..::crabdad's crabby blog::..

OK, back to blogging!

2006-03-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Sheesh! It's been a while since i've blogged on the old HC's! OK, so here's the latest. Everyone is doing pretty good. This weekend I got a large PP, named Mossy by the girls. Lets see - since the last entry, I did have 2 small PP's sneak under the water dish and unfortunately, they got stuck there or something :(, the didn't make it. I did try another straw, i thought strawberry shortcake was all lonely being the only one in the tank, but he didn't make it. I might have to see if i can track down another juvenile straw. Shortcake's definately in jucinile stage, still exhibiting the while on most of her legs at the ends - but she's the only straw i've really had any luck with. Jess is going to be out of town this weekend, i might try making something out of hypertufa. I've been wrestling with how to get the form that i want, how to create some kind of a mold or form for a hypertufa construction... still working on this.

or i might make another fake tree, more elaborate than the 1st version of a PVC tree. i'd like to have a treehouse in the next version. hopefully this weekend i'll get something made up and post some pics.

2 new straws

2005-06-28T08:01:00.000-06:00

so i haven't had much luck when just introducing one straw at a time. they seem to make it a month and then succomb to PPS :( so on Friday, i picked up a pair of them - Crimson and Ruby. Over the weekend, i put them in my 30 Gallon rubbermaid ISO and in the closet - so it was nice and dark and quiet for them. they did well, ate ALOT and then yesterday i introduced them into the main tank. Crimson spent the day going up and down the platform, while ruby checked out the tree and dined on Green grapes. it's encouraging to see the crabs active and tearing stuff apart.

Apparently Shortcake attempted to make a jail break over the weekend. On saturday she was in the tank - i stopped in to check on them. Yesterday, i didn't see her anywhere, but that's normal. then around 2 or so, someone was out in the hall - i hear a 'hey, what's this?' and look down - i'll be damned! it was shortcake! looking around like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. she appears fine but what a nutty crab. she must've escaped from the ventelation holes in the tank hood. i'm going to go get some mesh today to cover the holes up with.

Sara is still loitering around the SW. she was sitting on a rock in the pool when i came in yesterday, but moved around a little during the day - still within a 6" vicinity of the SW pool. not sure what to make of it - the behavior's been going on for almost 3 weeks now. i'm reluctant to ISO her - i think sometime iso'ing a crab and tossing them into something unfamiliar and new to deal with an already delicate situation does more harm than good - so i think i'll just leave her in the main tank.

my ebay auction is doing well. here's the listing - and i'm glad it's doing good. the 1st listing didn't do so hot - lotsa watchers, no bids - so i dropped the start price to 99 cents and just let the market determine the price. next i'm going to make a main tank ISO unit for molting crabs - we'll see if that's something people are after. there's a huge void of crab specific items other than shitty FMR stuff, and who knows if it's crab safe really. at least this stuff is crab tested and crab safe. it's cool to see the interest and it's a good way to promote good crabbing info to HCA and CSJ.

Monterey jack cheese seems to be enjoyed

2005-06-22T10:19:00.000-06:00

Well, upon discovering the cheese seems to be OK as an ocassional snack, i put a piece of monterey jack in the crabitat, sprinkled with some honey suckel flowers and some flax seed that vicki sent me. Strawberry shortcake has been munching away at it for about an hour now. Kerie (AKA Julia Crab) recommends cheese only as an ocassional snack, but has been feeding it to her crabs only once monthly for a few months now without any apparent harm to the crabbies. it sounded like a nice change in some of the food for the crabbies. it will be interesting to see how much is left by tomorrow morning.

for low/almost lactose free cheeses, the california real cheese glossary recommends hard cheeses (Cheddar, monterey jack, gouda), soft-ripened (brie), and very hard cheeses (parmesian, dry jack)

Custard2 spotted!

2005-06-22T09:28:00.000-06:00

So i haven't actually seen Custard2 in maybe a month. She's my shy cavie. I had suspected that she swapped into the Bursa Crumena that i ordered from naples, but wasn't sure. she's such a reclusive crab and so rarely shows her face, that i never really know what she's up to. it seems like she's always burried. I am very glad that she got out of the nasty tree snail shells that the cavies all seem to come in. i also think she's molted - she's got new toenails and looks a little bigger. It was nice to see her out and moving around, even if it was only for a minute or rwo before she scurried off to hide more.

still hanging out by the SW - somethings up

2005-06-21T13:16:00.000-06:00

so over the past 2 weeks or so, i don't think sara (indo) has moved more than 6" from the SW pool. really peculiar behavior. Robin, Daethian and some other crabbers have posted about their indo's loitering around and into the SW and then kicking the bucket. really odd behavior. lots of them seem to have waded into the water entirely before passing and while Sara hasn't done that, something's up. She's getting SW drinks probably 3 times a day, then just plants down hanging 1/2 way out of her shell. Now ---- i think it's molt. She's missing a segment of a leg, has a huge molt sack, and i've had her since Dec with no molt. My other indo - Barney - i've had since Feb or so and he's molted 3 times already. i was wondering about indo habitat conditions for molting - and maybe they weren't right - but the fact that barney has molted so frequently leads me to believe this is not the case. also - most deaths seem to happen within the first month or 2 it seems to me. that's probably when 95% of the deaths i have had happen. of my 'established' crabs, only 2 have passed - 1 from bad molt (mr t) and the other from who kows what (the man in black). soooo because of the infrequency of established crabby death and the odd behavior and the change in season and my ever-optimistic outlook - it's gotta be molt!!!! i hope that it's not a surface molt though. those are just wierd. te crab looks half way between dead and alive and the lack of movement calls for us crabbers to check and see when we really should not do that. oh well, what can ya do. PS - she seems to prefer to sit on top of the rotting romaine lettuce that is be the SW. no clue as to why though.

Boise Community Radio Project

2005-06-15T09:20:00.000-06:00

So last night Boise Community Radio Project had a meeting - kinda to give those interested in programming the lowdown on how it will work from a technical aspect and the general idea of the project. the group seems really dynamic and the concept of the project is definately exciting. a main focus is to provide a different 'view' of things than than of mainstream. not just mainstream, consolidated, commercialized radio, but more to encourage people to check out other options in what they do. to think about how where they shop and what they eat and buy effects themselves and the greater community in general. my proposal is musical in nature, but i want to convey this attitude through the musical selection - encouraging others to check out music from the small guys, music that isn't played on the commercial stations in boise. it's really exciting to be involved in somethig like this. another really awesome aspect is that the whole thing is volunteer based. everyone is involved because they/we think it's a worthy cause, something that is worth our time - worth our time away from family or other things that we have going on and the effort to get the music and message out there. for me - as i imagine with most people - there's not too many things that can draw me away from time with my family, other than work. i love hanging out with my wife and kids, so something's gotta rank pretty important to me to get some of my time. i have enough going on. i volunteer for KEXP to spread the news about the station (another community station in Seattle). music to me ranks pretty damn high on the importance list. most might just think 'what the hell, it's only music' but think about all the associations that a song has to you. when you hear this song or that, there's a connection you've made with maybe an experience that you had, a childhood memory, a breakup, a special - very intimate and personal and unique moment and music taps directly into that - like nothing else really can. to me, that is the power of music and why it's important to me. the lyrics and songs make us as the listener think, conjure up a story or imagine the plot that unfolds in the song, contemplate what was going through the songwriter's mind when they wrote it, who experienced this - and somehow relate to the song. too many fantastic bands and songs get overlooked by commercial radio. the label they're on can't shell out the money to get the airplay or chooses not to, or they're not on MTV, the message conveyed isn't that of Murdocks, or whatever - and this music must be heard. it's awesome, powerful, moving music. the most beautiful stuff i've ever heard that can take you places and make you feel incredible. i hadn't ever experienced music like that on mainstream and that's why i want to be involved. to give others the chance to realize the vigor and vitality and inspiration that can be found becuse in Boise - it's not there!

Sara by the Saltwater

2005-06-15T08:21:00.000-06:00

So i have the SW pool (smaller, temp one) in the tat and the airstone bubbling away. Sara (indo) has just been hanging out by it - presumably enjoying the mist-o-the-saltwater. Goofy crab. Some HCA'ers have been noticing their indo's heading to the SW and then passing in or around there. hopefully this isn't the case with Sara. The behavior has been going on for about 2 weeks now. personally i think it's just premolt behavior - but i guess time will tell.

crabs are now starting to get familiar with and use the second and third levels. i tossed in some romaine lettuce on all the levels yesterday - it appears that they enjoyed it. the lettuce is all over the crabitat. since reading more on EQ and the other chemicals put into commercial food, i've been trying to give my crabs homemade food rather than the commercial stuff. so far so good, although i do need to get some coconut, seaweed and spirilia - julia crab recommends these as a main staple in their diet interspurced with other dietary additives.

The problem on Plexiglass pools

2005-06-13T11:19:00.000-06:00

Here's my issue with making my own plexiglass pools - eventually they leak. Why is a small leak a problem? Because when molters are down and the substrate gets super-saturated with water - they drown. The conclusion i have come to is that a SW pool is fun to make, but the risk posed to molting hermit crabs if a leak were to occur and not be noticed - is too great. i've discovered this twice. the first time was posted about - where my 1st SW pool was resealed and all that stuff, but man - the substrate was REALLY wet. I decided to make a SWEET pool, like 6" deep, really nice setup. if i were a crab, it would have been LHC heaven - but -despite a crapload of Aquarium silicone used and checked 3x for watertightness by leaving the water in for over 24 hours each time. and no leaks were fond at all - after 2 days in the crabitat, it leaked. SUCKS! this pool held over 2 gallons of water which is a LOT of water in a crabitat. luckily i caught the leak when the water level had dropped only 1/4 of an inch - very quickly - but had i not, trouble would have ensued and crabbies prolly would have died a really crappy and watery death. SOOOOO - my remedy is this: I shall no longer make SW pools out of sheets of plexiglass and aquarium silicone. Rather I will buy a large Pyrex or class caserole dish and make a ramp out of Portland concrete in the basin of the dish. this will A) cut down on the work to make a sweet SW pool (B)Ensure that the vessel is watertight due to the 1 piece glass construction and (C)Give me a good reason to buy some portland concrete for more crabby projects. I spotted some last time i was at Home Depot and it was like 5 bucks for a pretty hefty bag of concrete. Maybe there are different opinions, but i think i've built enough stuff for my crabs to weigh the pro's and cons. if the con includes possible death - i think it's time to seek out a better alternative.

