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-   -   Worst Thing (https://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1267262)

kar93 12/08/2007 04:29 PM

Worst Thing
 
This is one of the worst things i have ever seen, i found this vid on youtube:

[url]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb_N5oYhGGY[/url]

:mad2: :mad2:

JHemdal 12/08/2007 07:41 PM

Kane,

Sure - beach wrack is terrible, lots of garbage, but in some environments, the lack of empty gastropod shells means that some land hermits go "unprotected". Better that it found this bit of trash to carry around than to be eaten by a bird don't you think? I did a science fair experiment 40 years ago that offered fake shells to aquatic hermits. I was amazed at what they would "try on for size".

JHemdal

steven_dean17 12/08/2007 09:32 PM

That's a bad thing, but I don't suppose it's the worst. Don't get me wrong, that does suck!

jsrtist 12/08/2007 10:04 PM

There is, unfortunately, nothing unusual about that video. Land hermits will use anything they can find, including natural items like coconut shells and bamboo. They will also use old broken gastropod shells that are barely recognizable.

I have friends (in the hermit crab world!) who have reintroduced suitable shells onto tropical beaches for the land hermits to us. I personally don't feel that there is a shortage of natural shells, but there certainly is no shortage of trash on beaches, especially plastic, and hermits will use what they need to!

kar93 12/09/2007 06:28 AM

I do agree its better they go protected but id rather see them using something else as shelter

syrinx 12/09/2007 01:58 PM

One of the best things I have ever seen. What you people are against recycling? Would you rather he killed some snail for the shell like they do in our tanks all the time? Man is no lessor part of nature than any other organism- his cast off bottle is the same as a cast off shell. Obviously I am not in favor of pollution, but in this case it is not pollution- its home.

RumLad 12/11/2007 03:55 PM

What's worse, the bottle as a shell, or being chased across the beach by that 6 foot giant?

Scared the bajeezus out of the little guy.

kar93 12/11/2007 04:02 PM

Its not the WORST thing but i have seen alot of things beter

nmywrx 12/12/2007 09:18 PM

It just goes to show that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

I think it's hilarious. :lol:

Rosseau 12/12/2007 09:18 PM

It's an interesting thing. It is also a sad thing in some ways.

Though I would almost say it could be a positive.

I hope more species are able to adapt to human influence. We're a major environmental force and adaptation for many animals is critical!



If you dig into the pollution statistics bottles laying around the ocean are the least of our concerns. Same goes for oil spills. Though they are very visually striking and can have insant localized effects the total contributions to oceanic pollution of oil spills and to some extent physical garbage is minimal.

virginiadiver69 12/13/2007 10:31 PM

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11363014#post11363014 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 07kar93 [/i]
[B]Its not the WORST thing but i have seen alot of things beter [/B][/QUOTE]
:confused: UMMM..."WORST thing" is the name of your thread. :lol:

kar93 12/14/2007 03:45 PM

Well you know, to catch your attention

Fischer's Angel 01/05/2008 02:37 PM

I think it just shows the adaptability of nature - the crab had a shell previous to moving into the bottle - it just found the bottle more roomy and decided to use it.
Hermit crabs do not "Automatically" grow larger over time - even after shedding they can remain the same size for a very long time, until a suitable larger shell becomes available,or in this case bottle.
Had the crab not found the bottle to his liking, he would simply have remained at the same size and kept his old shell.

billsreef 01/05/2008 11:09 PM

Nope, they really do keep growing. I've seen plenty that are obviously long overdue for a new shell, yet they kept on growing without moving into that newer and bigger shell ;)

Fischer's Angel 01/05/2008 11:41 PM

No kidding? They do keep growing even without changing out shells? I never realized that, as they didn't SEEM bigger to me, but then I didn't exactly measure them with a caliper or anything, just kind of eyeballed it, ya know?
I guess we all learn something new everyday! Anyway, the point of my post was that I think it's amazing how adaptable nature is - in the absence of natural shells, the animal found a "suitable" substitute to it's liking in the bottle.:)

billsreef 01/06/2008 11:46 AM

The growth is slow, so we really don't notice such things in our aquaria, especially with small species we keep in our reefs. It more noticeable with the large species. I've seen it quite often in wild. Seems they sometimes get "attached" to a favorite shell and don't won't to move out till long past the time they should have, pretty darn funny looking too :lol: Kind of like the one that decided a bottle made a good home :D

BTW, a few months ago I picked up a bottle covered with jingle shells (a species of bivalve), and two different limpet species. I used it for a touch tank specimen and it got more interest than anything else from both kids and adults. Just to the amazement of what nature adapted too ;)

rwbogard 01/11/2008 01:47 PM

It's pretty amazing the power humans have to both destroy and create habitats. It would be pretty sweet if we could maybe spend a bit more time creating them though...


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