Walking inside Alderwood Mall, trying to avoid delicious-smelling Cinnabons, an odd kiosk caught my eye.
Why was there a big sandbox in front of the pretzel shop?
Who was selling colored rocks?
I knew about the pet rock craze that swept the nation in the mid-1970s. For those who weren’t around then, someone thought up the idea of selling rocks as pets, and folks went crazy for the concept. I thought maybe someone was trying to duplicate that phenomenon.
But sticking my face into the sand pit, my goodness, one of the rocks was walking.
Someone was selling hermit crabs.
Some were as big as a chicken egg and hid in the sand under hand-painted shells, got a bit of water from the top of a sea sponge or ambled slowly around the sand like octogenarian golfers. Land hermit crabs do not live in water.
For $20, you can have a hermit crab in your living room. The full setup will cost closer to $50, because you’ll need a large plastic aquarium, a just-right wading pool and commercial food.
Unlike pet rocks, crabs have their own personalities and like to live with buddy crabs. And this isn’t a fad. A land crab might live to be 15 years old. So don’t buy on a whim.
Crab Island owner Jamal Chowdhary, 32, of Lynnwood used to sell compact disc cases, remote-controlled cars and video games. Now he has hermit crab kiosks, and in other malls, too.
“It’s a very interesting pet,” Chowdhary said. “They’re mellow.”
You can purchase food in a jar that looks like seasoning salt, and give them popcorn, peanut butter, lettuce or fruit. The crucial thing is water quality. You can buy a rocklike dish, just the right depth, so the crab can crawl in for a bath. You also put in a sea sponge that keeps the water level correct. The crabs don’t like to swim, so the water must be shallow.
On the bottom of the aquarium, they need sand. Chowdhary said crabs kept only in small aquariums get stressed out. And you can take your crab for walks on the front lawn, but keep an eye on it.
Keep different shells on hand. Hermit crabs don’t have their own shells but use other critters’. They want a new shell after they molt, or just for variety. It’s comforting to know they don’t transmit diseases. You won’t have to take your crab to the vet or get vaccinations.
Hermit crabs like short baths in cool water. Never pull them out of their shell, or they will die. The crabs do require daily care and a loving hand.
Chowdhary, who came to the United States from Bangladesh in 1996, said he gets his stock from Florida or California, where the crabs are imported from Indonesia and the Philippines. The shells are hand-painted overseas and are nontoxic.
Crab Island manager Cheri Licata, 18, has adopted five of the little critters. Her crabs at home are named Buster, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie.
“They are social animals,” Licata said. “They are more active with more than one.”
For more information about tree or land crabs, go to http://fmrpets.com.
Beware, the purple claws do pinch. And hermit crabs poop. Teensy, sesame-seed-sized black dots in the sand are crab droppings, which you have to clean up.
It’s my job to fully disclose what you might run into at the mall.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
A land hermit crab crawls over some of its buddies during a tour of its enclosure.
Jamal Chowdhary holds a hermit crab outside his kiosk at Alderwood Mall.
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