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A Paludarium for a Very Unique Crayfish


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This is Gandr, a male bronze turmeric crayfish. Currently, he is coming close to 5” in length, excluding his antennae. Some of you may be familiar with him, as some of his rather interesting behavior would cause me constant worry. But, I’ve come to the conclusion after having him since this January, that it’s all just a part of who he is, his big personality. 

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He enjoys thrashing around on his side for no apparent reason, staring at walls while swaying, throwing leaves over his molts and watching them for hours at a time, running backwards with my thermometer, looking at plants, trying to work over my siphon, tapping the front of his enclosure furiously when he wants attention, and getting what I call ‘glass pets’. He is terrified of carrots and will only eat foods prepared with bottled water; he dislikes food prepared with dechlorinated tap water. 


He arrived to me pretty traumatized from shipping. I kept him in a filtered and heated quarantine bin with gravel and leaf litter as a temporary setup. It wasn’t meant to last as long as it did, but he was extremely traumatized for almost a month, and I later had a lot of complications relating to my health conditions occur. His behavior of constant swaying, thrashing sideways as if he were molting, and refusing to eat for very long periods of time resulted in me trying to seek help from many people experienced in crayfish, as well as who I had gotten him from. The conclusion was that he must have some extremely rare or undocumented disease, and it was speculated that he would die very early. However, I’m doubtful that is the case. 


Together, we worked on confidence building and limiting his stress, and socializing him to things he’d see on a pretty regular basis. Socializing him has been a work in progress, but it’s definitely been helping. He understands that one finger means that food is being prepared for him, tapping lightly four times means I’m going to add food, a thumbs up means that I am finished with what I am doing in his setup (I particularly use this for when I am done closing the lid he previously had or when I’d have to adjust something), and that the orange bucket means I am going to do a water change (I’ve helped to encourage him to go under a particular leaf just before I water change, because he used to freeze in terror and panic anytime I would try, though now he likes to be out and mess with my siphon). He also understands that when I wave to him, it’s a common interaction and not to be interpreted as a threat. I would slowly implement waving over time to help him understand that hands aren’t always scary. He likes to sway his claw at me when I wave, and I’m not sure why, but I find it adorable because it looks like he’s waving back. He then will usually come up to the front, and I will pet the glass with my finger. He often stretches himself on the glass while I do this and moves his antennas up and down and wiggles them. To help his confidence, anytime he was scared of me in the beginning, I would act scared and back up. This would encourage him to step forward and snap out of his fright; it also seemingly helped him get the idea that his territory was his own, that any deemed threats would rather flee than bother him. After a lot of daily practice, he started eating regularly, being active and even social. He even will be in the front of his enclosure to interact with me every morning when I wake up, before he goes to sleep. Sometimes we will sleep at the same time, and he will sleep in the corner by me. So far, he is a little scared about any ceramic dish ware and forks (he doesn’t mind spoons though), but we’ll eventually work on this more. The only thing I have never made progress on his very intense fear of carrots, and I decided to not continue trying because carrots aren’t a necessity to him, and he would never see them any other time. He has always been extremely afraid of carrots since the beginning. 
 

Because I will eventually have to move to a new location, I didn’t want to get him a very large aquarium yet (I would love to make a large 75-90+ gallon aquarium into a paludarium for him in the future). I got the idea one night to break down and cut away various cardboard boxes and construct a setup for him, along with using a large but shallow food grade bin for the water portion. I was doubtful this would actually work, but I was curious that if I then applied foam, sealed it with silicone, layered more silicone and then substrate, if it would work well and repel water. Somehow, this actually worked after testing multiple times throughout the process. 

I started out by washing and cutting down an old yoga mat to size. I used a pen with easily removable ink to draw around parts of the bin that stick out into the inside of the bin. I then trimmed along the lines of where I marked with the pen. The yoga mat was spray painted black, and I originally tried a setup that I disliked and then deconstructed, so you’ll later see green patches because of spots that were removed.

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Why a yoga mat, you ask. Gandr has difficulty walking on slippery surfaces, and enjoys to dig. Any spots he digs away won’t be slippery.

