Hermit Crabs

Hermit Crabs

Hermit Crabs
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.7

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		humidity, mobile, prickly, upside-down, commercial, fiber, definitely, personality, social, species, unique, warmth, aquarium, friendship, easily, omnivores
	content words:		Ecuadorian Crab

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Hermit Crabs
By Colleen Messina

¹     Some animals just don't live up to their names. Take hermit crabs, for example. Hermits are people who like to live alone. Hermit crabs don't like to be alone. Crabby people are not friendly. Hermit crabs are very friendly. They make excellent pets.

²     There are over five hundred species of hermit crabs around the world. Hermit crabs belong to the crustacean family. Most of them live in the water, but a few live on land. These crabs are social and live in colonies. In the wild, a hermit crab colony might have as many as 100 members.

³     Hermit crabs come from eggs. A baby hermit crab is called a zoea and is only 1/8" long. Both marine and land hermit crabs spend about one year growing into mature adults. They go through a process called molting to grow. Both kinds of hermit crabs start their lives in the ocean, but then land hermit crabs leave the water. They lose their ability to breathe underwater and develop lungs so that they can breathe air.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
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