A journal about Carmen, Curley, Swirley & Twirley:

One day in late 2003 Carmen was inspired to write a story featuring her three funny looking land hermit crabs named Curley, Swirley & Twirley. On that day Carmen decided it was time to clean their crabitat. She took Curley, Swirley & Twirley out and placed them in a temporary tank with a bit of water on the edge so they can bath while she cleaned their crabitat. It was a quiet day and the chore was bore at first. But after a short while Carmen noticed how lively Curley, Swirley & Twirley became while they bathed and played in the tank. They were having so much fun! This tickled Carmen so much she laughed out loud and wondered, "What if they could talk?" And then, out of thin air the first sentence of a story popped into Carmen's head and it went like this: "Curley, Swirley and Twirley escaped from their tank and ran as fast as three crabs can to play games in the sand." All of sudden the chore was not so boring anymore. Curley, Swirley & Twirley became alive in Carmen's eyes. She thought, "Curley, Swirley & Twirley can now tell stories of their pleasure seeking adventures". Ever since then Carmen felt blessed with a magical simple joy and happiness that sparked her imagination. She knew their new discoveries must be shared and that not a single soul must be spared. Everyone deserves to have fun, especially today. Joy, happiness, simple pleasures and discoveries must be shared. That is what Curley & Friends are all about.

Carmen had purchased all three hermit crabs from a mall kiosk as a birthday gift to herself in July 2003. She was so fascinated by these little creatures crawling all over each other on a wide table bed. Carmen was also lonely after losing her longtime feline companion to cancer the previous year and she thought maybe the hermit crabs would bring back some joy in her life and she was right. The hermit crabs are really fascinating even though they're not as soft and cuddly as a furry pet. They became something new and exciting to learn about. Carmen eventually learned that each crab really does have it's own personality and they each require just as much love and care as would any other earthly creature. So Carmen carefully chose the three she would take home to feed. . . the decision for three came after learning that the "hermit" in their name does not imply that they like being alone. Hermit crabs love company! There was so much to learn.

Carmen then signed on to Amazon.com, bought some used instructional and story books about hermit crabs, joined the Hermit Crab Association and also Yahoo's chatroom to learn more about her new hermit crab pets. Carmen strongly recommends Barron's Complete Pet Owner's Manual "Hermit Crabs" by Sue Fox (ISBN 0-7641-1229-5). Carmen quickly learned that their habitat, the right temperature and humidity, fresh water, food and additional shells were crucial to their existence. They also needed names to tell them apart. Curley, Swirley & Twirley were so named based on the shape or design of their shells.

When in their crabitat Curley, Swirley & Twirley are usually pretty quiet, although sometimes at night they could be heard scratching around the tank, feeling their way around perhaps in search of food or new shells to move into. It's been two years and neither Curley, Swirley or Twirley have changed their decorative* shells. One time (about 3 months after Carmen adopted them) Curley did try on a different shell, but that was short lived, evidently he liked his old shell better and he was lucky it was still available to move back into . . . which is exactly what he did the very next day.

Well, what do you know?! On Wednesday, November 16, 2005, Carmen saw that Swirley had switched shells. Guess the old one did not fit very well. Both Curley and Swirley had decided to molt around the same time. They had been missing for about 30 days. They took about four weeks to shed their exoskeleton and when they finally came out of hiding they were shiny and new. By the way, Curley did not change shells after his molt (he is still in the same old shell since 2003). Curley just doesn't want to grow up.

Update Feb. 5, 2006: Super Bowl Sunday – Go Steelers! Carmen joined a workplace pool and won $125. Hooray! What a lucky crab! After the game Carmen went to refresh Curley, Swirley & Twirley's food tray and finds she cannot find Twirley. He must be molting. Carmen is afraid to search for him because they really should not be disturbed if they are molting. So Carmen will wait and check in every couple of days. She put a dated sign on the tank and wrote, "Where is Twirley?" as a reminder.

Update Feb. 19, 2006: Carmen found Twirley while cleaning the tank. He's was molting inside a flower pot which Carmen almost threw away because the plant did not survive. Carmen left Twirley alone. He looked so cute in there with his rainbow shell in wonderul contrast to the dirt. Carmen searched for her camera and took pictures to share them here with you. Please see our photos page.

Update Mar. 03, 2006: Carmen is really scared. Twirley hasn't come out of the flower pot yet! She picked him up and put him to her ear to see if she can hear any sounds from Twirley. And she shook the shell a bit but hoped really hard that he wouldn't fall out - that's when you know a hermit crab has gone to crabbie heaven. Oh good! He didn't fall out and Carmen could hear faint scratching sounds inside the shell. Ahhh! But then Carmen did a really dumb thing. She took him out the flower pot thinking he had been in there long enough, and placed Twirley under the tank's half coconut hermie hut just on the surface level of the sand, instead of burrowing him further in the sand. Bad idea! Twirley become vulnerable as fresh meat for Curley and Swirley. Poor Twirley, his new claw was chewed on and he looked pretty sad. Bad Carmen! Luckily though, Twirley did survive and Carmen is keeping a real close watch from now on to ensure Twirley stays alive and healthy. What a crazy thing - crabs like to eat crabs!

* Side Note about decorative shells: There's been some talk in the hermit crab community about the dangers of decorative shells and paint chips possibly harming the hermies and this concerned Carmen because Curley, Swirley & Twirley resided in these hand-painted multi-colored shells. Carmen almost signed a petition that was going around to stop distribution of these shells or something to that effect. But in good conscience Carmen couldn't sign the petition because of Curley, Swirley & Twirley's decision to choose the shells they resided in. Granted they may have been forced to choose among these shells in some time of their lives and had no other options. The damage, if any, had been done. All Carmen could do now is to accept them as they are and hope they stay healthy; or provide them more choices and wait patiently for what may or may not happen. Swirley has changed into a non-painted shell, so I guess she did ok in the old painted shell and just decided she needed a better fitting one regardless of its color.