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You are here: Home / Animals / Does A Hermit Crab Live In The Same Shell Forever?

Does A Hermit Crab Live In The Same Shell Forever?

June 9, 2020 by Karen Hill

The hermit crab is famous for never being satisfied with his home and they do not live in the same shell forever.

Of course, it really isn’t his home. It is somebody else’s home that he keeps trying to move into. The hermit crab has a hard shell that protects everything but his soft stomach. For protection, he puts its stomach into an empty shell it finds on the ocean floor.

Then, whenever the crab travels, the shell goes bumping along behind it. As time passes, the little hermit crab gets bigger and must find a new, more comfortable shell for its stomach. Soon, the hermit is looking for a new home for his stomach all the time.

Wherever it goes, it looks at every shell, hoping to find it empty, but there is usually already somebody living there. Hermit crabs will fight each other for suitable shells.

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Filed Under: Animals

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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