Are these babies?

[fftfk]

It looks like my hermit crab has something attached to its shell. Are they babies?

 

[Betta132]

Can you get closer pics? They look like maybe barnacles. They aren't baby hermit crabs, hermit crabs aren't born with shells.

 

[fftfk]

I will try and upload a better photo when I get home. In the meantime, I looked up barnacles on wikipedia and came across this bit of information:

"To facilitate genetic transfer between isolated individuals, barnacles have extraordinarily long penises. Barnacles probably have the largest penis to body size ratio of the animal kingdom."

So now I have that to think about!

 

[Betta132]

Yep. That's because barnacles can't move around, and nature for some reason decided that they had to mate instead of just releasing eggs or sperm. Silly nature.

 

[fftfk]

Finally got a better photo!

 

[Betta132]

They definitely appear to be barnacles. Can you touch them with a stick or something? If they're hard, those are barnacles. If not, they're some sort of polyp.

 

[Calappidae]

They almost look like tunicates or sponges to me but I could be wrong. The orange coloring throws me off.

 

[fftfk]

They were hard. I had to put the little guy in my sump. He came with my reef cleaners package. I watched him attack one of the snails in my tank so in the dump he went along with an emerald crab and two starfish

 

[cjm3]

I'm wondering if he isn't looking for a different shell, hence the attack on the snail.
Could be those barnacles are adding a bit of weight he doesn't want to carry around.

Whereever he winds up maybe you can add a few empty shells?
See if he vacates the one he's in.

Chuck