SHELL EXPRESS NEWSLETTER

SHELL EXPRESS NEWSLETTER
http://www.seashellshop.com
SUMMER 2001

The Shell Express Newsletter is created by the Sea Shell Shop and sent to persons who joined and are interested in stories, history and general information about lighthouses, shells, hermit crabs, nautical gifts and decor. It provides interesting information about related subjects and possible links to other interesting sites full of similar information.

It also provides updates on what is available on the Sea Shell Shop site. Our only catalog is our on line catalog. If you mail us your address we will add it to our list for our future catalog that we are working on.

This month's newsletter contains...

1) Harbour Lights, Lefton and Scaasis new Lighthouses
2) Harbour Lights Event went very well. See the pictures of Bill Younger in our shop. Check out the new first ever VA/MD/PA/DE Harbour Lights Club. We are proud sponsors of the club. They will be starting their own newsletter. Their first meeting is July 14 at 2PM in Annandale, Virginia at the Mason Government Center. Contact Jerry for more information 717-229-2094
3) Sea Shell Shop Site Look at all our new items
4) We need your opinion, suggestions and help.
5) Link Us
6) Neat Links - New Hermit Links - Lighthouse Society Links and - Specimen Shell Dealer Link
7) Hermit Crabs - Why we are known as Hermit Crab Specialists

2) Harbour Lights in Store Event
See the pictures. It went very well. We invited Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation and the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation to participate. You can join their efforts by contacting http://www.delawarelights.org, or calling 302-645-0761. Any support you give they two very worthy foundations helps with the restoration of our lighthouses.

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3) SEA SHELL SHOP SITE UPDATES
We have many new items up on the site and more are coming because we now have a full time web designer. You can reach him at dallas@seashellshop.com
Look at are many new items
http://www.seashellshop.com/whats_new.html

Look at all our new items
• Over 14 New Coaster Stone Sets
• Hermit Crab Jokes
• Hermit Crab Heater & Heater/Light
• Collectible Steins
• New Pirate Items
• Pirate Coloring Activities - for the kids
• Jewelry
• Several New Lamps and Mirrors
• US Coast Guard Information Pages
• Illustrated Map of US Lighthouses
• Metal Laser Art
• Coastal Breeze item listing
• Clair Murray rug
• Detailed views on these ships: Ship 1 | Ship 2 | Ship 3 & 4
• US Lighthouse Society Passport
• More Beautiful Lighthouse Book
• Book Section
• Britannia Wreck Coins
• Pillows
• Scassis Light Up Lighthouses
• Sharks Teeth

Also we have updated our ordering information. Please take a moment to read over our policies.

We have also added a great deal of new information about lighthouses too.
http://www.seashellshop.com/uscg/uscgitems.html
http://www.seashellshop.com/uscg/index.html
http://www.seashellshop.com/books/lighthousemap.html

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4) NEED YOUR OPINION AND SUGGESTIONS
If you have purchase from us, let us know how that worked for you. We need to know to get better. If you had a good experience and wouldn't mind us using you on a new testimonial page please let us know that too. Everything is important to us, especially now when we are trying so hard to do it right. We appreciate you taking the time to give us this feedback. We guarantee we will answer you. Your information is confidential. You can e-mail us to our personal address shells@delaware.net.

Subject line will already be set as "OPINION" so we can give a timely responce.

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5) LINK US
Help us get linked to your other favorite sites that offer information about Nauticals, Lighthouses, Hermit Crabs, Tide clocks, Shells, Ships or any other related subjects. Just let us know where you want to link us. We have a banner available if you need one. We are just an e-mail away. Subject address is set to say "LINK US" for a timely responce.
And by the way, Thank you!

