Now Introducing:

Layda and Sayda! Our newest additions!!!

I know, we just had baby fish and now we have hermit crabs! Robert and Julie brought them back from their trip to Galveston this last week. They did call and ask permission first, so we were prepared for their arrival. =)

A few months ago, I had gone to some garage sales with my friend and I saw these 2 aquariums. One was a $1 and the other$2, so I picked them up. I thought, if nothing else, we could try to sell them in our own garage sale for $2 and $3!!! HAHAHA

We have now set up what we call 'Crab Kingdom'. The kids are really enjoying watching them crawl over the rocks and shells. And Sayda (the blue one) will even poke her head out of her shell when Jayna calls her name! Its the funniest thing. Who knew that crabs were so smart? =)

Jayna likes to pick them up and have us let the crabs crawl on our hands. She is very careful to pick them up and not get near the opening. Barrett, on the other hand, it's almost as though he tries to grab the opening! We are keeping him away from the crabs and just letting him hold he empty shells. He doesn't really know the difference just yet.

We used one of the bigger tanks and we gave the smaller one to Bonham's sister Erin to use for the crabs that Emerson got. We heard that one of Emerson's crabs has lost a leg....not quite sure on the details, but ours are doing well. We went to Petsmart (not sure if its Pet Smart or Pets Mart) today and got 2 more hermit crabs that are a little smaller and in regular shells. Jayna said that we needed 4 to have a family. So, today, we went and picked up Haiti and Cuba. Now, so that there is no confusion.... we do let Jayna name these and the things that come out and kind of hard to understand.... so we have to get as close to what she says. For example, for the first 2, she said 'Nana and Nonna' and we said, 'You already have a 'Nana Claus' (its a stuffed animal), so why don't you pick another name?' And then she said, 'How about Layda Sayda?' She might have been saying it as one name, but we went with it as two separate names and there you go!

And then for the latest two, she said Haiti and Coob. She doesn't know about the country Haiti, but its easier for me if we spell it that way and I'm not sure what a 'Coob' is, so we tweaked it to Cuba. And these are them:

Haiti is the smaller, very active on the left and Cuba is on the right.

They are smaller than Layda and Sayda, so it will be fun to watch them grow and change shells.

Petsmart sells the really colorful shells and some regular shells too, but they are pretty pricey. They start at $4.99 each. Hermit crabs need extra shells so that they can grow and move up, so we knew that we needed some. We went over to Michaels and got a large bag of various shells for $6.00! What a deal! We put some in the aquarium with the crabs and the rest can go in the sandbox outside for the kids to play with. Win-Win! =)

Here are some views from the side of the tank:

They like to gather together under pieces of wood, so I got a shot of Layda and Cuba hiding out.

Bonham and his sisters had hermit crabs growing up, so he is more comfortable with them than I am. Those big, purple pinchers scare me. He said that they didn't pinch them and then he added 'very hard'... oh, that makes me feel better! He said that the only time that anyone got hurt was when Rachel tried to kiss one and it grabbed hold of her lip! OUCH!!! We are not letting the kids get that close and we have told Jayna that they are not the kissing kind of animals. LOL

They are fun to watch and we are having a good time inside since this cold weather came through.... yuck, yuck! I'm ready for spring and summer to come!