Next I built the area the bin would sit in out of cardboard and duck tape. I used an old light to figure out the size of box I would need to make around it. I left portions of the top open to assure the light would cool down enough, and so I could get to it easily if there were any issues. It can slide out easily though the sides as well. 

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This wasn’t the full setup, as I later connected the bottom, and tweaked the top and some of the sides. 

After that, I began cutting away leftover foam boxes and worked on building up the portion of land he would later have, along with starting to spray foam the background. I added rocks throughout doing this, but changed some of the rocks, which you’ll see in later photos.


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Edited by Sapere_Ceta
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I started to create shelving, using boards of styrofoam I cut. I was unsure of this would work well for plants, but continued until I could see if that was the best option. 


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I then realized that I was a complete goof, because it was then apparent to me that this wouldn’t work, and that I was going to use extra plastic pots I had in the first place to make these. So I cut them away and started to add pots instead. 


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Here you can also see that I started to carve away foam on the left side. I’ve found that Loctite spray foam works significantly better than Great Stuff Spray foam, expansion and carving wise.

I would have to wait hours to a day or more for drying in between foaming. I at first filled in the back completely with Great Stuff spray foam, ran out, and then swapped to Loctite spray foam, after it all dried. I covered all of the pots and the remaining back areas that were exposed. 

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While doing this, I was changing rocks for other ones. I waited a while until the spray foam expanded well, but was still tacky enough to add the rocks. Then I would add more spray foam over it, to seal it all into place. 
 

Once the foam dried, I started carving out the back. But, I then realized I didn’t wait long enough, as some pockets of foam weren’t dry. You can also see some of the back exposed, that eventually was sealed and a pot was going to be placed there.

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So, I would have to periodically wait for some areas to dry, and later get back to them. But it  really began to take shape at this point.

Once I fully carved everything out, I started placing rocks down in the underwater portion  to figure out where they would go. 

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After settling on a look I enjoyed, I spray foamed them into place. This is them expanding, being pretty close to dry and this point. 

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I carved that foam as well, and then I spray painted all of the pots, rock, yoga mat, and the walls of the underwater portion black.

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I waited a couple of days after the spray paint dried until any sticky residue was gone, as well as the smell, before putting the setup on its back. It scared me a little, but it all held up. I was genuinely surprised that a cardboard and duck tape base came out so strong. Afterwards, I added a layer of silicone. Let it dry, and then I added another layer with substrate added on top. I would add a large amount and continue to pat it into place, this way it all stuck well. 


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I didn’t know how fast it would dry, so I went in sections. 

I vacuumed out the first section I did, in order to see the spots I missed and how it all held up. It ended up working out really well.

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I realized I could get away with doing larger sections, so I started to really work on as much as I could each time between drying and vacuuming them out. 


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The was the final layer before fully vacuuming it all out. 

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This was after the final vacuuming, and then it was ready for the underwater portion to be worked on. 

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I added a large internal filter into the back. Crayfish are very messy, somewhat reminiscent of turtles. Personally, I’ve found this to not be a problem at all. He’s always been simple to care for, though I will say that he can be pretty messy. He will likely get to around 8”, but I’ll be ready to tackle the mess haha. I enjoy this filter because the current is great, but never overly strong. I also enjoy that it has the ability to add bubbles for added oxygenation. Although crayfish can do well in low oxygenated environments, I didn’t want to limit him to that, when I could easily just upgrade to a nice filter with that bonus. He likely would destroy sponge filters, so this was a better option for me. 


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I did have to remove a rock, but I had no issue with doing so.

After I got the filter situated, I added silicone to areas where the foam around the rocks were exposed, and I carried that down onto some of the yoga mat, for a smooth transition. Once applied, I added sand and patted it into place. I waited for it to fully dry, and added sand all across the bottom. I have a rock somewhat blockading the intake of the filter, but allowing easy access for debris, so that way the sand is unable to get into the intake, even if Gandr tries to dig or when he thrashed around. 

