and discovered that while he doesn't really ever move.... EVER, this time he wasn't faking it and he had passed on to the great unknown quite some time ago. A pretty clear-cut case of "Oh.... I thought he was sleeping.... ohhhhh.... that's bad." It didn't look like he'd really survived his moulting beyond that first day.

R.I.P. TicTac.

The Successor!

Tic Tac has chosen a new, cooler shell! FINALLY. The day after I moved home Jessie was piddling around in the laundry room when I hear "Hannah..... I think he's dead...." I jumped up to go see what had happened to Mr. T. It looked like he had literally exploded out from his shell. There was a big claw over there, a little claw over here and a bunch of leg pieces in between. Literally exploded. Boom.

I decided to finish my breakfast before cleaning up the carnage but when I went to lift his shell out I discovered him tucked up all nice and cosy inside! He'd just shed his skin (I had no idea what that would look like... I think I was picturing something more along the lines of a snake skin, you know, an intact clear version of the same little critter, huddled in the corner with the real Tic Tac staring at it, perhaps with a bit of surprise written on his little feelers). But no, these looked like what's left on your plate when you eat crab.

Anyway, the day after that he chose a new shell! Dad was piddling around in the laundry room (it seems like someone's always in there, judging from this post) and he noticed that Tic Tac had crawled on top of another shell and was sizing it up by reaching his little arms around it, definitely casing the joint. About ten minutes later I went to check on him and he'd moved into his new home. Pretty cool if you ask me, especially after weeks of not really seeing him move, or do anything.

TicTackiness

TicTac woke up again during the day this time so I thought I'd get a picture of his crazy plus CLAW! Plus I found this picture today and it only made his shell look all the uglier (I don't know what makes me giggle more, seeing a hermit crab all wound up in it's shell, or all the stupid comments posted below the picture).

Sigh... in his own time, I guess, all in his own time.

THE CLAWWWW....

The Tank

This is TicTac's abode. He was living in Monty's room/Paul's old room/the craft room until I moved him into my shelf upstairs about an hour ago. He fits perfectly and now the chances that I'll hear him tictacing around at night are greater. That way I can play and play and play with him, or whatever you do with TicTacs. He's buried in the coconut or something right now. I can't find him even though I've dug around in there for a couple of minutes a couple of times. It's a little silly that I can't find an inch and a half hermit crab in a 20x10 inch tank. Whatever TicTac, I don't want to play with you anyway!

Mr. TicTac

In... oh I don't know, winter quarter? Steve showed me his new little buddy, TicTac the hermit crab. He is very cool in that he'll climb all over you (if you have clothes on... he has trouble with smoother surfaces like skin). About a week and a half ago TicTac came to live with me until when/if Steve wants him back. I think this is more of a permanent arrangement. So my little menagerie is growing.

TicTac finally unburied himself three days after he got here, giving me a chance to pick him out of his tank and snap some quick pictures of his busy little self. I've been looking at websites that talk about hermit crab care, and I think it's safe to say that they're all pretty horrifyingly hideous. But they do have good information, when it's not lost on nasty backgrounds. They sound like busy little things, but what TicTac does most of the day is stay under his shredded coconut substrate and keep warm and dark. Between Steve, Jessie and I we've been trying to tempt him out of that hideous racing shell he came with when Steve got him, and into a larger prettier version. Not only is the racing shell idea ugly but the shell really is too small for him. Oh well...