Despite his lack of activity - oops

2005-06-13T07:49:00.000-06:00

OK, so i was going to post that despite his lack of movement Clifford was still hanging in there - but i went to doublecheck my belief just to see. I gave him the nose test - where you hold the crab up to your nose to see if he stinks. Damn! woah! he's one smally crab - ripe with the stink of crabby death. Jesus - man it's unbelieveable how bad they smell. initially i thought the funny stink in the crabitat was from the scrambled egg/red pepper/tomatoe mix i left in the tank over the weekend. the crabs loved it and both dishes were gone this morning when i came in, but i thought perhaps there was some resuidual stink - but it turned out to be clifford causing the putrid smell. well, that pretty much sucks. so nuts. he was really active when i first got him - climbing all over, then slowly the activity slowed and then for the last week he's just been sitting in the same spot. no SW action, just sitting there - apparently to die. it's only been about a month, so i think it's PPS. from what i've read Straws have about a 4 month benchmark that you need to hit before considered non-pps related in death. damn these guys are hard to keep. So my plan is to go get another straw, so little strawberry shortcake isn't alone in her endeavor. maybe on friday or something i'll get one. that blows. i just spend like $20 on all kinds of shells for him. he was going to be riding in style - some of those others better hurry up and grow so they can occupy all those fancy shells.

KEXP Summer Pledge Drive!

2005-06-07T13:59:00.000-06:00

Oh if only i had an endless supply of money! i would pledge sooo much money to KEXP. John and Cheryl do such a wonderful job during the pledge drives. they must be exhausted after they're done with a week of trying to get pledges - but they do such an awesome job. they make you want to pledge to the station, and even if you've already pledged, they make you want to pledge again. in all honsety i'm glad that they are pledge supported. it creates a community around the station that extends all over the world and gives the members a feeling of pride and ownership in the music and the station. I haven't heard any boise people in the TY's really though, a little disappointing. hopefully as the pledge drive continues on, there will be some support from the city of trees!

Shells from Naples Sea Shell Co.

2005-06-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

I received the shells from Naples - they're pretty nice looking, although no crabs have hopped in them yet. the bursa crumena is missing though, possible hopped into, but i haven't seen anyone dawning it yet. Next time, i'll have to try shell horizons - per Robin's recomendation. I just checked on clifford - man, he didn't move all night and his legs are getting flopsy - not considered a good sign by me :( . Damn Straws! they're so beautiful, but soooo very delicate. the conditions are optimal, but they just seem so finickey and delicate - i honestly think it has to be PPS and it's luck of the draw if you get one that is effected or not. larger crabs are supposed to be more hearty, but i think if you can get a smaller straw, one that still has it's juvenile coloring or red/white that has made it through the shipping, you'll be better off. the large ones may survive the shipping, but the effects of PPS seem to take longer to effect them. i hope i'm just jumping to conclusions and that he isn't slipping away - i guess time will tell.

Clifford's activity

2005-06-06T14:15:00.000-06:00

Clifford seems to be acting fairly lethargic the last 5 days or so. i can't be real sure how he was over the weekend, but today he's hardly moved. he remains tucked into his shell, which is good - rather than hanging out or something. he just doesn't seem too interested in moving around. not sure why, the temp and humidity and everything else is normal. maybe he's just busy at night for now.

I installed the new SW pool and second/third level platform into the tank today. Holy crap that was a tight fit! i almost didn't have enough room to put them both in the tank. i need to get something larger. hopefully iy won't take too much longer to get the 100 gal up and running, although it's been slow going so far with that tank. maybe i'll just say screw it and call it good on the glass buffing, resilicone the walls/corners and start some fun work on it so i can get it in here. Here's what it looks like now:

I'm working on a DIY for both the platform and the SW pool. i actually remembered to take pics this time during the construction.

DIY - Second Level out of Plexiglass

2005-06-06T13:18:00.000-06:00

Second/Third Level out of Plexiglass

Recently my second level colapsed in my crabitat. there were no casualities or any real damage, but it tempted me to make one that was better. I wanted to build a platform that provided the crabs with more floorspace, more vertical climbing room, and something that could really hold up and that i wouldn't have to worry about a colapse again.

Time needed: About 1 hour (not including time spent waiting for aquarium silicone & Gorilla Glue to cure)
Total Spent: $8.50
the only thing i had to buy for this project was a sheet of plexiglass. You can modify the plans for whatever size you want and could probably build one entirely out of home depot plexiglass scraps - which they typically don't charge for :D

Materials:

(1) length of 4' Diameter PVC pipe as long as you intend your tree to be tall. Cost: $2.50 @ Home Depot
(1) tube of aquarium silicone (i had this leftover) - 7.99 @ The Pet Place - you can never have enough of this stuff!
(1) bottle of Gorilla Glue - again, leftovers - but if you don't have some, go buy some. i use this all the time for all kinds of stuff. it will be money well spent. it runs from $4 to $30 depending on how much of the stuff you want.

Tools

Utility Knife
A Sharpie marker
A Straight edge/ruler with a metal edge
Masking tape
A Drill
1/8" dia. drill bit
1 or 2 Quick Clamps or some type of Springloaded-one handed clampy things
A Caulking Gun
Patients

The Project

First, you need to decide the dimensions of the project. this is kindof a personal choice - it can be as large or as small as you like. the platform i constructed in this project was actually 2 platforms. the bottom, larger platform was 15" long, 9" wide. The Top, smaller platform was 10" long, 9" wide. The important thing when making a multi-level platform is that either the width or legnth be the same so the upright towers can connect easily. I suppose it could be done otherwise, but it will be more difficult.
When you are deciding on dimensions, also decide on a height. because i have the elevated top, i could make mine quite a bit taller than a standard hood might allow. if i did not have the additional roofespace, i wouldn't have made the 2 level platform, since i probably wouldn't have had the headspace. Mine is 18" tall in this example.
more to come...

Indo showing interest in SaltWater

2005-06-01T11:43:00.000-06:00

so sara has never really shown much interest in SW. neither of my indo's has ever really. they like climbing lots and are pretty outgoing, but no real passion for IO. well, the last two days sara's been visiting the sw pool, drinking from it or submerging herself in it. somethings up - i'm suspecting molt - she's had the molt sack going on since i've had her, has a missing last segment, and hasn't molted since i've had her (feb of 05) - and while not that long, i don't think i've had a crab wait that long to molt since i've been keeping crabbies. hopefully she does. i can't wait to see what she looks like all freshly molted. i hope she keeps her dark coloring.

Shells from Naples

2005-06-01T10:18:00.000-06:00

I ordered some shells this morning from Naples Sea Shell Company - some turbos, african turbos, a pink murex, a bursa crumena, and some others. i was primarily looking to get a larger shell for clifford. i can't believe how expensive large turbo shells get. i want to find one with a 2" opening - i guess i'll get these and see how they fare with the crabs. they look like pretty nice shells and hopefully meet crabby approval. i posted on freecycle that i was looking for sea shells, but didn't really get much response. they're even more expensive on ebay. hopefully i can find some at yardsales and stuff over the summer. cliffords shell is a little too small for him, although not terribly small - but when he retracts, his legs don't go all the way into the shell. hopefully i can find a nice big turbo for him to have.

The great flood of '05

2005-05-31T09:44:00.000-06:00

So i learned the importance of a nice solid build regarding a salt water pool the hard way. About two weeks ago, i noticed the SW pool leaking water slowly. i took the thing home and patched it up, re-siliconing the joints and verifying that it didn't leak anymore. i also decided it would be a good time to add the aquarium gravel to the pool, on the ramp down and also on the bottom and sides. i did this but after i added the gravel, i forgot to check and see that the pool was still watertight, i just took for granted that it was. well, turns out it had a slow leak. the leak was small enough where i thought it was just water evaporating out, since i've been using the airstone lately - but it turns out that was not the case. the SW was slowly leaking out, and by friday it had made the left half of the tank a soupy, watery mess - with 2 molters down on that side! Shit! So i started digging around in a frantic panic. just 2 or 3 days ago i saw emerald and ss down molting, so i was immediatly concerned about them. first i found emerald - poor emerald. he had drown in the soupy shitty mix and was well dead and submerged in the crap. dammit! i was hoping that ss was ok - crap i didn't want to loose her too. i dug through all the substrate 2 or 3 times and didn't find a thing, some left over exo, but no crab... crap crap crap. i thought maybe i'd find her empty shell of something, or my fingers would run across a mushy strawberry body. but nothing. i hadn't seen her wandering around or anything. i started to look around in the hideys... and then i found her. under the cocohut - there she was - sweet little shortcake. she just looked up at me like i was nuts. she was totally fine, no problems at all. still that totally sucks that i lost emerald legasi. he was such a cool little crab. he'd molted about 3 or 4 times since december. well - i've been constructing a new, more soundly built and larger sw pool along with a new 2nd level and the old 2nd level will be a new 3rd level. it sould give them some more room and climbing stuff. i think i might build them in a zig zag so they can really get some climbing exercise in...

Shortcake and Emerald molted

2005-05-25T13:02:00.000-06:00

I came in today for the first time in 4 days. my co-worker was watching the crabs. Apparently the new straw, clifford thought it would be wise to check out the digs on the second level one too many times and the whole platform came crashing down. So i need to rebuild the second level - this time i'll make it stronger and maybe make it into a second/3rd story combination or something. I did a headcount today, and it looks like all are doing good. I discovered Emerald legasi and strawberry shortcake were down molting - both have eaten most of their exo and look very healthy with brand new toenails. These were both main tank molts rather than being put into ISO. The only time i've ever placed a crab in ISO to molt was with Watermelon. I believe almost all others have been main tank molts. I don't really have a clue how many i've had, i think probably around 40 or 50 so far. I'm pretty excited that SS molted.

it also looks like over the weekend barney snapped off his thumb tip from his BP. this is the second time this has happened - poor guy. i'm not sure what would cause it to happen. i wonder if he's eating something that might cause his exo to nbe weak... but if that was the case i'd think it would be happening to more crabs than just him.

