Flooded

I came into work today to a minor disaster.

As our aquatic plant tank -the one holding our hornwort plants- had clogged up. As it tends to do because Hornwort likes to shred and get little pieces of itself everywhere.

And nobody noticed in time.

So water kept flowing into the tank....but no water was flowing out of the tank because the strainer basket got all clogged up. *exhales*

And when the water levels reached the top of the tank...it overflowed. Dripping down into the tanks below that one.

And one of the tanks below that one...was our Hermit Crab tank.

Our LAND Hermit Crab tank.

Aka the tank that shouldn't be filled to the brim with water. 

But it was.

The tank had filled all the way to the top and was dripping the excess water onto the floor.

And the poor hermit crabs within it were just like at the edge of the glass waving their claws around like "Help me!!" 

Honestly, I was surprised they were still alive.

I frantically grabbed a small container and scooped out the Hermit Crabs I could see. 

And then set to work scooping out the water from the tank into a bucket and rescuing more Hermit Crabs as they became visible in the swirling dirty mess.

At least five of the poor things had come out of their shells.

But surprisingly...I think all of them may have survived.

Time will tell though.

But yah. It looks like they all managed to survive their deep water bath. 

*shakes head*

What a way to start out Christmas Eve though. Yaaaaay early morning stress lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Bug Container

Had a grandmother and her two grandsons come into the store with the youngest boy toting a bug box with him.
You know, one of those mesh containers with a handle.

And the grandmother had come in wanting to find like a bug for the grandson to have.
Specifically she was looking for a Madagascar beetle.
Which I think she was looking for a hissing cockroach? As that's usually the only bug that I think of when I hear "Madagascar."

In either case we don't carry those.
Nor any other 'useful' bugs that could be fun pets.
Besides like Crickets. 
But I think she was wanting something a little...different.

In any case.
At one point she was wanting to get one of the tree frogs to put in that mesh container.
And like....
No.

It was totally the wrong setup for the tree frog as they would need a bigger space that that six inch by four inch mesh thing that they had on hand. 

No tree frogs need like humidity and heat and a lot more work than the grandmother (or anyone) ever realized.

-It's interesting how many people think that they can just stick an animal in a box without adequate bedding/heat/space and think it's okay. 

In any case. 

I told her that we basically had nothing in the store that would go in that container.

But recommended a couple other local pet stores that might carry the bugs she was looking for for her bug thing that the grandson had.

She wasn't having it though.

And after looking through all the pets came upon the hermit crabs.
Which admittedly aren't that difficult of a pet to have.
Though the container still was wrong for them, I pointed her to our smallest hermit crab cage that came as a kit and told her that that would be a better container for the hermit crab.

So in the end she ended up buying that and a hermit crab for her grandson.

Hopefully he enjoys it. 
As honestly...they don't do much.... 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Escaping the Tank

I was in the middle of doing dishes in the back, when one of my coworker's came up to me, and told me that he'd found a Hermit Crab on the floor.

O.o
A hermit crab?
How could a Hermit Crab be on the floor? I mean, a Red Claw Crab, I could totally see.
As they have escaped before. One even made it outside the front doors. But a Hermit Crab? Unless someone left a 'dead' one out on accident without disposing of it....I'd never seen one escape.

"Is it alive?" I asked.
"I think so? It was twitching." he responded.

"Show me."
So he took me over to an area a few feet away from the fish tanks.

And there scuttling away.
Is not a Hermit Crab.

But a Red Claw Crab.

Ah! So I had been right in what the creature was!

So I rescued him and put him back in his cage.
And as I did so, I discovered the possible source of how the crab escaped in the first place.

One of the decorations had been pulled out of the tank.
One that had large holes in it where crabs could hide.

My guess is that he'd been hiding inside when the decoration was taken out.
Therefore, when it was left out....
he crawled out to explore.

At least we found him before he got too far....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Gone, Maybe Forever

It's been an empty tank for like forever now.
The tank where we're supposed to be keeping our Fire-Belly Toads when we have them in stock.

Only.
They haven't been in stock.
For Months.

I think November? May be the last time I got in a shipment of Toads, if not earlier in October or Even September. Who knows at this point.

In any case.
We haven't gotten in a shipment of Toads for forever.

Because our Supplier doesn't have any.
The inventory always reads ZERO when I check it.

So, today, I finally asked my stocking manager, to check and see if there had been any messages or emails or anything.
because whenever I'd scan them, a particular code would come up. Code 25.
Which I thought meant that they were being discontinued, or something.

Which I was close on. After a bit of digging around.
We discovered that the Toads had been placed in the "Long Term Out of Stock"

Which meant....we had no idea when or if they would come back in.
They might never come back in.
Who knows.

But I couldn't just leave that tank empty for forever more.
So, I checked in with the manager over my department when she came into the store.

And she agreed with my plan,
To separate out our Hermit Crabs.
Because we sell 'two' types of Hermit Crabs.
Fancy ones, and Normal ones.
The difference?
The shell style.

But sometimes it can get confusing as to which hermit crabs are Fancy and which are not.

So this would solve that problem, until we get more Toads in. :)

So that's what I did.
I took out all the rocks and decorations and the water filter that was in there.
-Which had black tar like stuff falling from the spout. :S probably not healthy
And cleaned it all out, replacing it with dirt.

So now we have two tanks of Hermit Crabs. :) Yay.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Don't Pinch Me

I got pinched by another Hermit Crab today.
>.<
And again,
I'm not really sure how it happened.

I was holding three of them.
Little hermit crabs. Going to go put them in their container for the customers to take home.

And somehow it's claw and my finger met up at just the wrong moment.
And Wham
Instant Pain.

To the point where I reacted instantly,
Dropping two of the hermit crabs.
While the third clung on.

Oops.
But at least they were all fine.

My finger.
Not so much.
There was a hermit crab once again clinging onto it.

After last time's experience. I knew that just sitting and waiting for it to let go would not work.
I could be waiting there for hours for all I knew.

So I pulled it off.
Painfully off.

And the hermit crab definitely left a mark.
A heart shaped mark.
Little creature definitely took some skin with him.
And drew blood.

Definitely different from what happened the last time. When it just left an angry mark.

Seriously. Note to self, continue to avoid the pinchers on the Hermit Crabs. They hurt.

-Sarnic Dirchi