Hermit Crab Races

[Foxydiva3]

One Of my Face book friends took a trip to Ohio this past month and on her journey ended up in a bar where they I guess Race Hermit Crabs. She had no idea of my love for the crabs other than that I have them and said she had some pics of the ones she saw. I don't know much about the hole racing thing just of what I see in the pics and what she told me. First they were all in Painted Shells. This older man brought them to the bar in a large tote. He Then puts them in a bowl and you can touch the one you want to race. After that you can't touch them. So I guess you just pay to race them but don't get to keep them or maybe this is just at this bar. So my thing is, Has anyone heard of this? Is this going to become common? They actually were betting on them like horses. I just am a little disturbed its bad enough they get ripped from the beach forced into painted shells, into small cages and most of the time with owners who know nothing about how to keep them. I told my friend about how they get them in those shells and how awful some conditions they are placed in and she said I ruined her whole experience of her crab racing. But I told her she didn't know and now she is better informed. Scared this will become popular >[

[Wai]

Races are lame. I don't think hermit crabs can be tamed into racing each other due to competitive purposes, although they will run away to the place where there are less people.

[CrabbyJo]

Unfortunately Hermit Crab racing is quite common and has been going on for quite some time. If you set your Google account to monitor for the term "hermit crab", each day Google will send you an email listing all the new listings that day that contain the words "hermit crab".
In the summer months you will find many articles that talk about fun festivals in states that have beaches and the hermit crab races that are part of the festivities.
I believe that at some of these they harvest them from the beach and set them free again afterwards but that's just an inference I made from a few of the articles I read.

[ladybug15057]

There was a alert that came through today. Seems Australia also has hermie races?
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en ... /tpod.html

Not sure why, but I was sort of under the impression this was something done in the U.S.

[Wai]

Yeah, hermit crab races exist here too, but since I don't go to pubs, I've never seen them before.

[Amy00]

that is terrible... Wai you mentioned about them running away to a place with less people... my question is how in the world can they even race if they feel by vibrations. wouldn't the noise of all the people getting too excited and raising the voices or shouting wouldnt that scare them? i'm a newbie so i dont understand all of their nature yet but i am learning fast.
some people are so ignorant and cruel

[emmac350]

Yes, the noise, and the vibrations of people walking around, stomping their feet, etc. would scare them - hence why they all scramble to find a place to hide, but there are no hiding places available. It would be like you suddenly found yourself in an open field with a bunch of giants screaming at you in languages you couldn't comprehend and it was so loud your ears ached but you had nowhere to run to and hide.

[Amy00]

that is really awful. they need to put a BAN on that.