I also tossed in some orange slices today - they appear to be going over well as clifford is over munching on a piece already. he's pretty active for being a newby which makes me relieved after having such unsuccessful attempts with the last two straws.

DIY - PVC Tree

2005-05-19T13:23:00.000-06:00

PVC Tree

there were a couple driving force to tempt me to make my own tree out of PVC pipe.

natural climbing branches tend to mold when mixed with CF as a substrate
i had a awesome custom hood that gave me 7" of additional height in my 29 gallon tank, but nothing occupying that space
it seems silly to have a tree or branch that the HC's can't climb on the inside and outside
and just to see how successful such a thing would be to the hermies.

Time needed: About 8 hours (most of the time is waiting for the aquarium silicone to dry
Total Spent: $29.50

Materials:

(1) length of 4' Diameter PVC pipe as long as you intend your tree to be tall. Cost: $2.50 @ Home Depot
(1) length of 1' Diameter, 6' long PVC pipe. Cost: $2.00 @ Home Depot
(1) tube of 10.3 oz. Aquarium Silicon - it's cheaper than 5 tubes of 3 or 5 oz. Cost: $7.99+shipping @ www.thatpetplace.com Do not use regular household silicone since it is toxic to crabbies!
(1) large package of aquarium gravel or covering material or your choice. my crabbies seem to dig the gravel and it gives them a great climbing surface. Cost: around $5.00 at your local petstore
(1) piece of plexiglass - 12"x12" square. this is for the base support. Cost: $3.00-$5.00 at hardware store/glass store
(15) Large rocks. I borrowed these from the train tracks & boiled them to get em clean. Cost: Free
(1) tube of Gorilla Glue. Cost: around $5.00 - but i received a free hat for some pics i sent, so it was a wash - the hat's worth five bucks :D

Tools

Utility Knife
A Hacksaw or Saws-all, Jewlers saw, Jig-saw something that is able to cut PVC pipe
A Sharpie marker
A Straight edge/ruler with a metal edge
Masking tape
A Drill
1" dia. drill bit
Hot Glue and Hot Glue Gun
A 36" clamp like this
A Caulking Gun
Patients

The Project

Begin by making the trunk of the tree.
Measure the height of your aquarium that you will place the tree in. Generally i leave about 3-4 inches clearance to the top so the HC's can climb to the top of the tree and hang out.
Cut the 4" diameter PVC pipe to the length measured, minus the ammount of clearance desired. This will serve as the trunk of the PVC tree.
Using the Sharpie marker, mark a doorway into the trunk. The doorway should meet several requirements: it should be wide enough for your largest crab (hopefully) to pass through. The height needs to be such that when the tree is placed all the way to the bottom of your tank and have the substrate backfilled, there should still be enough of the 'door' showing that the HC's will be interested in this hidey spot and explore. I believe the height on the door i cut was about 8-9 inches. My width was about 4" wide.
Next, use the Jewlers saw or Jig-saw to cut the doorway out.

Hopefully it will look something similar to this.
Using the 1" drill bit, drill holes into the side of the PVC pipe. These holes are going to be used to secure the 'branches' of the tree. We will glue the branches into the holes. One thing to keep in mind throughout the entire process are the spacial limitations of the crabitat. You can only make a branch as wide as the space will allow. this should also help you determine where you want to drill the holes and place the branches.
Using the saw, cut some branches of varying length and angles. If the branches will be jointed, prior to fixing the branches to the tree itself, glue the joints together. For this assembly i used hot glue. Although it diesn't hold up as well as Gorilla Glue in the moisture, it solidifies quickly enough to allow no brace necessary for the branches. If you want a totally solid tree, use the gorilla glue (but remember that if you do choose to use Gorilla Glue - wait 24 hours for the glue to entirely set), but if you want a fairly solid tree but much quicker assembly, use the hot glue. Below is a pic of the branch with a joint and an additional 'twig' shooting off to the side. The Hot glue can be messy, but that's ok since the whole thing will be coated with aquarium silicon and aquarium gravel.
After the branches have been cut, glued and assembled (on my tree i made 3 branches, but you can make as many as you want) we're ready to place and glue the branches directly to the 1" holes drilled prior into the trunk. With my assembly, i used Hot glue, but if i had to do it over or ever get inclined to make another PVC tree, i would use the gorilla glue to adhere the branches to the trunk. The Hot glue does not provide a secure enough bond in the crabitat conditions. So far it is working, but i would recommend using Gorilla glue and a clamp/brace setup or even positioning the branches with the masking tape and then applying the gorilla glue. Also Note: When you place the branches inside the 1" holes, only insert them about 1/2" into the holes. This is to allow the inside of the tree to remain hollow and allow crabs not only to climb the outside of the tree, but also inside the tree. The crabs love climbing both inside and out, as you can see from the pic below:
Once the branches are attached to the trunk, the tree will have some substancial weight to it, and may heavily lean to one side or another. The cutaway door takes some substancial stability away from the trunk, and the added branches make the structure a bit awkard and tipsy. A base with some weight to it is necessary. Below is a picture of my trunk with branches. As you can see, the branches are more or less all on one side (which was intentional because i wanted the tree over to one side of the crabitat).
To remedy the problem of the lop-sided-ness of the tree, we need to afix the trunk to a base of some sort. For this, definately use Gorilla Glue and NOT hot glue. This was learned from experience. I initially used hot glue and within 3 days, the trunk had fallen from the base unit and was leaning at a 45 degree angle. Don't use hot glue! - OK, so place a thin line of GG along the bottom of the 4" dia. PVC pipe. Put the 12x12 plexi down on a flat surface and about 2 inches back and fairly well centered left to right, place the PVC trunk down on the plexiglass. If the tree leans heavily to one side, don't worry about it too much. To this base we're goning to glue down the rocks to give the tree a counter balance to the weight of the branches and make the structure vertically stable. Clamp the PVC trunk to the plexi base using the 36" clamp and let the glue dry for a day.
After the plexi base and the tree are glued together, it's time to put the large rocks into place. These rocks not only serve as a counterbalance to the branches, but also provide a nice climbing surface for the crabs. To get the rocks in the correct spot, just set the tree/base unit on a flat surface and begin to stack the rocks around the base until the tree doesn't lean anymore. If it leans too much to one side or another, place more rocks on the opposing side to counter the lean. Once you get the rocks roughly in the spots you think will work, tanke them off and place some glue on the bottom rocks. you want to glue the rocks to the plexi base and to the tru nk of the tree to add to the solidity of the structure. I let the first layer of rocks completely dry to get a nice, tight, secure base of rocks to built upon. Once they have set, stack another layer of rocks ontop, gluing these rocks to the 1st layer of rocks and again to the trunk. continue in this manner until the base is nice and heavy and the tree structure is solid and stable.
Once the rocks are on the base, you're ready to glue on some aquarium gravel to the surface of the PVC trunk and banches. This provides an awesome climbing surface for the crabs, but this part as a whole can make a big mess! Prior to this, if you want to give your tree an organic, bio-morphic feel to it, you can shape the PVC, mold it and bend it by heating it up until it is soft and plyable with a propane torch. Once it is in the plyable stage, use some oven mits and form it to the shape you want. You will have to go in stages, as you will not be able to get the entire trunk as this temp. at the same time. Also - heating like this creates blisters on the surface and little bubbles and pock marks - possibly eliminating the need to rock the unit with aquarium gravel. (i learned this when i was making a didgeredoo out of PVC several years ago). I did not do this on my tree
To 'rock' the tree, slather a nice coat of aquarium silicon along an entire sode of the tree. I laid my tree down to do this. Once a nice 2 or 3 inch of stinky aquarium silicone is down, bust out the aquarium gravel and sprinkle the gravel all over so it sticks to the silicon. it might look a little like this:
Let the silicon/gravel side sit for an hour, then rotate the tree a bit and 'rock' another side. Continue this process until the whole trunk is rocked. If there are branches that you can get at the same time, do the same to them. Hopefully your trunk will resemble something like the pic below.
Continue the silicon/gravel coating until the entire surface of the tree is coated with aquarium gravel. Once this is done, let the tree sit for a day or two so the aquarium silicon can cure.
Inside the tree i placed some vinyl edging material that was about 6" wide. But you can place whatever climbing material you want. I think a coco-mat would work well in it.
Finally, you're ready to place the structure in the crabitat. Move all substrate out from under where the tree will go. the base should sit directly on the glass of the tank bottom. The structure should be somewhat heavy by now so you would not want for a crab to burrow beneath it and get stuck. It might take a day or two for the crabs to get familiar with the tree in place, but hopefully not too long. I hope your crabs enjoy the tree as much as mine do. There are always a couple crabs perched on the branches and some in the middle of the tree.

..::Next: Salt Water Pool::..

Who's up, Who's Down?

2005-05-18T13:29:00.000-06:00

i started to wonder who's burried & who's not... so here's the count:
Up currently: Clifford, BG, Kitty, Lenny Crabitz, Madonna. Sara is up on a tree limb. I can't really see who else is in the tree trunk, between BG and Clifford, the view is pretty much blocked.

Down:
Shortcake has been down for a while, i think last wed (5/11) was the last time i saw her.
Emerald Legasi - i found him today hiding in the CF by the SW pool when i was replacing it with the old and improved one. so far nobody's gone in.
3 small PP's (the Tweedle twins and Mini-me) - down.
Barney - down, nowhere to be seen.
Jack & Jill (one crab+shell) & Bethany are down.
Custard 2 - he's been down since i got him more or less with a day or two of running around, but thats it.

i think that acocunts for most everybody. i haven't done a total headcount or gone digging - no smell, no need to... they are happy little crabs.