All you or anyone who wants to use it will need is the following HTML to paste into their e-mails / web pages:

<a href="http://www.seashellshop.com">
<img src="http://www.seashellshop.com/images/sssadbanner.jpg" border="0"
width="450" height="110">
</a>

shells@seashellshop.com

Contact our In-house graphic artist and web designer if you have any trouble
dallas@seashellshop.com

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7) HERMIT CRABS - Why we are known as Hermit Crab Specialists
My name is Patty and my husband Tom and I own the Sea Shell Shops in Rehoboth Beach, DE. My parents started in business in 1953 in Ft. Lauderdale and also in OC, MD and then when I grew up my husband and I started the same type of business in 1979 in DE. My Dad was by most accounts the first to sell hermit crabs in the US. When I was very young we use to go and collect them on Peanut Island off West Palm Beach, FL. In the early 50’s. We started selling them in 1953 or '54. Many of the people selling hermits wholesale today were put partly in business by my Dad including FMR. The same goes for the wire cage makers, before plastic overseas cages caught on. Back then FMR was a research company and such supplemented their income for research, selling hermits. My Dad couldn't collect enough so they started collecting as they were doing research all along the islands edges in the Caribbean. Anyway I could go on and on. Note: today you are not allowed to collect hermits in the USA but they still exist in the Florida Keys.

My Dad was the first to invent the wire cage. He went to Maxwell House in the 50’s and found just the right size lids (number 7). He then found Hardware cloth from Baltimore and put cages together with pig hooks. We made all our own cages back then. We couldn’t keep up so my Dad had a friend who was looking for projects for his challenged clients from a Rehabilitation center. My Dad set them up making cages. He later went to several Rehabilitation centers and suggested they put the cages together. For years he had several centers booth in Florida and in Maryland making cages. He shared the product source information with other hermit dealers especially those selling hermits wholesale so the center could make a good living supporting their clients. When the plastic cage became popular and mass produced overseas the wire cage wasn’t used as often. That ended the wire cage business for the most part. This happened after my Dad’s passing.

The sponge has always been around in shell shops but never used by hermit dealers. One day during the summer of 1980 one of our employees who loved to decorate the hermit cage in themes added little sponges cut up in the shape of balls. She called them Nerf balls as they were all the rage back then. We notice hermits carrying them around and wetting them in their water dishes. We started selling them immediately as hermit balls. We bought so many sponges that are favorite shell dealer, Mr. Stetson noticed. He then started selling them to every hermit store he dealt with up and down the East coast Well that became a popular item. Of course no one cut them like we did into ball shapes but the sponge for hermits was born. (We don’t do that any more either).

Just thought you might want to know a little of our history.

OFTEN ASKED QUESTIONS?

Do they like living together?
We have 1000's and 1000's of hermits at one time in our home and also in our three shops. We have observed many things over the years and in our travels. They do live together and prefer to live in large groups on top of each other. That is how they live in the wild. They can be territorial but they usually don't fight except over a shell or before mating. They live better if they live together. I keep mine in large cages all together and stock our stores from the cages. We loose maybe one a week if that... Our crabs do adjust and they would rather be together. I have collected them on over a 100 different locations and can tell you they like it together. I have never seen a crab by itself living alone on any of the many islands we have collected and seen them.

Why should we bath them and do they like it?
They do like baths and do go to the ocean to drop their eggs and do go to the ocean to fill their shell with salt water to get the nutrients for molting.

I have seen 100's and 100's at a time come from down a far away street on islands walking to the shores edge. They seldom live on the direct ocean side of an island and prefer to live on the calm side for that very reason.

They need calcium and the nutrients from the ocean.
Bathing them is not what cause stress. Heavy chlorinated water and then the lack of water causes stress. Dehydration is the main reason for stress. They need a dish of more than 1/2 inch. A sponge only is the worst thing you can do. Sponges are good but only with a dish of water. (By the way we invented that in 1980) They need to be able to get in it and wash their inner shell and add water to their shell. They store water in the back of their shell for their gills. They will not drown. It needs to be several inches before they have trouble. I have seen many crabs floating in water for over an hour and survive along the oceans edge. They just do not live in water. We bath ours in a calcium bath and they are extremely healthy. Many of our customers crabs are still living from buying them even from my Dad in OC in the 1970's and 80's.

They seem to like wood and Do they eat it?
They live under and in wood and they do not get diseases from wood. It can bring bugs to your tank if you do not heat it in a microwave first (just 10 seconds will do it) but it does not give hermits diseases. They do eat the wood in their natural environment and love it. Choya is not natural in their environment but it has nutrients they lack if not near the ocean and they love it. Regular beach wood is their favorite. It does not harm them. They love bark from trees that has rolled around the ocean or lake. Driftwood is their favorite. Be careful not to use poisonous plants in their cage.

