We have seen lots of hermit crabs on our Mexico adventures. They are so fun to watch when you are at the beach. At a camping place (Playa Conejo) we saw lots of them crawling around at night. We see them on the beach in front of our condo and we saw some at La Lancha yesterday. Miles and I did a project about hermit crabs when Fin and mom were having a lunch date. Here’s what we learned:

Facts from Ollie:

• They need fresh water to drink and sea water to put their eggs.
• They eat grasses, fallen fruits, and leaves.
• They are born in the ocean.
• When they are headed somewhere on the sand they will not go around anything. They will dig with their claws to go under it or they go over it.

Facts from Miles:

• Hermit crabs are nocturnal
• The mom carries eggs on abdomen and legs until they are ready to hatch. When they are ready to hatch she uses her arms to scrape the eggs of herself and into the ocean.
• The babies live in the ocean and molt several times until they are big enough to live in a shell on land. They usually find a discarded sea snail shell to live in. When they outgrow one shell they move into another.
• In the wild hermit crabs can live up to 30 years. In captivity they can live anywhere from under one year up to 20 years.(Here’s a movie: Hermie)