Up a tree

2005-05-18T10:36:00.000-06:00

So i cam in this morning and looked around in the crabitat... one of the large turbo's has been moved - either from another crab or Emerald Legasi is still hiding in the thing. the shell is way to big for emerald, who i'd consider a medium size crabbie. the shell is probably 3" from front to back, an opening of around 1.5", emerald is no where near that big. i saw him once in it, and when he retracts he can go all the way back to the point where you can't even see him in the shell, none of him. so the shell moving is a mystery, but not one i'm too concerned about.

clifford, the big red crab, is up to the top of the PVC tree, climbing up the internal of the trunk and hanging onto the top. the crabs really love the inside of the tree. it's black PVC inside and has a vinyl mesh that is supposed to be used for landscaping and edging, but works perfectly for climbing material. it fits nice and snug in the tree and just holds itself in place due to the tension of bowing. if it can hold clifford and BG, i would guess that most crabs that can fit in the 4" diameter trunk would be fine in there. clifford and BG are almost big enough to completely fill the diameter. it's pretty awesome that the new straw is climbing already and being pretty active. in the 5 months i've had shortcake, i don't think i've ever seen her doping straight vertical climbing, only up and down the ramp. i was beginning to think that straws didn't like vert climbing - but apparently they do. the PP's and rugs love it. at any given time i have 3-5 crabs inside the tree.

i also finished patching the SW pool. i had a leak in it and the SW was only able to be about 1/2 full. i patched it up, redid the cornering with a thick bead of aquarium silicon and, after ensuring that it was watertight, glues down a layer of aquarium rocks in the pool to give a more natural feel and to provide more traction for the crabs than just the plexi and small beads of silicon. we'll see how they like the new mod's.

Clifford the Big Red Crab

2005-05-17T10:24:00.000-06:00

last week i stopped by petco to see if they had any straws in. strawberry shortcake needed another straw with the passing of watermelon, so i was going to see what i could do. that was on wed or so. so between wed and yesteday they'd gotten a new shipment of straws in. we went over last night and picked out clifford. he's a pretty large crab, maybe the size of a baseball - legspan of maybe 6" or so and beautiful dark red coloring. hopefully he fares well. he seems to be pretty active so far, which, if i use strawberry shortcake as my example of successful straw behavior, is a very good sign. when i first got strawberry shortcake, she trashed the tank every night and was always roaming around. the other crabs seem to have warmed up to clifford pretty quickly. he's missing the last segment of his left rear walking leg, but should grow back with a molt, so not a big deal.

the buffing dilema

2005-05-16T14:00:00.000-06:00

so i've been using dico products thus far for buffing. my original plan was (despite some readings) to use the emery e5 compound to buff out the water spots, hardwater stains, scratches and just take a layer or two off the class to attempt to get it clean. my thoughts atre that if some compound is tough enough to take scratches out of metal, it should work for glass... but apparently not. the glass cleared up a little, but i've really had no luck in getting any of the stuff out that i wanted to when i set out on this. i called Mac's Rock shop this afternoon anf he's going to check to see if any of the polishing compounds he has are suitable for glass polishing and let me know what he finds, but he sounded pretty confident that they would. that's better than what i've received from numerous hardware shops and glass shops. most of them just recommend cleaning stuff, but i've tried a number of different things with no luck at all. hopefully ol' Mac will let me know.

i'm getting antsy to start building the pool and especially the climbing wall, but there's no sense in buffing the glass and stripping the tank down if i'm not willing to do a good job. and what is the point of having an aquarium (especially so large) if it;s an eyesore or just not pleasant to look at. htat is, after all, the main purpose of an aquarium - to give some visual pleasantness and appeal to something beautiful inside. to have a dingy, nasty aquarium would defeat half the purpose. i suppose the other half is providing a sanctuary to the hermies, but that's obvious.

also i took out almost all the old aquarium silicone. i left the old crap on the broken wall, since it's going to be covered in hypertufa anyway, i don't really care if the wall gets clean or what condition the aquarium silicone is in. i may strip off the top stuff since i'm at it... then once i have buffed the glass, i'll re-silicon the tank.

Chaco sandals rule

2005-05-12T15:32:00.000-06:00

so last year when i started working at the school, i contacted chaco to see if they offered educational discounts to those working in the ed industry (alot of companies do). i received back an email with a proform app for the college/it dept. it finally dawned on me this springtime that i'll be wearing sandals/flipflops throughout the spring, summer and fall, so i'd better get on the ball and see if this proform was still any good. the prices offered were great and the company was super nice. anyway - i completed the proform deal, faxed it over and then got a contact from the company trying to figure out why in the world an IT dept of a college would get a proform deal on the sandals. i told them the scenario and told them i completely understood if i couldn't get them at the proform price and stuff, but they let me get some anyway! it was a one-time deal, but still!!!!!! really cool! the sandals fit great - i got the Z2's - mainly becuase i like having something to keep my feet somewhat centered in the sandal, otherwise the toe area seems to wear out much faster than the rest and i don't like my feet sloshing all over the front of the sandal and they're different than the Z1's that have risen to popularity. The sandals fit much more comfortably than the teva's i've had in the past and i like the 1 piece design and non-velcro (which BLOWS in water)! also i really dig the vibram soles - so i vcan get them resoled if ever needed. the digs are highly recommended and they even tossed in some stickers for me!!!!!!!!!!

DMB - Stand Up review

2005-05-12T15:14:00.000-06:00

i think moderation is the key with any jam band, whether it's phish or the dead or dmb - it all comes down to moderation. it's like drinking coors light... initially it's cool and refreshing (LOL) but after the third one it's not the sweet nectar that it was initially and tastes watered down and unexciting. jam bands are the same... in sparse amounts, they're great! but too much of a good thing can cause the songs to all too often sound the same and give a feeling on monotony to the album. unfortunately i think this is a bit of what happens to Stand Up. i'll have to give it a few good listens before really passing judgement on the album, but my initial thoughts are that stand up doesn't have a song of something different like many of the other albums do. to me the songs all sound very similar - which is good for a tight cohesive piece of work, but tends to make the overall sound not quite as thrilling as one that has some changeups in it. i'll listen more to it over the next few weeks and post again after giving it a fair shake.

DIY - Hypertufa

2005-05-12T09:46:00.000-06:00

First things first - here's some recepies for hypertufa, provided to me by another member of HCA:
Hypertufa Recipe #1

1 part Portland cement
1½ part Forest Bedding(moistened, with excess water squeezed out
1½ part perlite

the results of this hypertufa recipe are a hypertufa allowing one to carve fairly soon while the form is still "green" (not dry and certainly not cured). use grey Portland cement in most mixes; although white can certainly be used if desired. the grey turns out looking like granite provided the perlite used is small to medium grade.

Hypertufa Recipe #2

1 part perlite
1 part Portland cement
1 part Forest Bedding (moistened, with excess water squeezed out)
1 part sand

Much more durable, heavier, yet still lighter than concrete. This will be lighter in color than the above, dependent on what type sand is used.

now with the recepies provided, my plans are this: considering that one wall of the giant tank is cracked and heavily scratched and is not buffing out so well, i want to put a climbing wall made of hypertufa within the wall. for texturing i would use rocks and hopefully get soe nice overhands and cliffs and bluffs that the crabs would really enjoy climbing. up near the top of the climbing wall, i'd make the profile like a mountain ridgeline and then paint a sunset on the back of the glass. aditionally i'd also place plastic hooks periodically within the hypertufa to allow some hanging places. i suppose i could also build in a second layer or some cave like things with the hypertufa, which would be very cool... anyway - this will wait until i finish buffing the glass and install the saltwater pool. i don't think i will have the hypertufa wall extend into the sw pool, as it might just absorb all the water. i do want to create a basking deck that sits at the top level of the sw pool though... i have way too many plans for this big tank i think.

Devotchka Una Volta review

2005-05-11T10:54:00.000-06:00

This is my favorite album aquired lately. I've been listening to Beck's Guero album, Moby's Play album and Devotchka - but by far i like the Devotchka record the most currently. I've been trying to get Their 'How It Ends' record, but haven't yet.. always watching ebay for a good price - but i might just go get it one day at The Record Exchange or maybe at Tower Records since they give KEXP members discounts and they support KEXP... anyways - the Una Volta album. it's their sophmore release and compared to Supermelodrama, i like it about 10,000x better. I'm not saying that supermelodrama isn't a good album, but Una Volta has the devotchka sound that i heard on kexp, the sound of the dreamy, piercing, spooky vocals mixing with the violins and cellos and the electric guitars and tambourines and acordians... just totally bizarre but astounding and captivating in it's own right. you can't help but sing along (or at least try) and make an ass of yourself in the car - singing along with Nick as he wails about lost love and broken hearts. This is a super album and makies me want 'How it ends' so much more!

mmmmmmmmm! Carrots

2005-05-09T15:08:00.000-06:00

So i put the carrots in the crabitat on Wednesday night. now most folks in the crabbing community promoote leaving fruits/veggies in the crabitat for a day, maybe two - but my experience has been that the crabs actually show little interest in fruit and veggies that are fresh and only in the tat for such a short period of time. the carrots have almost been in a week now. i imagine they're all soft and muchy, perhaps sprouting little roots into the CF, but the crabs are all over them. i've had similar experience with alot of food - not so much with factory/produced food like FMR or trex or whatever the brand might be, but more so with f&v's. two weeks ago (around) i put in an apple... mind you this was not an apple fresh from the store or right out of the refridgerator, but one that had been out on my desk for a few weeks. it was browning and beginning to get soft - and no fruitflies yet... the perfect crabby treat. so i chopped it up into two halves and left it in the tat for the weekend. they devoured it. i think old and rotting f&v's are perfect for the crabs to eat. i would not hold the same opinion with meats though. meat will get a 12 hour window, that's about it. i don't really want maggots co-existing with my crabs.

