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They also duke it out if two crabs want the same shell. I recall one video where two crabs were goin round the outside when a third one just moves into the shell. Hilarious at scale, but I bet the first two were pissed. Good thing they weren’t pistol shrimp.
Seems more analogous to clothes than housing — clothes can be “too big” in the sense that the extra size is detrimental to the function, which is somewhat different from houses.
And it’s pretty common to have buy-nothing groups in cities or even at large companies. Got a loooot of hand-me-down clothes for my toddler from friends, family, and randos in the neighborhood.
Yes and no. I’m sure there is an argument to be made that a house can be too big. Bigger houses require more maintenance, cleaning, higher taxes. Downsizing a house is also a retirement strategy.
An animal named a hermit crab has better social relationships than humans I’m so pissed.
socialist crabs.
The Soviets had an “apartment swap” system for people who wanted to move around filled-to-capacity neighborhoods. You would get on the list with where you currently lived and put in where you wanted to move and would get informed when there was a match. Sometimes matches would be arranged in triangles or other more complex shapes, but since everybody involved needed to get on the same page this was rare. The wait to move depended on how lucky you were - sometimes you’d get a match right away, sometimes you’d forget about it until ten years later when you would get a letter asking if you were still interested.
This was all in the 60s and 70s when things were generally more chill.
In Australia we lose about six months wages to ‘stamp duty’ if we move. Better to stick with the oversized shell.
Iirc there can be a mad scramble. If two try for the same shell, one loses out and their previous shell may be taken. So they’re fucked.
I wonder how they communicate. There must be a signal that says, “I’m moving out. Line up!”
IIRC it’s by doin’ a little crabby dance whenever they see other hermit crabs scuttling by until one that’s also looking for a new shell spots them and the hermit crab swap meet begins forming.
It’s pretty sweet ngl.
Got to witness crabs doing this when going for a walk one day. There was a very shallow pool on the beach, about a foot wide, and about 20 crabs having a ‘swap meet’, scurrying back and fourth between the different shells.
Humans could have this too if enough of us just started doing it
That’s similar to how it works in Singapore, where housing is fully public
Just build more housing lol.
I think I’d be more like swapping different sized body armor, but I feel the sentiment;)
