Hermit Crabs

Hi There! If you don’t know who I am, I’m Brady Mondry! Now right to it then! In class, we are doing a unit in science on hermit crabs and I want to spread some knowledge about them. Hermit crabs are scavengers, which means they eat dead things like dead animals or dead plants. You can find hermits in tide pools, in the ocean, on land, and almost everywhere!

Unlike other crabs, a hermit crab doesn’t molt its exoskeleton, instead it finds shells big enough to hide its tasty abdomen. When it grows too big for its old shell it has to find a new one. When it finds one it uses its claws to see the new shell’s size and potential. When it finds the perfect shell the hermit crab backs into it as quickly as possible. The new shell has too be 1/3 bigger than the last one and the opening has to be big enough for the large pincer to seal it shut.   When you find shells in tide pools you should leave them because if you don’t it will cause the hermit crabs to have trouble finding new real estate.

You would think hermit crabs would like to live in solitude, but no! They like to live in hermit crab colonies! Birds, fish, rats, and others feed on hermit crabs.

In class we have hermit crabs. A lot of them have died.  Suspicious, very suspicious.  When they die they fall out of their shells. They are more active in the dark, oh I forgot to mention they are nocturnal. Yeah, I think you figured that out on your own. Once at a beach I saw some living in conch shells. They were HUGE!

Well, au revoir!!

Brady Mondry