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Edited by Sapere_Ceta
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I drilled holes into the land portion above the filter, and then into the back of the enclosure. When the holes were drilled, I cut them out to allow the ends of the cords and tubing to fit. I strung them all through and attached them to one another so the aeration part of the filter would work properly, while looking less noticeable.


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I then cleaned up any excess foam and cut pieces of mesh to fill in the gaps. The mesh was then siliconed into place, and then another layer of silicone with substrate was added over it. 


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I waited for plants to arrive in the meantime. When they did, I of course inspected them for any pests or issues. I went ahead and removed all of the soil, washed them off (I rubbed the roots, leaves, and stems off too in the process, made sure to get into the crevices of the plant as well), soaked them for 15 minutes in warm dechlorinated water, shook and dried away any excess water after the soaking, and went ahead with planting them. 

I separated staples apart from each other and used that to attach the vines and mosses until they take hold. The mosses have sphagnum moss behind them for added moisture retention. The bromeliads are double-wired into place with sphagnum moss around the base of the plant.
 

This was after the initial planting, but I did adjust it a small amount. 


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I drained down Gandr’s temporary setup by 75%. I took out the heater and filter, knowing I’d be able to move this enclosure into place and get it set up pretty quickly. 

I had to move Gandr’s setup to a table tray, which was a little scary for him. But he got to watch me struggle to pick up and move this big thing into place behind the couch to where his old setup was sitting, which he seemed thoroughly entertained by. 
I swapped the lighting afterwards to my old 48” Finnex light I had leftover from one of my old 50 gallon tanks years ago. I slid this into place, and it sits on both this setup and my empty 20 gallon high aquarium next to it. I plan on programming it eventually, and dropping the 24/7 mode when I decide to someday work on the 20 gallon high. 

I added the heater, and strung the cord inside the above portion where the light is, wired it into place so it didn’t obstruct the view, and pulled the cord out of the slot the light fixture fits into. I then filled up and dechlorinated the underwater portion of the enclosure, and I scooped out any excess substrate floating around. A little does fall from time to time in places I missed fully vacuuming in. But, it’s barely any and only happened once so far. I turned both the heater and the filter on, though I already temperature matched the water precious to this, and added a bottle of beneficial bacteria. 

I also added giant duckweed, though I don’t think it will hold up with the current, but it seems to have found the low flow spots, and seems to be pretty good. 

When all was set, I added him in. He didn’t appreciate being picked up very much, but was pretty calm about it. I placed him into the water slowly, and let him go when he was ready. The filter caught him off guard, and he was very dramatic about it, thrashing around and worrying me. But less than a minute later, he was perfectly fine and casually walking around and exploring, even in the areas with more current. Haha, what a drama Queen. 

There are two hidden caves behind the rocks sticking out on the left side, the furthest one to the left has a large cave I can easily fit my hand into and still have room, while the other is more tight fitting, in case he prefers that more. He chose the largest cave, and has been there often, but he’ll come out from time to time to explore. 
It was around 4am when the enclosure was finished, hence the lighting.

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I went to sleep and woke up a few hours later to find Gandr decided that walking across the carpet, going into the hallway and getting covered in lint, and trying to walk into my mom’s room was much cooler than this setup. 
I approached him, and he was completely fine, walking around and still trying to explore, even when he saw me. I picked him up gently, cleaned him off, and placed him back. He has been a little escape artist twice before, but I didn’t imagine he would do it only a few hours after placing him in the setup. 
So I will have to work on a temporary barrier or some type of screen tonight so I can sleep without him going on a wild journey. 
 

He still hasn’t figured out he has a land portion yet, but he’ll get there.
This was the setup in the early afternoon:

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And this was a few hours after, with a light watering and a misting: 

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I also photographed a bromeliad I thought looked really cool, when it was misted.

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25 minutes ago, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I love that he immediately (almost) escaped. It's like buying a toy for a "insert any animal here" and they're more interested in the box. 

I don't know what *he* thinks but his new digs are AWESOME!

Right?! It was so funny! 

