Sam in his habitat.
The day after Hurricane Irene, my husband, daughter and I spent a few days vacationing at the beach. While there, our daughter Claire campaigned hard to bring home a new member of the family – a hermit crab. Apprehensive at first, my husband and I concluded it would be an easy enough pet to take of, so we said yes. Armed with bags of sand from the beach, a 2.5-gallon tank, various shells, a sponge, and a plastic palm tree, we headed home, already fond of the little hermit crab – now affectionately called Sam.
Once home, I looked more extensively at information on how to care for hermit crabs, as the pamphlet that came with Sam seemed inadequate. It turns out that, though “hermit” is in their name, they are anything but. Hermit crabs love to hang out with other hermit crabs, ideally in a pack of six to nine, though in their natural habitat they’ll hang out with a hundred of their kin. I wish they had told us about this at the Sea Shell Shop.
Words for a Better World 