Added crab dates to blog index

2005-05-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

So rather than maintain dates of purchase and death and stuff, i added this information to the site index. most of the dates are a little general. some of the more recent ones aren't, because i've began trying to keeop somewhat acurate records via blogging on new crabs, purchases, additions to habitat, etc. also the original purchased crabs are not, since i got them for a special occasion. i think this will be a better way to keep track or the length of time with each crab & also their names. perhaps later i'll add species.

Crabby purchase date

2005-05-09T11:32:00.000-06:00

Here's a list of when i purchased the crabs - roughly and as clase as i can remember and if applicable, they're date of death (as close as i remember):
Madonna: 2/5/03
Bethany: 2/5/03
Jack & Jill: 2/5/03 - these guys were all part of my original group
Lenny Crabitz: 6/1/04
Kitty: 3/15/05
Sara: 2/15/05
Barney: 12/5/04
Tweedel Dumb: 3/15/05
Tweedel Dee: 3/15/05
Big Guy: 11/15/04
Strawberry Shortcake: 11/15/04
Emerald Legasi (adpoted): 2/16/05
Mini-me: 3/15/05
Custard 2: 4/18/05
***********************
Lemeny Snippets: 11/16/04 - 11/35/04
Watermelon: 4/5/05 - 5/9/05
Mr. T: 2/5/03 - 3/14/04
Johnny Cash: 2/5/03 - 1/6/05
Pumpkin: 4/1/05 - 4/15/05
Custard: 3/1/05 - 3/16/05
The Big Crabowski - don't remember
Robin (adpoted with Emerald Legasi)
Clawdia - don't remember

Light contraption and other stuff

2005-05-09T11:19:00.000-06:00

Here's the contraption i plan to build to hang my light unit from

so this is what i plan to build once i get the big tank all buffed and cleaned. i'm going to use this to hang the light from. the light that came with the tank is like 5 ft long and i don't really want to use the plexglass to support it, and it's too big/long/akward to really move around each time i want to lift the lid up and check on the crabbies, so i'm going to make this thing that will support the light and also allow me to swing the light unit up and out of the way when i want to lift the lid. it should be pretty nice. maybe i'll stain it or something.

I also borrowed my dad's power buffer which should work wonders for cleaning the big tank out. this 'buffing using a hand drill' is for the birds - it sucks and will take about a year at the current rate. the power buffer should be a nice addition to this project.

Watermelon passed

2005-05-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

Came in this morning and the office reeked of fish. Watermelon seemed to take a turn on about thursday of last week, stopped moving completely, was non-responsive, etc. prior to that at least she would wiggle and stuff, but that all changed. i was hoping that i'd come in today to a freshly molted straw, but instead it was a horid mid-molt death. the cephlothorax and abdomen had been severed almost completely, with a vien or something connecting the two. it was pretty gross. soooo - that sucks...

Moby on KEXP

2005-05-04T16:34:00.000-06:00

I'm not quite sure why Moby has gotten the bad rap that he has. ANYONE who stops by the KEXP station and plays not just one - but two live sets within a month's span kicks ass in my book. He's an insightful person, who's passionate about what he does, thoughtful about what he says, has a sense of humor about himself, and isnt afraid to give kudos and talk about other music and music-makers and why he likes them or their music. Currently he's playing a Cash song, so his stock has now skyrocketed in my book, and jolted from $35 a share to a whopping $90 a share. it sounds like his style varies alot and he experiments with different styles and messages - perhaps not having something that pins him down in a specific genre or class is what some don't like about his music. But it sounds like that is moby and this unpredictability and versatility is part of what makes moby so moby-esque. I like a guy who's not afraid to put all the chips on the table and try something different. i give him props!!!!!!!!!!!

More on Watermelon the Strawberry

2005-05-04T11:59:00.000-06:00

I don't know what the deal is... watermelon is still just flopped there, slightly moving. Who the heck knows - i'm still hoping for a surface molt and not death. I guess molts can take some time,especially on a large crab, so i shouldn't be surprised that this has beemn going on for a few weeks now. i keep hoping one day i come in and the exo is all shed, but so far it hasn't happened. it will be interesting when it does to get an idea of how long this process takes. i wonder if there is some kind of a ratio that can be roughly applied so you can say if the crab is x in size, the molting process takes y number of days.

Also in preparation for taking the crabs to my daughters school tomorrow AM, i went and got some ethyl alchohol (grain alchohol) and placed dearly departed Pumpkin in it. I had to create a collection label before the curator would give me the alchohol though - very interesting... the labels are in the following format:
USA, STATE, CITY
STREET ADDRESS
DATE OF DEATH in MM/DD/YYYY format
COL. NAME of COLLECTOR (ie me)

Once i did this, the curator hooked me up with some alchohol and we tossed in ol' Pumpkin. She's going to educational purposes, so at least her death was not in vane. I also have a tupperware cup with bits of remaining exo in it from previous molts that were not eaten so the kids can see what exo looks like.

Light Adjustment on Glo-light

2005-05-03T15:29:00.000-06:00

I adjusted the timer on the glo-light (it's a power-glo 15w T-8 18"x1" lamp) to kick on at about 6:30am and turn off at about 8:30pm. it's been running a 9:00am-7:00pm schedule through the winter, but since spring has come upon us and with the daylight hours increasing in their native habitat, i thought it would be good to kick up the daylight. I do think the addition of light is helpful in maintaining healthy HC's - i haven't had any habitat related deaths since i've started using the light and that was really the only variable left out that i could think of that might have been a cause for several well-established crabs. I also gave the HC's a strawberry this afternoon - we'll see what they think of it. Also, on thursday i'm taking the HC and some crabby stuff to my daughters class - the ISO's was occupied by Watermelon and the 29 gal is just too large to lug around conveniently - with the tree and the hood and all that stuff it weighs too much, so i went and got a 66 Qt./63 L Sterilite storage bin. it's equivilent to 16.632 gallons, and it has carrying handles, so it'll make for a nice transport setup. it has a snapon lid and i tossed a brick of CF in it. I think i'll take Strawberry shortcake (straw), BG (pp), Lenny crabits (rug), Sara (Indo), & Custard (cav) to the class so the kids can see the different species and tell them where they're from. I have a Saltwater pool (tuperware) and a fresh water dish, a cocohut and some other stuff to keep the crabs entertained while away from the main crabitat. I'm also going to take in a dead crab in alcohol so the kids can see what they look like outside of their shells and see the uropods and stuff and also take in some exo so they can see what a crab's exo looks like after it is shed in the molting process. hopefully it's somewhat educational and interesting to them.

Shrimp Skins

2005-05-02T11:39:00.000-06:00

Last night we cooked some shrimp on the grill, but they needed to be unshelled (de-shelled?) - so we took off the exoskeleton and then i tossed them all on a cookie sheet. I baked them at 350 for about 30 minutes, till they got nice and golden brown and gave some to the HC's this morning - madonna and lenny crabitz hurried over and each grabbed a chunk of shrimp exo and started munching away. Lenny's dragging his piece arount the 2nd level, showing it off to everyone.

watermelon is still in ISO, still in the same place she's been for the last 10 or so days, moving slightly, but not really eating anything or exhibiting any real signs of activity. if she were dying, she'd be dead by now so i am fairly confident that it's a surface molt. i continue to provide food and water for her, although she hasn't eaten anything that i can tell for at least a week or 10 days (ever since she's been in ISO). It will be very interesting to see her molt on the surface once she crawls out of her old exo, although i would prefer that she was sub-surface molting. i like it much better when they burrow to molt - mainly because i can't see them and don't want to check on them. also, i think they would feel more secure and safe if moltiong sub-surface, but maybe not.

Brazilian Girls Album review

2005-04-29T14:27:00.000-06:00

received the new Brazilian girls album - i've had it on my list of "CD's i want" for a while now after hearing 'Lazy Lover' on KEXP. It's a pretty good album. Actually good isn't a very descriptive or accurate word for the album. The CD exudes sex. maybe it's the foreign accents and language or the rythms or the soothing vocals, the lyrics... whatever it is, its damn sexy! It's not like all out sex music like i'm making it out to be, it's more like laying-lazily-in-a-grassy-meadow-naked on-a-blanket-as-the-sun-shines through-a-cloudless-sky kinda sexy. It's a surreal sound, reminds me of the scene in 'What Dreams May Come' where robin williams is running through the field and realizes it's a field of paint. I don't know why... Their sound is hard to really pin down - without the beats, the music sounds very european, dreamlike - like something you're hear as the sun rises up over a vineyard in Italy or france or something. But the beats are there, giving this dreamlike music a dance/hip-hop rythm. When i was listening to it, the rythm pounded out on the percussions makes you want to move and sway and clap and dance and is full of vitality which is in totally contrast to the soothing and relaxing vocals, strings and pianos. It's sucha different combination that it works wonderfully. I love the linguistic mix in the album also - i believe there is some spanish, french and english on the album which gives it a certain non-mainstream appeal to me. Two thumbs Up from me!

Here's the other CD's I have listed thus far:
The National - Alligator
Davotchka - How It Ends
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Heart of Oak
Mary Gauthier - Mercy Now

Fav's as of late:
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Dan Zanes - Parades and Panoramas

To check or not to check - that is the question

2005-04-28T12:14:00.000-06:00

watermelon is in the same position as the past few days - half out of the shell, head down, no real movement except twitching and wiggling. I debated throughout the morning whether to check more than a visual or just leave her alone. I was really leaning towards the 'leave her alone' thing, but i broke down and decided to check on her and see whats going on. I wanted to know if she was limp (like she appears) or what was going on. I reluctantly removed the lid and gently picked up watermelon, really expecting her to flop right out of her shell. To my surprise, she didn't! She hung in there surprisingly tight and her body and legs were rigid rather than flacid as they appeared from only looking. There was a grinding feeling going on, where you can tell that there is more movement occuring than what's showing - maybe movement inside the shell or perhaps movement within her exo. In any case, her physical appearance is deceiving. she looks 3/4 dead, but once i did pick her up, she appears to be maintaining her strength and in pretty good condition. I'm going to just let her do her thing now. i've been given alot of signs from her that she is doing well and fully knows whats going on even if i don't.

