OT: Hermit crabs....

[BTM]

Okay, so I'm at this store at the Mall called Romancing the Stone, basically it sells a lot of new age type stuff, like crystals, stones, statues, masks, bamboo, incense, you name it.  I don't really buy into the New Age philosophy stuff, but I like things that are shiny :)  

Anyway, in the front section they have this open display case with a bunch of various sized sea shells lying in the sand.  I picked one up, thinking, "Oh, neat, sea shells", when suddenly I see brown, spindy legs moving from within.  I was caught off guard by that and, thinking it was some kind of wind up toy or something, I asked the guy, 'Whoa, are these things real?" and he said, "Yeah," pointed to a display sign I hadn't seen and said, "They're hermit crabs."

So, I'm going through the different shells, picking them up and seeing what's inside.  While most of the crabs were content to just lay there in the sand, a few were actually sticking their long spindy legs outside their homes and crawling around a bit.  

All I could think was, "Damn, these are creepy!!"  I couldn't help but be reminded of the "bugs" in Starship Troopers.  Not sure why ANYONE would want these things for pet, especially when all they do is just lie around and sleep.  (Course, granted, that's pretty much all my cats do, but still I can PET my cats...)

Anyone hear by chance own any of these?  

Just curious...

[Shadowphile]

Not me.  But they will adopt some crazy new 'shells' as they get bigger.  Tin cans, margarine tubs, that sort of thing. They are a novelty pet where the novelty wears of very quickly....

[akiratubo]

My cousin had one that eventually became a giant.  The last "home" it had before it died was a small cooking pot.  I didn't know they could get that big.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I live on the coast in North Carolina and these things are everywhere.  During the summer you can go to any beach at night and find hundreds.  Pretty fun as a pet.

[Ash]

Romancing the Throne?

Sounds like a store that sells toilets....

[Mr_Vindictive]

Ash,

Atleast it's not called "Romancing The Bone".  That would be a completely different type of store.......

[Ash]

Romancing the Bone...
Great name for a porn shop!

Remember the guy with the long blonde hair in 8MM who sold the bogus snuff film for like $1000 bucks to Nicholas Cage and pinched his nipple the whole time?  

He could run that store.

[Scott]

You must see these things when they come out of their shell and you see the back end of these critters. Now that is really creepy.

[nshumate]

We've got a couple (and have gone through a couple more).  Low maintenance and moderately interesting, and unlike a goldfish, you can hold 'em.  For some reason, they're all the rage these days.

[plan9superfan]

Hermit crabs are awful pets, but they make excellent food!

[Flangepart]

Well, As Akiratubo shows us, keeping them in a small cook pot make for...convienence.
Not to me. If it ain't got fins and scales, its ain't Kosher, don't ya know...

Now, if I had a hermit crab, the accessories in the tank would be the fun. Plastic army men and tanks, for a start....

[Scott]

We live near the ocean so hermit crabs are quite common here. We had one that died and it crawled out of its shell. The back end of these things are creepy alien like and the one we had turned very pale. It was probably the paleness that made it creepy.

[Ash]

I was at Petco the other day to pick up filters for my aquarium and I always stop to look at the spiders and reptiles.
Now they have a big tank with hermit crabs. (it wasn't there before)
One of them must've been forced out of its shell.

I had never seen a hermit crab out of its shell until then so it's funny that this topic got brought up.

Scott's right, they are weird, disgusting looking things without their shell on!

"Alien like" was also the first thing I thought of.
They look like they come from outer space.

[Genetic_Mishap]

Are you sure it's not "Romancing the STONE"? That's what we have in our mall (Northpark Mall in Joplin MO).

I hate that store for many reasons. Main reason, it replaced the nature store there, which is one of my favorite kind of stores, but they never last. Out with authentic fossil replicas and science toys; in with the hippie bullsh!t and overpriced "primitive" junk. Of course, the old nature store had a few New Age items to amuse that gullible segment of customer, but it made up for it.

I also hate having animals out in the open for people to fool around with willy-nilly, even if it's such an insignifcant thing as a hermit crab. You feel sorry for the damn things, reduced to disposable pets. One time I saw a guy try to use a pen to pull the thing out of its shell. I had enough.

Me and my sister used to keep hermit crabs. They STINK. STANK. STUNK. Whatever, the smell was vomit-inducing, and you can guess that their novelty wore out on us little kids.

On the plus side, I did see them in the wild when I went to Costa Rica. You had to watch where you walked. I remember that they were quite fond of Oreo crumbs. :)

[BTM]

>Are you sure it's not "Romancing the STONE"? That's what we have in our mall (Northpark \
>Mall in Joplin MO).

Actually, yes, that's what I meant... didn't realize my mistake till I reread the article just like ten minutes ago.  Went into "edit" and did some corrections (boy, that's a handy feature).

>I hate that store for many reasons. Main reason, it replaced the nature store there, which is one
>of my favorite kind of stores, but they never last. Out with authentic fossil replicas and science
>toys; in with the hippie bullsh!t and overpriced "primitive" junk. Of course, the old nature store
>had a few New Age items to amuse that gullible segment of customer, but it made up for it.

I thought it was funny how they had all these crystals with an instruction book and what each crystal's "energy" brings to you as a person.  I'm like, "Oooohkay."  

You feed Hermit crabs oreo crumbs?  Oh wow... that's funny... hehe. :)