Haha, thanks! I am really happy with it. I’m hoping he will like it as time goes on and he adjusts. I’d love to wake up someday and see him on the land portion, finding a little cozy spot to sit on. lol.

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Wow!!! I had no idea you could do all that with foam! I mean I did watch the behind the scenes videos about the Lord of the Rings movies so I knew you could do cool stuff... 😄 but I didn’t realize you could get all that stuff and do it at home!!

Gandr is lucky to have you. You’re so attentive to his emotions. I love that you would back up if he seemed scared—it not only showed respect for his territory, but it may have also given him confidence that you were paying attention to how he felt and respecting that. And you helped him find safety in routine. What an amazingly intelligent creature! You’re obviously the perfect mom for him. I wonder what he went through before you got him that made him so scared. ❤️ Especially of carrots. 😂

I’m excited for him to discover his land area! Is this his full time enclosure now, or does he still spend time in his tank?

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22 hours ago, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

With the exception of just going for a walk about (which is slightly counter-intuitive to such a shy animal- act? maybe, our pets play us I'm convinced) he will be slower to adjust to his new digs if history has taught you anything. Has he gone down the hall before??

I’m thinking it will take a while, he gets stressed out easily. 
Nope! First time. He originally only stayed in the living room. This time, he wandered through the dining room, turned the corner, and ended up in the hallway. My mom caught him trying to get into her room, and we both observed him for a moment, with him noticing us, and he still wanted to walk around 😂

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20 hours ago, Hobbit said:

Wow!!! I had no idea you could do all that with foam! I mean I did watch the behind the scenes videos about the Lord of the Rings movies so I knew you could do cool stuff... 😄 but I didn’t realize you could get all that stuff and do it at home!!

Gandr is lucky to have you. You’re so attentive to his emotions. I love that you would back up if he seemed scared—it not only showed respect for his territory, but it may have also given him confidence that you were paying attention to how he felt and respecting that. And you helped him find safety in routine. What an amazingly intelligent creature! You’re obviously the perfect mom for him. I wonder what he went through before you got him that made him so scared. ❤️ Especially of carrots. 😂

I’m excited for him to discover his land area! Is this his full time enclosure now, or does he still spend time in his tank?

Yeah! It can be awesome to use! Very affordable too! The setup, minus the plants and filter was a total of $23 to make. I’ve always found foam to be so awesome, with the various types, you can make cosplays, props, scenery, and so on. 

Awh, thanks! I didn’t know if it would work, but I remembered that crayfish in the wild scoot back if they’re not wanting to fight, so I thought it would be worth a try. When my cat was alive, she was semi-feral and very high drive, so playing often wasn’t enough, and I thought training would be worth a try. In the end, she knew 26-30+ commands that I taught her in a few languages: English, some French, and the dragon language from Skyrim (my favorite game) just for laughs. It helped me practice training for a service dog prospect, which I’m hoping I will be able to have within the next year. Routines and socializing can make such a difference in behavior that we’d consider unhealthy. I was reading about crayfish brains, and they share the same chemicals that cause anxiety as humans. Even medications for humans lowered the seemingly anxious behavior. So, I tried to think of methods to reduce anxiety triggers and responses that could potentially work, and mixed that in with how crayfish behave. 

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20 hours ago, Hobbit said:

 I wonder what he went through before you got him that made him so scared. ❤️

 

 

I’m excited for him to discover his land area! Is this his full time enclosure now, or does he still spend time in his tank?

It’s really strange.The carrots had me surprised haha. I tried to feed him them, the same way I feed all of the foods, but he panics when he sees them and refuses to move, no matter how long. So I tried reducing the size of the carrot shred, later on when I’d add them in to see if I could improve his fear. But I’ve never made progress on it and decided it wasn’t worth it to continue, since it’s not a daily necessity and he’d never see carrots again outside of adding them in for him to eat.

Me too! This is his full time enclosure for now. It’s larger than my 20 gallon in walking space, and about 2.5-3 times larger than the bin he was in. It should allow him space when he grows a little more. In the future, when I move, I’d love to turn a 75-90+ gallon aquarium into a paludarium for him in the future. 

