It’s funny the things that stick with you from childhood. Growing up our elementary school had an indoor carnival every year. One of the booths had hermit crabs as prizes but my mother insisted I could not attempt to win one. Fast forward many years to 2003 and at the local mall I discover hermit crabs for sale. Without thinking about it I immediately bought one and finally satisfied that long dormant need to have a pet hermit crab.
Once I got home I set up a spare 10 gallon tank to resemble the set up I had seen at the mall. At some point in my hermit crab adventure I began looking on the internet for more information and quickly found a thriving community of fellow hermit crab addicts. I quickly learned my set up was pretty much all wrong. I immediately went out and acquired the proper supplies to create a suitable home. I named my hermit crab Trooper in honor of his ability to withstand the conditions he had been living before and after my purchase of him.
After spending some time at the Hermit Crab Association site, I discovered The Crab Street Journal. I joined the site as a member and over time became more and more involved. A few years later Vanessa passed the ownership of CSJ to me. In 2006 The Crab Street Journal became a honest to goodness print magazine. I continued to publish the printed magazine until 2008 at which time I had to stop due to the high costs of printing. During this time I implemented the Crustacean Care Coalition program and the Sister Sites program and continued to grow the Local Reps program. I also assisted Marie Davis with managing the Hermit Crab Adoption site.
Here it is more than 10 years later and I’m still maintaining the site as my schedule allows. The archive of information on this site is too valuable to lose and too many contributed their time and efforts to the library.
I currently have a 150 gallon tank (that I bought for next to nothing several years back) and it houses my small crabbie herd. Sadly, Trooper died unexpectedly a few years ago but we had a long run together.
For some the hermit crab addiction fades and for others we carry on over the many years.