Can dust mites hurt them and get in their cage?
What they can get is dust mites from a very wet environment coming from someone's house. If a house is especially dusty or has a lot of other animals, dust mites which do live in every ones house, might settle in the moist sand. They can get on the hermit. The sand needs to be micro waved or tossed away. They can be washed off the hermit, if this happens. They can also be put in the hot sun and the mites will jump off and go elsewhere. This needs to be done outside of course.

Sand or gravel, which is best?
Sand is the best and is their natural environment. Anyone who puts hermits in gravel just does want to be bothered with the clean up. They hate it and it is not their natural state or environment. If someone can't get beach sand, play sand from a hardware store is very safe. We even sell a very safe toxic free colored sand they just love. A good example: Gravel in someone's shoes, even the tiniest piece can drive you nuts. You usually stop[ immediately and get it out of your shoe. Imagine it stuck in a hermits shell. Sand on the other hand can be in your shoes and you'll even walk on it if need be until you take the time to empty your shoes. The same goes for hermits. It won't irritate their inner parts like gravel would. They can clean out sand in their water dish.

Why do hermit crabs drop their claws or legs?
There are three basic reasons why hermit crabs lose their pinchers and legs. First, the environment may be too dry. Adding water-filled sponges in there water dish and misting crabs, along with twice-weekly baths and daily drinking water will help an arid environment. Let your tap water sit out for 24 hours first to let the chlorinated water evaporate the chemicals and minerals added to our water. Second, the loss could result from physical stress, such as a traumatic molt or toxic interference from paint fumes or insecticides. Never spray around or near the hermits cage. If you must remove the cage from that room. Finally, once in a while an aggressive crab could have attacked it, as they can be territorial and the crab could have dropped a claw or two as it escaped. Claws and legs will regenerate during the next molt so do not worry. Watch them carefully and separate the bigger crabs if this happens. In the wild usually they live side by side without any problems but if as larger crab has developed a taste for being along he could be picky and want his own space.

What do you do if a hermit comes out of his shell?
If your land hermit crab has been lethargic, hanging around the water dish and hanging out of its shell until it eventually comes all the way free, more attention is required after you get it safely back into its shell. The hermit crab is probably suffering from a stress-related syndrome that affects its respiratory system much like hyperventilation. HE NEEDS A DISH OF WATER A SPONGE ALONE WILL NOT BE ENOUGH. Dip the naked crab in water and gently push it into the shell, abdomen first. You can threaten it in further by tapping lightly on its head so it will quickly draw back into its shell. If the hermit crab is lively, active, and simply running around nude to streak, this easy procedure should be all you need to do.

Are they a boy or girl?
As in most other crustaceans, hermit crabs are male or female. After mating, female hermit crabs carry their eggs attached to tiny limbs on their abdomen. The minute young hatch as larvae and are swept into the plankton; in this drifting stage, they look more like tiny shrimp than hermit crabs! The larvae feed and grow as they drift in ocean currents. When they have reached the right stage of development, they drop to the seafloor and metamorphose (transform) into their bottom-dwelling form and must immediately find a small snail shell for protection. Soon after some growth they climb to land where they live the rest of their lives as land hermits.

Males of Coenobita Clypeatus are distinguished by the presence of tufts of hair concealing openings on the first segment of the last pair of legs and by the absence of appendages on the abdomen. Females have bare openings on the first segment of the third legs (counting the claws as the first pair) and three forked appendages on the left side of the abdomen for this attachment of eggs.

Hermit crabs are omnivorous, feeding on both plant and animal materials. Despite the protection of their borrowed shells, they are preyed upon by larger male hermit crabs, birds, some rodents.

Check out some of the information on our site
http://www.seashellshop.com/hermitcrabs.html

You are welcome to use the above but please credit where you got the information using our web site.
http://www.seashellshop.com

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If you have any question, comments or suggestions about Shell Express Newsletter or would like to add an article to it, please contact us at shells@seashellshop.com. We hope you enjoyed this issue and will see you in about one month.
If you need special assistance please contact our retail store and ask
for a manager. 302-227-4323.

Have a nice day,
Sea Shell Shop

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dallas@seashellshop.com

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