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I added a temporary screen last night before going to sleep. The top is cable tied, but the bottom has bendable plant weights to secure it when I can’t always be observant. I can also take them off when I don’t want to obstruct the view. 

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He was pouting the entire day about it after immediately inspecting them last night. I didn’t see him the entire day, and ran around the house, worried, with a flashlight in case he escaped haha. I finally decided to stick my finger in the cave he’s usually in, and felt a tiny little pinch, so I backed away and let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to bother him, but I wanted to make sure he was okay. It was nice to know the screen worked as well. 

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Amazing! I’ve taught my cat eight tricks and have considered getting her buttons for communicating with me, but I don’t want to make her more frustrated when I don’t do what she wants.

Aww you’ll probably be able to teach your service dog “find Gandr!” Could be helpful and entertaining. As long as the dog doesn’t try to bring Gandr to you.

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On 4/18/2021 at 8:06 PM, Hobbit said:

Amazing! I’ve taught my cat eight tricks and have considered getting her buttons for communicating with me, but I don’t want to make her more frustrated when I don’t do what she wants.

Aww you’ll probably be able to teach your service dog “find Gandr!” Could be helpful and entertaining. As long as the dog doesn’t try to bring Gandr to you.

That’s awesome!! That’s definitely understandable. I felt that way with certain parts of training I decided to skip out on with my cat. I didn’t want to add to frustration haha. Lol! Cats are wonderful like that, adorably selfish almost.

That would be hilariously awesome, haha. I couldn’t imagine the chaos, Gandr pinching the service dog and hanging on for dear life, the service dog running around in a panic near me, trying to bring him over at the same time, oh my! 😅

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On 4/19/2021 at 10:58 PM, Isaac M said:

@Sapere_Ceta Absolutely amazing! I love this build and how much effort you put into caring for your pets. Thank you so much for the inspiration and sharing your experience with us! 

Awh, thank you! I really appreciate that! It’s really nice having a platform to share on, especially one with such kind people on it. 🤗

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On 4/18/2021 at 12:18 AM, Hobbit said:

Wow!!! I had no idea you could do all that with foam! I mean I did watch the behind the scenes videos about the Lord of the Rings movies so I knew you could do cool stuff... 😄 but I didn’t realize you could get all that stuff and do it at home!!

My dad worked on the cleanup crew for the movie Armageddon. The asteroid surface scene was shot on a soundstage at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. They dug down about 2 or 3 stories below ground level for the set. All of the spikey asteroid rock bits were just shaped and painted foam! I got to walk around the set after they finished filming one day. My dad also snagged the mission patches off of some of the uniforms in the film, not sure where they are now unfortunately.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/28/2021 at 5:35 AM, Maggie said:

Is Gandr the one who had the problem molting his claw, and is it okay now? The setup looks great!

He did have a lot of strange behavior that seemed like molting (he goes on his side or on his back and wiggles a lot, but the behavior has definitely decreased. It does occur from time to time still, seemingly in small fazes, where it will be much more prominent and suddenly stop occurring). He hasn’t seemed to have any molting issues thus far (he has his first molt a few months ago, successfully thankfully). Thanks! I appreciate it! 

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It took over a month for Gandr to seemingly fully settle into his new setup. It took a long time to get him to eat, and I have added leaves in over time to help encourage him out. 

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He’s taken all of these, so I have added plenty more over time. He really enjoys his leaves, and grabs them and has constructed a large leaf fort with them. It’s disrupted the filter’s flow, but I don’t want to fiddle with it, unless it seems like it might cause problems. 

The past few days have been a major leap for him! 

The past week, he began coming out and would interact with me, for up to two hours even. I also have been showing him that my hands above him are the same as those in front of him, so I’ve been repeating small sessions of the same hand signals to him from both angles, which seems to have helped a great deal. 
I had a few gnats discover his setup, and made the mistake of following a honey trap tutorial to try and catch them. It shifted during the time I was sleeping, and leaked honey all over. It was a mess! I was panicking a bit, as it started dripping into the water, and Gandr decided to try and fight it. I was worried it would stick to him (luckily didn’t!). He “fought” bravely, while I was panicking and cleaning it up as quickly as I could, until it was all done dripping. There’s a few areas with residual honey, but all is well. 