I hope it's a surface molt

2005-04-27T14:15:00.000-06:00

I wonder every night if watermelon is going to die or just surface molt. it keeps me up at night - totally sucks. Todday she started kinda twitching back and forth and contracting and expanding her body, at least when i took a peek thats what she was doing. to me this seems like something i would do if i was trying to crawl out of my skin from the ass-end, so i'm taking this as a good and promising sign. it's more activity than i've seen from her for a couple days, so thats another good sign. I posted on HCA to see if anybody had any signs that a crab is surface molting rather than being met by the grim reaper and nobody really had any dead giveaway signs... i think this twitching and contracting business might be it. I'll have to count how many days it's been since watermelon just started sitting there and use her as my benchmark. All the other crabbies are doing fine, crawling around and having a good time. i don't know where the heck BG went to, i can't see him anywhere, but i also haven't started digging up substrate though...

Ye Ole 100 Gallon tank

2005-04-26T15:55:00.000-06:00

So i've tried cleaning the 100 gallon tank, tried soap/water, tried vinegar/baking soda, light grit snadpaper, a little car-wax/polish, a scrub brush attached to the end of my drill, and last night i tried out a sanding disk. The sanding disk was too abrasive & left scratches. most of the other methods have just mucked up the tank more or have just generally failed to get the tank any cleaner. on the positive side, i have become pretty good at siphoning stuff. I called a local glass shop and they had some jewlers rouge, apparently available at Stewart's Gem Shop. anyway - the local glass shop said they'd give me a little smaple to take home and try buffing/cleaning the tank glass with a slurry made from the jewlers rouge and water - sounds like fun. I hope this works... otherwise i'll have to track down some other grits and slurry compound with more abrassive qualities and give them a try.

Cutting Plexiglass

2005-04-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

How to 'cut' plexigless. It's actually more of a controlled break.

Someone posted a question on how to cut plexiglass. I've tried using a jig-saw and a circular saw and both totally destroyed the plexiglass, causing cracks and breaks all over the place. The best method i've found is scoeing and breaking. I've been able to cut peices in this method about 1/2 " wide which is pretty good. Any less wide and i think it would be hard to get enough even pressure on the glass to get a good break. The scoring and breaking i think gets cleaner lines than cutting with a saw (i think a jewlers saw or a hack saw would work pretty well) and it doesn't take as long. Anyway, this is kindof a rough diagram on how i cut-n-break the plexiglass.

Watermelon still hanging in there

2005-04-26T09:47:00.000-06:00

This morning when i got into work, i checked on watermelon. She's just sitting there. I picked her up just to verify that she was still alive, she twitched a leg at me, but that was about it. her legs are no longer flascid like they were, but more tight and rigid - which i take as a good sign. she dug a little hole maybe 1.5" deep into the EE, hopefully in preparation for a molt. I almost expected to see her dead in the salt water - but i think she's just getting ready to molt. It seems like if a crab is going to die and exhibits this type of behavior, death usually comes within 24 hours (at least from my experience). Lemmeny Snippets (straw) waded into the saltwater pool and just sat in it. When i moved him, he went back into the pool where he later died. Johnny Cash (PP) didn't wade into the saltwater pool, but he did streak for quite a while - but unlike Watermelon - when he was streaking, he showed no interest in getting back into a shell. When watermelon was presented a shell, she readily hopped back in. I've giiven her some cuttlebone, food, a saltwater pool and some freshwater (dechlor of course) in ISO, and a few extra shells. I'll check on her again tomorrow AM.

not so fond of kiwi

2005-04-25T14:52:00.000-06:00

the kiwi i left in the tat over the weekend seemed to only be touched by mold and not so much by the crabs. i thought they'd love it. i don't know how the watermelon (fruit not the crab) went over - the stuff smelled to nasty to really dig through and see what was eaten and what was not. Watermelon the crab's in ISO - keeping an eye on her... hopefully she's just molting and acting goofy due to upcoming molt.

More on Watermelon

2005-04-25T12:05:00.000-06:00

So i came into work this morning from the weekend and watermelon was naked. At first i was like - dammit! (suspecting she was dead) Straws are amazingly beautiful. Watermelon is the color of deep rasberry red, really beautiful! I was bummed. Then when i approached the tank, she moved around. AHHHH! She's alive! OK, good. Her shell was in the saltwater pool - now why she didn't hop into another shell is beyond me, no clue. Often it seems like a crab out of the shell is in some serious trouble, usually they are reluctant to move, limbs are limp, eyestalks droopy, etc. I've only had a few instances where the crab streaks and then just resumes back to normal. But i think this maay be another one of those instances. As soon as i got Watermelon's shell out of the saltwater pool, she started checking it out and climbing back in (good sign!). She was climbing around pretty actively and infact, while hoping back into the shell, managed to do a crabby push-up with the saltwater pool! crazy! anyway, i think she'll be fine. I'm going to keep an eye on her with all this nutty behavior. I hope she stays with me. I think out of all the crabs i dislike loosing straws the most. maybe they seem to present more of a crab-keeping challenge, maybe it's the cost of them, not sure - maybe they just have so much personality and are so beautiful (sorry other crabbies) that they really suck to loose. They really are amazing! and NAKED crabs look horrible!

Watermelon is lethargic

2005-04-21T12:10:00.000-06:00

Watermelon (my new straw, who i've had for about 3 weeks now) has been acting very lethargic. usually i do a leg check to get a relative feel for how the crabs are doing. I touch their outer leg and see what kind of reflex they have: if the leg pulls in tight, if it just flops around loosely, if they come out and say hi, etc. Watermelon's leg is a bit floppy, not totally hanging loosely, but definately not tight or rigid. Sometimes this seems to be pre-molt behavior, sometimes a bad sign of things to come, aometimes just nothing at all. it seems to me that a healthy crab will usually pull the leg in tight when touched, whereas a crab who does not react with this behavior seems to have something going on, maybne a pending molt, maybe something else. Watermelon is missing a walking leg on the left side, so maybe it's molt time... hopefully. Straws are too expensive to have them die...

Today i gave them 1/2 a kiwi and a chunck of the filthy fruit watermelon. all melons (fruit that is)are horrible.

a New Cavipe, Custard 2

2005-04-18T09:34:00.000-06:00

I returned Custard to petco, and got another cavie and a friend. Kept them both in ISO at home over the weekend, but it looks like only 1 of the 2 made it. Oh well - i wish i had more success with their damn crabs. Man, everyplace around boise just has crap as far as their crab setups - i'm thinking of maybe offering to go down to the zoo on a saturday and having some crabs down there and explaining their needs and stuff... i don't know, maybe, maybe not, we'll see. The 100 gallon tank is a huge pain to get clean - i haven't really had any luck getting the glass clean at all so far, but i'm looking into other methods.

Also - this morning Barney was out and about, up from a molt. Poor guy, his thumb from his BP is all stubby. Prior to molt, his thumb tip was broken off, so at least it's grown back.. but it looks a little funny to have the short thumb. At least he made i through the molt without issue and is out and about now.

Plans for the evening

2005-04-15T12:32:00.000-06:00

I think tonight i'm going to go return Custard to Petco. I was debating whether or not to return him, but i think i will. also i'm going to start on the renovation of the 100 gallon. I moved it out of the trunk of my car... man that thing is heavy! I moved it onto a desk in my garage. i think i'll need to swing by and get some razor blade scrapers to start the cleaning job - maybe, or i might just use a scrubbie and some water/vinegar for starters - i don't know yet...

2005-04-14T16:08:00.000-06:00

idea for 100 Gallon custom hood

Here's a rough sketch of my idea for my 100 gallon hood. I also want to make some kind of a light holder thingy.. not quite sure what it will look like yet though.
Also, there was the stink of death 9mild) going on... did a search and found a leg of custards... i think this was the culprit (i hope). Did a head cound.. all are accounted for except 2 small PP's... i wonder where the heck they're hiding... sneaky little tweedle dum and dee. Also i found Barney molting in the corner, which is hood... his thumb was cut off and i think one of his leg tips was brole off as well. Anyway, barney's now a brilliant violet (an Indo). Hopefully the smell subsides tomorrow so i don't have to go digging all over for tweedle dum and dee to see which one hasn't made it.

EcoEarth found for cheap

2005-04-14T15:33:00.000-06:00

In preparation for my 100 Gallon tank i've been trying to decide if i should go with 1/2 sand, 1/2 CF or just straight CF... anyway, i found 3 bricks of CF for pretty cheap. Once i decide which substrate to go with, i'll have to order some. If i go with the half and half setup, i'd like to have some sort of a barrier, but one concern i have with putting in a sand/CF combo is the decrease in humidity that might occur with having the sand in vs the CF. I'll probably end up going with CF since that's what i've always used and never really had any troubles with it. I still can't believe i have a 100 Gallon tank for a crabitat... it's unbelieveable huge. the crabs are going to love having so much room. oh the next few weeks will be fun seting this thing up. i think first i will start on the hood.

100 Gallon will be alot of work

2005-04-14T09:59:00.000-06:00

We just moved the 100 Gallon into my car from the basement of the university museum. The thing is WAY dirty, the silicone is pretty rotted, there is scum buildup allover the tank, one of the glass walls is cracked, there is wire holding the rim together, and who knows what other surprises await.... but LORD that tank is HUGE! Geez, that is going to be fun once i get the tank cleaned up and stuff. I think i'm going to remove the patch that is over the cracked wall and repatch it and possible remove the silicone that is all discolored and rotted and redo it. Not quite sure what the best method is to get the scum and buildup out of the tank, i suppose vinegar and water will be a good place to start. I was surprised the tank actually fit into the back of my car.... i'm more inlove with my ford taurus. it's really a wonderful vehicle - very smooth ride and very comfortable to ride in. and the cargo room is pretty amazing. The tank looks about as tall as my 29 gallon which is cool. i thought it might be a little shorter, but i don't think so after looking at it. making the hood will be a project and a half though! There is a light hood that comes with it, so i think maybe i'll make some kind of a hinged contraption that the light hood mounts to so i can swing it out of the way if i want to and remove a sectioned piece of the hood.

