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.
That's similar to how it works in Singapore, where housing is fully public
Just build more housing lol.
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.
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.
A web service could handle this neatly. You could commit to being ready for a match within the next 2 weeks. If the server can find a way to move any number of people between equivalent apartments, everyone gets notified and confirms receipt.
They kill/eat their dead, weak and handicapped as well. Heard they also get half off fries at Wendy's too no cap..Sounds pretty sweet op
Humans could have this too if enough of us just started doing it
I think I'd be more like swapping different sized body armor, but I feel the sentiment;)
This video was amazing- and sad. I love it.
Felt sad for that last crab who ended with a shell worse than the original :(
Wow didn't expect them to actually make a queue
They're all trying to move up one shell size, so they position themselves as close to the shell they want as possible. If they weren't in order, the chance they'd end up shell-less increases dramatically
There oughta be a law!
Also one can help them in this process:
https://www.hermitcrabanswers.com/finding-shells-for-hermit-crabs/
I saw a post a few weeks back about a guy who found replacement shells for hermit crabs that had adopted bottle caps and other plastic trash. Truly superheroic!
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.
Also, sometimes you just want a tight fit house to show what you got.
Yes, that's a better analogy.
Actually swapping house like a hermit crab swap shell would leave very little time to move furniture, put some fresh paint on walls, have the owner review the house to return the security deposit, etc
Pretty sure hermit crabs (like most animals) aren't renting. The previous owner of that shell has abandoned it, so they'd be squatters or, lacking any concept of private property, simply inhabitants. Point is they wouldn't need any owner to return security deposits they never made.
Moving furniture and personal belongings is a good point though, they don't have any of that. Most houses aren't too mobile either. Clothes just fit better.
socialist crabs.
"To each his own needs."
I've heard that somewhere before.
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.
B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but tHiNk Of AlL tHe LoSt ShArEhOlDeR vAlUe ThO!?
Seriously though, if crabs used currency this would never happen. There would be one crab with all the shells and the other crabs would have to bring food offerings or whatever their currency would be in order to get one.
Mr. Krabs
Shellholder value
Surprisingly they don't have that much of the market.
I counted the word "institutional" used almost once per sentence. There were a couple of sentences that didn't use it, but there was at least one sentence that used it twice. Plus all the figures and captions for them too.
Though despite being not "institutional", the market seems to have behaved a little as if it were, due to use of software to fix prices at what the landlords believed that the market would bear. So still price gouging, regardless of whether done by individuals or giant mega-corporations.
Though still a good point that the article makes.
An animal named a hermit crab has better social relationships than humans I'm so pissed.
as a hermit human i can confirm: less human interaction = more mental health
Setup a commune, escape the system, free yourselves
This makes the plot of Another Crab's Treasure even zanier. (It's about a hermit crab whose shell is repossessed by the local king)
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.
You know I've never quite bought the hermit crab shells = houses analogy. They seem much more analogous to armor.
I'm so pissed hermit crabs have a better fashion market than we do
In Australia we lose about six months wages to 'stamp duty' if we move. Better to stick with the oversized shell.
Can you explain for an American?
It's a tax on buying a house.
Stamp duty makes it sound like it's what happened to them because they didn't kick the brits out over the stamp act.
Not fully as I don't really understand it.
https://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/taxes-duties-levies-royalties/transfer-duty
The calculator on that page says I would owe them $17k if I purchase a $500k property.
wat
It's pretty sweet ngl.
If you found a house that was too expensive and tried camping outside it with your average wage in sharpie on a cardboard sign, nobody else would join in and reveal their earnings so nakedly. Nor would they reveal it in an online sorting list with their current house listed beside it..
Besides, you'd likely object to moving to their previous humble residence in Alberta where the older couple earned the retirement that affords them this house.
