My career as a shell-collector may be short-lived.

I picked up my first cowrie shell at Old Marineland a few weeks ago. It had no visible inhabitant, and when I picked it up a ton of sand came pouring out – so I assumed it was empty.

It was left to bake in the front seat of my car while I went to an afternoon lecture, and when I returned, I noticed a dried-up something sort of sticking out of one end. Definitely not a snail, it mostly resembled a piece of plant. But with tiny legs and a stringy tail-like end. Ew. I was able to pull the thing out and discard it, and the cowrie went into a bleach/water solution to get rid of any, er, remnants. After I described the critter to another shell collector, they pointed out it was most likely a hermit crab. The part of them you don’t normally get to see is kind of like a tail.

Last weekend, I picked up my second cowrie shell – also appearing empty, and dumping out sand. This one didn’t get the benefit of a sun-baking, however; it went straight into the bleach solution for a day. Then I left it on a paper towel to dry.

The next morning, it stank like dead fish. Not good.

I popped it back in the bleach, figuring I could always resort to digging around there with a paper clip or a needle to pull out whatever was inside.

After work today, I took the shell out of its bleach solution – and saw a tiny little claw hanging out. Attached to a tiny little hermit crab.

Largely deteriorated by two days of soaking in bleach.

YUCK.

A small wooden skewer came in handy for prying the little critter out, and the shell went back into the bleach for what is hopefully the last time.

But I don’t think I can stand to kill any more hermit crabs. It’s not so much the actual killing of them, as the having to look at (and touch!) their slimy little dead bodies. Bleah.