Pulled watermelon from the saltwater pool

2005-04-14T09:39:00.000-06:00

It's 9:40, that means watermelon has been in the saltwater pool, fully submerged for an hour... makes me a little nervous. My other large straw, Lemmeny Snippets soaked in the salt water before he died, so i'm a little wary of a crab soaking for any real length of time in the salt water. I moved her out to see what kind of a reaction i get from her. She's out and moving around, which is a good sign. Lemmeny just sat in the same place where i initially put him, so i suppose movement is a good sign.

Morning report

2005-04-14T08:42:00.000-06:00

Last night i gave the crabs a hard-boiled egg - untouched all night! When i came into work, watermelon was in the saltwater pool, but it was running a little low, so i topped off the pool with watermelon in it. She's been wading for the last 10 minutes. BG finally climbed out from the center of the PVC tree. He'd been in there throughout the daytime for the last week or so. the carrot was munched on that was left in the tank of course. I'm taking home the 100 gallon tank this evening to begin work on it. I found some aquarium silicone in caulking tubes at a reasonable price. Check it out! only 7.99 a tube. Most places i found wanted around 15 bucks for a tube. I think i'll be spending friday night cleaning the tank up.

Custard didn't make it

2005-04-11T10:54:00.000-06:00

Custard, the new cavipe i purchased about 2 weeks ago didn't make it. I got her at the same time I got Watermelon (who seems to be doing relatively fine). With only about 2 weeks into it, i think it must've been PPS. I'll have to run to Petco and return her (hopefully for another cavipe or two. I saw 2 or 3 in there last week, i hope they're still there.
Watermelon and Crocodile Dundee swapped shells over the weekend. I think it was probably more like BG (Big Guy AKA Crocodile Dundee) evicted Watermelon from the large turbo shell she was in. At first, i didn't even pay attention when i saw watermelon in a different shell, then it struck me - hEY, that's BG's shell.. i wonder what shell BG's in. ***checked*** and BG was in Watermelon's shell... anyway, they both appear to be fine.

Aquarium Silicone

2005-04-08T16:24:00.000-06:00

So i may be getting a 100 Gallon tank for my Hermit Crabs in trade for my current 29 gallon tank. Jessica doesn't really want me to get it, but having such a large tank will be alot of fun. Mainly i think she doesn't want me to have it in the case that i'm no longer able to keep them at work and have to bring the thing home - which that is very understandable. A 100 gal tank is not exactally small. But if that happened, i'd just give the tank away or sell it and get a smaller tank. I'm trying to get a cartridge of aquarium silicone rahter than buy 3 OZ tubes at 5 bucks a pop. Hopefully i can get it locally - that would be cool, then i wouldn't have to pay the shipping... but even if i have to order it online, it will still be better than the smaller tubes. In the tank i plan on putting in a salt water pool on one end, maybe a freshwater pool in the other, or maybe a freshwater 'lake' - that would be way cool. I could make the pool out of tarp material maybe, placing rocks and other things in the pond... that would be cool to have an edge more beachlike than plexiglass and straight. I wonder if i could make the pool edging out of concrete. Hmmm - there's so many possibilities with a tank that is soooo big. fun fun fun!

Strawberry Shortcake down - possible molt

2005-04-06T08:43:00.000-06:00

Strawberry Shortcake went down on Monday, forgot to post it though. I do think that this is a molt - mainly because she's always out and running around and trashing the tank every night, but she hasn't been coming up at all at night or day since about monday. She's right at the front of the tank and gave me a little window to keep an eye on her. The temp/humidity are at 78/82 and have been at that level for the last month, give or take a degree or two either way. Both should be fine for a straw.

Pumpkin dead this morning

2005-04-06T08:25:00.000-06:00

I had my suspicions from the beginning, she was sooo lethargic and inactive and weak, but she surprised me by hanging on for more than a day, but this morning when i came into work, Pumpkin was just a mass of limp crab piled outside of her shell. At least she had a pleasant last day...

Watermelon burried & Pumpkin in ISO

2005-04-05T16:59:00.000-06:00

Watermelon (new Straw) burrowed down (presumabely to destress) and Pumpkin seems to be hanging in there. Bethany (small Ruggie) seems to have it in for Pumpkin and has been after her all day. I put Pumpkin in a little ISO on the 2nd level to give her some time alone to chill out. Bethany has been a little onrey with the newbies. she was giving Watermelon some attitude earlier too, but he just smacked her with the BP and she got the point. I will admit that i am surprised that Pumpkin made it through the day and actually walked around - as of last night i was pretty sure that she'd be dead this morning.

2005-04-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

PVC tree in the crabitat

I've been working on creating a false tree for the hc's to climb on and explore. initilly i constructed this from PVC ppe and hot glue & aquarium silicone. After a weekend in the high humidity, the hot glue totally fell apart, branches began to drop off, and the whole tree detached from its base. I had some large rocks glued to the base to counter-balance it and kep the tree from falling over, and these cme loose too... so much for hot glue in a crabitat. aquarium silicone isn't strong enough to hold it all together, it weight probably 5 lbs total and is about 26" tall, so i took the thing back home and reattached most of the previousely hot glued things with Gorilla Glue. the toxicity to fish in their datasheets stated it was 0, and i called GG and verified, so hopefully i don't get all kinds of crab deathdue to the glue. i don't think anyone on HCA has used anything but hot glue and AS, so i guess we'll see what happens. if the gorilla glue works good (which it should considering the stuff s used in scandanavia for boats and stuff) it could be a pretty hot item to other crabbers. here's a pic of the tree

Also i finally got a cavipe (named Custard by pips) on Monday at petco. I was pretty happy to see they finally started providing salt water for their crabs, although humidity is still pretty low. I think on thursday of last week i got another ruggie, Kitty. They all seem to be doing pretty well, but the cavie is in a nasty tree snail shell that is way too small for him. The cavie's coloration is very pretty - reds, blues, pinks and oranges.

2 newbies

2005-04-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

Well, last night I went to return one of my dead frozen crabbies to petco to get another and came home with a micro ruggie and a strawberry! I didn't intend on picking up another straw - when i last talked to the petco clerks, they insisted that they weren't carrying straws anymore - which was a bummer since i had Strawberry Shortcake and not another friend for her. Sooo I was glad to get another one. Last night it was a bit cold in the house and i didn't put the ISO/transport over any kind of heat source, so i hope they're OK and warm up. The little Ruggie (named Pumpkin by Piper) is VERY lethargic. I was pretty sure that he would be dead this morning when i woke up - last night i peeked in on the two and he was WAY out of his shell, his limbs are very loose and flexible, he kindof lazily hangs out of his shell, never really retracting or reacting normally - he was like this when i got him, but i figured he'd have a better chance of recovering with me that at Petco, so i took him. This morning, despite what i thought, he was still alive and kicking, although not kicking with too much enthusiasm. We'll see how he does.

The Gorilla Glue... so far it seems to be holding up nicely in the high humidity, which i pretty much expected since it's used for boatmaking and such things. If it can hold a boat together, it should be able to last inside a little crabitat.

Zarumn? who the hell is that?

2005-03-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

i was parousing through other blogs, ran across some jibberish crap about zarumn, talking about how he's multitalentes, and paints and does fantasy art and crap?. I think i'm gonna go pee my pants. Hold the presses - there's something new, an artist tht plays instruments and paints and SINGS.. geez. moby does all that, along with a gazillion other artists. and the jackass posted like 50 blogs with repetitive junk. I wonder if zarumn sounds like yany or anee, or whatever is name is, maybe he plays one of those crazy norweigen long horns or a harp or something.
My latest album picks are Bright Eyes (both digital ash and It's morning) they're both awesome and completely different. The Arcade Fire - Funeral - holy crap this is a wonderful album. I think i've played it over and over for about 500miles in my car comuting back and forth to work. Kings of Leon - aha shake heartbreak - brilliant, sexual, some of the drub beats have taken teir toll on my steering column. William Shattners - Has Been, i haven't honsetly gotten past the 1st track, a remake of common people, i don't know who sings the original, but shattenr's version has to kick the original one's ass. I ordered Davotchka's newest release - opefully it will get here before too long. I've heard a few tracks form it on KEXP and it sounded totally different that alot of music out there, european (if that's a sound) and rock and ballads, and operatic, all swirled into one. jesus, so much music out there.

Flaming Lips - Yoshimi battles the pink robots

2004-10-22T15:35:00.000-06:00

I just go the album, picked it up on ebay for a few bucks. I heard the title track on KEXP (www.kexp.org) - still and forever the greatest radio station, either traditional or online EVER - and whenever i would hear the song i'd just be dancing away at my desk. it's catchy, groovy, entrancing, exploratory, everything... i could not help myself... it was a great song! so i bought the album on ebay, no idea why the seller wanted to get rid of it. I've been listening to the album throughout the afternoon and haven't heard a bad song yet. I'd give the album ****1/2 rating.

Another album i purchased recently was Keb Mo's newest release, Peace - Back By Popular Demand. hmmmm - mixed feelings about this album. The overall sound was too 'adult contemporary' for my taste, but it seems like keb has been migrating more towards that genre with his more recent albums. I guess i like his earlier works - filled with delta blues - better than the more recent works.

