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The setup I have for my own hermit crabs is dramatically different from what the original owners had. The original owners kept two hermit crabs in a small beta tank, where the substrate was a blue gravel, something that passionate crab owners would regard as abusive, because a crab's legs can become stuck and break off when they walk on it. The space was not only filled with the wrong kind of substrate, but also, most of the area in the bottom of the pen was covered by the coconut hut the crabs hid in during the day, and a food dish containing fish flakes (fine for fish scales, but not for an exoskeleton), and a water dish containing hard, chlorinated water with a mildew-filled sponge. There was absolutely no room for the crabs to walk around, the water could slowly hurt them by causing blisters to form on their gills, and also, the sponge was an illness waiting to happen with that black mildew stuff in it.

All of these conditions were shockingly bad for the crabs, who were suffering from malnutrition, based on the way their exoskeletons had faded to an ugly, dull grey color, and one crab had the tips on two of his legs broken off. I never directly said anything to the kids who kept the crabs, but truly and honestly, I considered it lucky for the crabs I got them, because they wouldn't have lived much longer, the way things were going.

The conditions I gave the crabs when I got them, I put them in an open pen I created from a cement mixing pan, which is about two feet in length, one-and-a-half wide, and I put a wooden box around the pan to make it look a little more decorative. Normally, the recommended cage for these crabs is a large glass aquarium that can trap humidity, but because I have sensitive plants that need high humidity all over my room, I have a humidifier going, which allows me to give the crabs an open cage. A hermit crab, despite living on land, still uses gills to breathe, so very high humidity is needed to keep them from suffocating.

Also, the substrate, I use high-quality silica play sand that I got at Lowe's, and it's about an inch thick in most places, but there's a few spots where it's a lot thicker. This is so the crabs can walk around and dig as much as they please. There's also stuff to climb over, spare shells in case they want to change into a new one, and a large open area for them to sprint through. They have a food dish that I fill with fresh vegetables, fruit, and occasionally pieces of meat, and there's a new water dish with a brand-new sponge that I monitor to make sure no mildew forms on it. All of our water is reverse-osmosis, so it contains no chlorine or minerals, it's toxin-free. There is also a large reptile bathing dish, which I keep filled with a mixture of aquarium salt like what is used for fish tanks, so the crabs can bathe whenever they want. I mix this saltwater bath myself, as the stuff offered in stores contains a blue dye, and does not contain the right kind of salt. Also, many gallons of aquarium salt can be bought far cheaper than pre-done mixtures.

This in mind, soon after I got the crabs, and I do not exaggerate this point, they literally changed color overnight. Their exoskeletons turned a bright, fiery red, like a cooked lobster, in response to the new diet, and when the kids were visiting one last time before they moved away, they stared at the crab I showed them, because it looked that different visibly. Also, this crab was reputed for pinching people, and they never handled it, although it was crawling all over my hand like crazy, and had never once pinched me. None of the crabs have ever done this, as long as I've had them. A crab only pinches when it feels threatened or is sufficiently provoked. They would much rather hide in their shell than be forced to fight for any reason.

These things aside, soon after getting the crabs, I got a third so that whenever one crab had to be isolated (In case of molting or sickness), there would be two crabs, so that nobody would be lonely. The small crab I bought to go with the two I currently have proceeded to molt a week after I purchased him, and has since recovered and rejoined the group. A week ago, the largest crab I had molted, and is still recovering in the corner of the cage, as I did not isolate him before the event. The third and final crab, I suspect is showing pre-molt symptoms, but is not close enough to warrant isolation.

Molting is the greatest sign of a hermit crab being properly cared for. Naturally, hermit crabs molt every eighteen months, although tiny crabs may do this more frequently. When inadequately looked after, a hermit crab can stop molting completely, and sometimes, in bad conditions, even if they do proceed to molt, the resulting shock kills the animal.

Pet stores will tell owners a hermit crab only lives one year, but the reality is much different. In the wild, a hermit crab can live to be 30 years of age. In captivity, an entire decade is removed from this lifespan, no matter how good the owner looks after them, but regardless, a crab can be up to 20 years of age in captivity. They also do not breed readily in captivity, unless the owner almost never handles the crabs, and also provides a gigantic cage for them to roam around in.

When a pet store tells customers a hermit crab lives only a year, they are actually selectively leaving out the fact that a hermit crab can live much longer than this. The reason the hermit crabs they sell live only a year is because their products that they carry are inadequate, and the pens and setups they offer do not give crabs proper humidity or room to move around. It is also neglectful to own only one hermit crab, as these are social animals, and they can become depressed when deprived of social interaction, there must be a minimum of two crabs in every colony, or severe isolation will shorten their lifespan. Overall, there are many factors that affect how long a hermit crab will live, but in general, even for the smallest number of crabs possible, a pen with a large surface area is a must, otherwise, it will be too small for them to roam around during nocturnal periods of activity.

Well, anyway, that's my rant. Thanks for not skipping it.

I almost can't believe I'm writing a negative review for a game I have 3000 hours in and have enjoyed for the last 5 years. No longer can I join a public game whenever I wish, nor choose which map to play on. With the Meet Your Match Update as of 7/6/16, competitive play is all Valve seems to care about. I have the choice of playing in matchmaking or playing on community servers.

Matchmaking I have been supportive of for a long time. I understand there is a significant portion of the TF2 community that wants nothing more than to have a company-supported system for them to host real, competitive matches on. But, it seems to me that Valve and the Comp community don't understand they have been playing a game that is primarily silly in nature. Matchmaking as an idea is fine. It gives the hardcore players something to do aside from dealing with idiots, F2Ps, or friendlies in pub games. However, most of the pub gamers don't want anything to do with matchmaking, and now find themselves forced into 12v12 or pushed up against a paywall for true comp play.

The hardcore comp players don't care about pubs, cosmetics, friendlies, taunts, or even shiny or skinned weapons. They care about winning the game and having a good team. There's nothing wrong with that, but they are vastly outnumbered by the amount of people who play TF2 just to mess around and have fun. Yet Valve listens to the screams of the comp players and has completely ignored the needs of the community as a whole. Shockingly, this isn't the first time this has happened. Awhile back, the sticky launcher was nerfed so that players could no longer press M1 and M2 in rapid succession and do a reasonable amount of damage; they had to work for it by placing traps and playing defensively, as the sticky launcher was intended to be used. For three glorious days sticky spam was absent across all servers... and then Valve undid the nerf because the Comp community threw an absolute fit.

I was excited for this update. I wanted to see TF2 grow, but instead all I recieved is a giant middle finger from Valve in the form of removal of public games. Now it seems TF2 is "play comp or leave," and for players like me, leaving seems like a better option. Sure, I could play on community servers, but many of them are full of abusive admins, annoying plugins and addons, or weird, wacky gamemodes that just aren't vanilla TF2. It's very difficult to find a community server that is running vanilla TF2, and the selection isn't wide enough to play on all maps.

This update was the last chance. This was the update to make or break TF2, and for that 90% of the community that plays pubs for good fun, it broke it.

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The topside of her wings read "NAH MAN" and the underside say "LOL" and "ROFL" so the other tribes can see I'm laughing at them as I fly over.