Thursday 14 February 2008

Hermit Crabs

On the 10th of February, I went to Kuantan. My parents brought me to Telok Cempedak, a popular beach in Kuantan, West Malaysia. I saw many hermit crabs and remembered the facts I learned about them in my science text. I would like to share them with you.

1. Hermit crabs are decapods. Decapods are crustaceans with 10 legs, which means some crustaceans don't have 10 legs.

2. Hermit crabs don't make their own shell. Uncle Joe told me that they are good recylers of shells!

3. There are 500 types of hermit crabs.

4. Hermit crabs are omnivores. That means they eat meat and vegetables.

5. There are 2 types of hermit crabs: marine hermit crabs (those you will find in the sea) and land hermit crabs (those that you find on beaches and small island jungles, but will drown in the sea).

6. Land baby hermit crabs have gills but adult hermit crabs do not. They start out with gills and end up with lungs.


We caught more than 20 hermit crabs to study them. Before we went home, we set all of them free.

Do not take hermit crabs home with you! They will DIE! They are best left in their natural habitat for all to enjoy!!! Hermit crabs are scavengers and they help clean up the beach. If you catch them, put them back after you have studied them...or just leave them alone!!!

We also found many glass pieces in the sea and along the beach. Please DO NOT THROW GLASS IN THE SEA!!!! OR ANY GARGABE. It is toxic to the sea and will kill the beautiful creatures in the sea. For your information, turtles and dolphins that accidentally eat plastic or garbage bags thrown into the sea, will CHOKE AND DIE!! >>

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I learned something new today about hermit crabs :)

Very well written, Vere. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Anonymous said...

Hey there!
The facts are well presented. I hope to read more good stuff soon!

cheers!
from your friendly neighbourhood ga zhua!

angiefm said...

I enjoyed reading your post on Hermit Crabs and went to do a search on Decapod Crustaceans after that. :) Thanks for inspiring me to continue being a student of God's creation!

Aunty Angie

Joe Lai said...

Dearest Vere,

I am so proud of you! With your new and wonderful blog Naturalsea, you are reaching out and sharing your exciting experiences with others. You are both a good learner and a teacher - all rolled into one young and happy writer! : ) I am also very happy you are imploring people not to throw garbage into the sea.

Garbage is certainly harmful to animal life. In fact, each of us (children and adults) can play our part in reducing harmful garbage ending up in the sea by cutting down on our own usage of plastic bags and styrofoam containers in our daily lives. This would great help the sea and its animals such as sea-turtles and dolphins.

Thanks for your wonderful writing, Vere. Keep writing and keep smiling! I am going to share your interesting story with my friends this very instance! : )

Ria Tan said...

What a fantastic entry! I learnt so much from this. And yes, we can do our part to protect our shores.

And that's a great poll you have put up!

Thank you for sharing and caring!

SJ said...

Very informative. Like the way you present and share your experience, and end off with a take-home message.

Indeed a valuable lesson for many. Keep up the good work!

NIE Green Club said...

Hi Vere,

I would just to say, "Thank you for sharing and your writing is great! Keep it up and try to continue to share your findings and thoughts with us."

=)

Cheers,
July

Anonymous said...

Hi Vere, Yasmin here. I loved reading what you wrote, and the way you wrote about the hermit crabs. Keep it up because you are really good at describing animals and a lot of us are going to learn from all that you write :)

Joe Lai said...

Wow! Vere, i am so happy for you! You have learned alot about marine life and sharing your knowledge very generously too. Actually it is good to share because in doing so, we learn doubly more through self-verification. Therefore a good teacher is a good student and a good student a teacher! : )

I have been to the beach in Kuantan though I have forgotten the name Chempedak! Did you visit the coastal forest above the beach? I found pill-millipedes there! They were big - the size of our normal fishballs when they roll themselves up for self-defence.

Keep up the great writing, Vere!

Uncle Joe

Anonymous said...

U r a stupid boy. I hope my comment has left u scarred for the rest of ur life. Wat u say about hermit crabs is nonsense and i think u r the very incarnation of idiocy. U make me terribly sick. PLS kill urself so that this world does not have to bear ur stupidity anymore. Thank u. I sincerely hope ur blog fails terribly n people start hating u. Hv a good day....

Anonymous said...

This most likely would have been more insulting if you had spelled everything out... u is not a word and neither id PLS stupid person X/