Funny Creatures

I was in Ikea the other day and I saw this pet shop named 'Pet Safari' which was so huge and has become my most favorite pet shop ever. They have everything - you name it - and the whole outlay of the store itself makes one enjoy browsing from one isle to the next ones.

They have this cute creature, hermit crab (or 'umang-umang' in Bahasa) which has become the latest craze (I supposed) in exotic pet-keeping. The price range from RM5 to RM15 each according to its size.

No doubt I was really captured by this cute and weird crustacean and decided to buy two, as they don't like to live alone. I named one of it Domino (because I supposed it was a male) and the other one was named Jolie by Ayi.

Though they told us these hermit crabs are of low maintenance, I was quiet surprised when I found out lots of do's and don'ts in keeping them from the internet. It seems they aren't as easy as those store people had tell us anyway. That has taken most of the initial fun in keeping these crabs.

What more after a week, Jolie died for no apparent reason. There left Domino alone. And I was so sad to see poor Domino had nobody else to mingle with and that same afternoon when Jolie died, I went back to the pet store - clad in all-black mourning attire - and bought 3 more for Domino to mingle.

And now Domino has 3 new friends! Namely Prue, Baby Joe and Maddox.

In the beginning, it was quite hard to get a sound sleep at night with them in the room as they are active in the dark and will be making lots (read: LOTS) of noise with their protective shell continously hitting the glass aquarium they are in. Especially Maddox with his heavy, green shell that makes the most noise.

However, after a while we got used to it and now it seems much more fun with the sound around as I know they are there and I am glad to have these small, funny creatures as companions. It is quite entertaining as well to see them walking around, digging in the sand, climbing on whatever they could reach as I study beside their tank.

Aboy checking on his new step sisters and brothers as soon as we put them in place.

This is Jolie

Jolie and Domino in their old, smaller tank before we moved them to a larger one

Bigger tank courtesy of my sister. Hermit crabs need adequate open space with no obstacles for them to run around and dig.

That is Prue - the smallest among four of them.

Baby Joe

Oh, and my tarantula Seraphine now gets a new bigger container, complete with dry coconut fibre and small pebbles as she likes her surrounding to be DRY.

Now, I'm a proud daddy to 4 hermit crabs, a tarantula and a cat. Sexy huh? LOL