When we interact, it’s often “waving” back and forth. He’ll also put his claw up to the glass and hold it there, so I’ll put my finger to it. He usually stretches up and wiggles his little legs and small antenna, and I’ll give him glass pettings. There were times, where we would interact for a long time, and I would get tired. The one time, I got up to shut the light off, as I wanted to go to bed. He was waiting by the front, and I was slowly limiting our interaction up until this point (as I was hoping he would go and wander, so I could turn back around and sleep). He quickly turned to face me, on my way to laying back down on the couch, and he did the cutest little wave with his claw. I waved back, and he walked up and stood up on the plastic, wiggling his legs and antennas as usual, so I gave him a final set of glass pettings before using my goodbye wave signal. Then, he went to walk around.  

Yesterday, he finally discovered the land portion, and laid on the Moss for a short time before diving himself clumsily back into the water. He always is such a klutz, haha. He manages to always fall on his back, but seems to be indifferent about it. I got a video of him taking his “first steps” on land too. Here is a photo of him resting on the Moss:

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His face was covered in bubbles, lol! 
 

Shortly thereafter, he tried to make an escape from the front. I was worried he’d fall, so I held my hand in the front, while he was trying.  He was then trying to use my hand to stabilize himself enough to pull himself out of his enclosure further. I was curious enough to see what would occur if I would try to use my other hand to stabilize the back portion of his body, so I showed him my other hand and slowly moved it under him. He was a tiny bit spooked, so I stopped and waited to see if I should move my hand out from under him and stop. But, he then continued on, and so we got to the point where I could lift him gently out. I placed him on the couch, while I sat on the floor to monitor from a lower point. All was going well, until he managed to stumble and fall between a pillow. I quickly got him, which spooked both him and I. I moved the pillows, and he then relaxed and walked around the couch. I didn’t realize how many spots he could fall in, so I decided to put him back, as I was really worried and didn’t want to risk any harm to him. He was indifferent about the experience it seemed, as he didn’t hide afterwards, and tried to escape the same way two more times shortly thereafter haha. 

The second time, I didn’t help. But the third time, I decided to set up blankets and make a safe area he could walk on, without any risk of falling or getting stuck. After, I offered my hand to the front, and he used it to pull himself up, and then I introduced my other hand and lifted his lower body up very gradually. This is when he started his third escape:


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I gently placed him down, and laid back. I tried to move my hands out of the way,  and observe for any signs of stress. He then caught me completely off guard. He started waving his tiny little legs and antennas, and so I started doing a tiny little wave and said hello pretty quietly (not that I’m expecting any reply, haha). He originally on a black and white blanket further away from me, but walked over and down to my right hand, tapped it with his antennas and claws, and then cozied up right by it on a portion of the blanket. He started making little quiet noises, almost like a bubbly clicking. It was so cool! I took a quick photo of him too: 

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I also would like to mention that the white dots seem to be possibly healed injuries from the times he’s been clumsy, which happens a lot. 

We sat like this for a long time, and then he decided to get up and was tapping me with his antennas. He started walking all over my arm too. I at first thought he might have wanted to go back to his enclosure behind us, so I put my hand out and he walked on it, and I held my hand near the land portion of his enclosure. But he stopped and didn’t get off. I waited, and reluctantly brought him back, where he slowly got off and started wandering again. He was clumsily dragging himself across the blankets (I feel safer with the blankets, as a hard surface would probably cause friction to his body). He found a spot on the blanket, near my feet and hung out there for the remaining time. At around 3am, I was tired and decided to gently get him and place him back. I placed him on the land portion, and he then clumsily fell into the water shortly there after.. rather than using the sloped rocks to walk down haha. He was walking around and watched me put his screen down, so he couldn’t try to escape while I was sleeping. It was an interesting experience for sure, and I would prefer to keep this as a rare occurrence, if he does try to do this again. 

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