So far the new tank design has survived the crab's nightly fiestas other than the odd filled in water dish, all the cholla climbing branches are still in place and other than an accidental flower removal on one of the fake plants everything is still intact.
They have really fallen in love with the climbing section, the babies sleep up there most nights and even during the day at least one adult regularly appears on the main branch. So, to give them a bit more of a "natural" foraging chance and keep things interesting for them, I've started adding sprigs of freshly cut safe plants to the tank. Each bit is pushed into holes in the main cholla branch, some on the top, others on the sides, and occasionally hanging down from underneath, and the hermies really seem to be loving the new foods and exploration opportunities.
As always Vandal was the first to check things out, the first test of the idea was with rose cuttings and a stem of thin bamboo (real bamboo, NOT the toxic "lucky bamboo" sold in homebase etc). He ended up demolishing the rose and only one leaf was left by the time the others started waking up so a night trip into the garden was needed and by morning that was all gone too. Clearly a success! I don't have any pictures of the bamboo sprig yet but within one night all leaves had been stripped off.
During the spot clean Oliver finally made a proper appearance without hiding so I decided to try for some decent pictures of him. By some miracle he didn't retreat and the first nice, non blurry shots of Oliver were achieved.
Even with the tatty shell he came in (they are all still refusing to budge despite yet more viola shell being added, other than Rupert who is back into a tapestry turbo), Oliver is definitely a beautiful crab and hopefully over the next few moults the blue tones of his carapace will become even more vibrant.
No comments:
Post a Comment