Most popular blogs

2004-10-20T13:17:00.000-06:00

I went browsing yesterday through blogs, clicking time after time again the 'next blog' link. it seems that most are about US politics right now, trying to point out the pros and cons of this candidate or that candidate, why i should vote for bush or kerry or nader... i bet 60% of the blogs i hit were politically oriented. there were a few that were justdialy journals. i think those are the most interesting. one that was pretty interesting was about the speediest librarian or something, i wish i would have wrote down the URL, but oh well. it seemed like a cool little blog. there was another on super nipples or something. another thing i noticed was that there are alot of blogs written in non-english languages. i don't know why that struck me so odd, i mean why would the rest of the world not be as much if not more webified as americans.

jeez- this morning i decided to check my kexp boise email and there was an email from John in the Morning. he's been out off and on for the last 6 weeks or so. he had a son and then a week back at work, then out for 2+ weeks with his mom over in spokane - she has lung cancer and it sounds like she's on her last leg of a long battle. the email was so touching. i read it, astounded that a dj of a radio station could write and send out this heartfelt email to us who suscribe. it is amazing. what a phenomenal station, one that connects the dj's to the fans like it does, it's unbelieveable really. my heart and thoughts go out to john and his family. it made me think about hopw special and great my mom has been, what great care she took of us when we were kids, when we were sick or got an owie. mom's are something else!

no more Haloween parade in school :(

2004-10-20T11:58:00.000-06:00

What a Bummer! We got a note brought home from my daughters school stating that 'in an effort to make haloween more educational, please don't send costumes with your child to school." man, that sucks. I remember when i was a kid, i couldn't wait for haloween to come around - we would get all dressed up in our costumes after lunch then we would go around to each classroom in the school, visiting all the teachers, checking out eachothers costumes, etc.. and we'd all end up on the blacktop and return to our classrooms for a haloween party. it was sweet.

Religion & the Da Vinci Code

2004-10-19T10:29:00.000-06:00

I've been reading the Da Vinci Code- it's been an awesome book so far, very intriguing and though provoking. Dan Brown has done a great job weaving 'facts' into a piece of fiction. After I complete this book I'm going to have to get the book 'facts behind the Da Vinci Code' - a book providing critical analysis of the facts used by Brown to base his consipracy theory on. Regardless of how true the facts are though, the theory brought up by brown of the greatest coverup ever is extremely provoking. Growing up in a Christian church, no attention is ever brought to why the books were written or who and how the books that comprise of the Bible we all know today were selected. The authors are more or less known, but the thought that the testaments were selected with a political agenda in mind changes the entire way the Bible is viewed. It was nice when I wasn't skeptical at all about my faith and the Bible and Christianity as a whole. More and more i seem to grow more comfortable with the thought that maybe the teachings of Christianity and the Bible fall more in line with that of a Myth. All Societies of the past have some sort of creator, a story about how the earth and the people inhabiting it came to be, a way that the people can ascend or somehow return to the creator.... stories about how a worshiped person became so great, etc. I think having a faith of some sort makes us feel better - which is fine - about our lives, that there is some sort of greater power we serve, some worthier cause that is out there to make us feel like our lives are more fulfilling... having some sort of afterlife also helps us separate us from other animals, giving us 'proof' that since we have a soul and an afterlife, we couldn't have evolved...

e-bay seller ssearss..... GRRRRRRR

2004-10-13T11:37:00.000-06:00

So i purchased this item, a penta-prism for my Mamiya RB67 so i could use the prism rather than the WLF. The seller took 3 weeks to get the item to me... this i could live with, but when i took the item out to look at it, i noticed that there was a big blurry spot in the viewing lens. I thought that maybe it was just some goo inbetween the two planes of glass that make up the viewing lens, but it turned out to be epoxy. some dumb-ass (i'm presuming the seller from the experience i've had...) tried glueing the two pieces of glass into the frame and the epoxy bled down between the two glass panes, essentailly ruining the viewfinder. So i had to spend another 40 bucks to fix the item. what a shitball. the seller is ssearss in case anyone ever stumbles across this. they truly suck.

Mr. T molted again

2004-10-13T11:29:00.000-06:00

So last week I was in Washington DC for some training for work. I was amazed to find out when i came back, that while i was gone, Mr. T molted again. I've had him a little less than a year and he's molted 5 times so far... he molts like crazy! His BP got a little messed up during the moly, looks like maybe another crab got ahold of him and squished his BP when it was all soft or something, but it doesn't seem to have effected him too much. He's much whiter than before, maybe he didn't get enough carotene this round or something... but some blue color seems to be filling in on his BP.

KEXP Pledge Drive!!

2004-09-29T11:09:00.000-06:00

Man, John in the Morning and Cheryl Waters tug at the heartstrings during the pledgedrives! that is a great thing though, KEXP is by far the best station and plays ABSOLUTELY the best music, either online or airwaves. I wish i could get KEXP on the radio dial, that would be awesome... or be able to suscribe and download a day's worth of show on CD or mp3 or somehting. that would be great. Anyhoo, the fall pledge drive is going on now, and, much like public TV, which i watch most of the time, I put some money towards the cause. I feel like a cheapass if i don't pledge, which i guess is good- i listen everyday, all day at work. if i had a broadband at home i would listen all night at home too, so i feel that paying a little is the least i can do. I love the station, not just because they play great music, but the DJ's are great, they give a shit about their listeners, weather they're in Seattle or anywhere else. they reply to emails, send out emails to posse's in various cities... i could go on and on. Paying for such a great service is gr4eat and i feel good about paying for it.

A rant about end users

2004-09-28T10:51:00.000-06:00

so i spent yesterday installing the program on a UX machine which we were told needed to be installed and running by thursday. the person that stated this failed to mention that the application really didn't need to be up and running by 2005-2006 academic year. we were pushed to get this thing installed and running without any sort of testing or knowledge as to how it works or what it even does, weather or not it will play well with our enviornment, etc. needless to say, problems have been encountered making the current product thus far unuseable and disabling the old process, so the users are left screwed so far, thanks to a lack of planning and testing which could have been done throughout the year to prepare for the next acad. year. i'll spend today trying to get the process up and running. the tech support is SHITE - i asked the guy about an uninstall process and he told me to just delete the install directory. he really didn't know a damn thing. Nice job!

The politics of a birthday party

2004-09-28T10:43:00.000-06:00

My daughter just had her b-day party, and it reminded me of how strenuous it could be handing out those damn invitations at elementary school. I remember hoping that this kid or that didn't find out cuz i knew that they would have hurt feelings if they did - i don't know why i really cared - if i didn't like the person enough to invite them to the party, why should it matter if they had a hard time knowing that i didn't want them invited. My daughter was talking to me about this, how she wanted to invite this person and that, and didn't want to hurt some feelings, etc. i should have just told her that if she didn't like the girl enough to invite her to the party, it probably didn't matter that she was going to have hurt feelings towards her... but instead we advised her to be sneaky about handing out the invitations so those that she didn't want to invite didn't have hurt feelings and hate her guts..

then came Lenny Crabitz

2004-08-24T11:14:00.000-06:00

So one of my newer crabs, Dirty - who i blogged about previousely, died. Jesus, what a smell. he died over the weekend when i was out of my office - i came into work and it stunk of dead fish! Poor ol dirty. I picked up his shell and he just flopped out. kinda strange though - the conditions of the pet store seemed to be pretty good as far as pet stores go... i can't help but wonder if the coffee grounds killed him. damn, i hope not, but i don't think i'll give my HC's and coffee grounds any more! I thought that since the coffee grounds were OK for plants they'd be OK for hermies... i guess we'll never know. To replace Dirty, i got another Ruggie - he's dark brown and tan in color, very pretty. he's not as big as dirty, but he is very active, climbing all over. I've named him Lenny Crabitz. Also over the weekend it looks like Clawdia (my Indo) got an eyestalk pinched off by another crab. She's pretty antisocial, seems to only really move about during the night unless i gether out to freeroam in the office during the daytime. At night i can tell she's active because everything is moved when i come back in - i think she's the only one strong enough to move the cocohut and tennis ball hut around.

Dirty Died

2004-08-16T14:56:00.000-06:00

Damn! came in this morning to work from the weekend and the office stunk of fish... not a good sign. I was checking on all the crabs and Dirty was in the same spot as when i left on Thursday evening, not a good sign. I picked him up and he flopped right out of his shell - very creepy & wierd. Poor guy... no antenna movement, he was totally dead. dumped him in the carbage, but i did save his shell, it's a larger turbo which is harder to come by... man i feel bad though, he was so pretty, and the other rugs loved him, they were always riding on his shell and stuff... bummer...

HP 3100 LaserJet driver

2004-07-28T17:24:00.000-06:00

So at the yardsale Albertson had this weekend, i purchased a HP 3100 LaserJet All-in-one unit for the awesome price of $1! I was pretty happy about that, its a steal of a price and the unit works pretty well. Jess and I were talking about how we needed a fax machine just a night or two before so i snagged it when i saw it was going to be sold.... needed a good (better than a deskjet) monochrome printer anyway, so this was the answer i had been looking for. Bought a parallel cable for it (which i now think i didn't need to buy, i think i have one already) and went to download the drive from good ol' HP and find out i have to pay $10 for the software, no driver available for download! who the hell does that? nobody makes you pay for drivers anymore. I looked in google groups to see if anyone has the driver posted anywhere for dwnld and i can find tons of people with the same complaint i have, but nobody that has the driver/software posted for download. I ordered it, it's only $10 but still... i can't believe i had to pay for a damn driver! it's prolly because the software is by jetsuite of some other 3rd party other than HP and it's a legacy product so they figure why not make some $$'s if you can, which i guess is good for business, but still rediculous to pay for a driver... but i did it, so there's probably a few others out there that get frustrated and pay the $10 to get the software. Let me know if you encounter the same issue with your 3100 and i'll see if i can help out once i get the CD.

Mr. T is back and still hella tough

2004-07-28T15:27:00.000-06:00

Mr. T, one of my C. rugosus hermit crabs came back up today from molting. He was only down for maybe 2 weeks. Initally I thought he was going down for a death molt... i've read about hermit crabs that molt just before death. I thought this might be the case for several reasons: (1) he just completed a molt only about 2 months prior... typical molting occurs about once every 12 to 18 months. (2) I just placed a UTH (Under Tank Heater) under the crabitat, cranking the heat in the tank from about 70 degrees F to about 76-78 degrees F and keeping the humidity level at about 80%. 4 of my 5 hermit crabs have molted already in the 6 months that i've had them so i thought all was well, but the UTH must've made everything even better than before. At first i thought the UTH may have baked Mr. T or at least raised the temp so much that he decided to do a death-molt, but it turns out that it just made conditions even better than before so he decided to molt again. Anyway, I'm glad he's back up.

first blog

2004-07-28T15:24:00.000-06:00

first blog...