Tuesday fun: Crab racing

The National Crab Racing Association conducts hermit crab races — the Crabtucky Derby — at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Crickets Spirits Sports and Food, 1942 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne. For more information, call 407-251-2772 or visit www.crabrace.com.

Race crabs at Crickets! How to do it? It's free. But before the races begin, each participant picks a hermit crab from an aquarium, then gives the creature a name. Each shell is individually numbered for identification purposes. On a typical night, these crabs compete in 12 to 14 heat races. Here's how each race unfolds: The crustaceans loiter beneath an upside-down plastic salad bowl at the center of a 6-foot racing ring. Then the bowl is lifted, and crabs scatter in all directions. The first to cross the yellow ring wins and advances to the nightly championship race.

The human whose crab wins the championship gets to choose a sealed envelope containing $10 to $100 in prize money.