Hermit crab hitchhikers

[Kr320]

Hey this guy has been in my tank for a while, he always had the red (feather duster?) on him and I noticed the blue (?) one a few weeks ago. I happened to see a Asterina star on him while I had my camera and this was the best pic I could get.

I've heard of anemone crabs... This doesn't appear to be one is it?

BTW that blob looking thing on the top right is just some strange distortion.

 

[Calappidae]

Just like a peice of rubble, or live rock, shells laying in the ocean are more than capable of growing barnacles and fan worms. Then a crab may host the same shell. I have several with fan worms.

The asterina is just hitchhiking a ride :lol:

 

[Betta132]

An anemone crab looks like a real crab, but it carries two tiny anemones around in its claws to chase things away.
Your hermit just has a couple of random hitch-hikers, and pretty ones at that. If he ever drops the shell, move it to a reasonably high-flow area to keep them alive.

 

[Calappidae]

An anemone crab looks like a real crab, but it carries two tiny anemones around in its claws to chase things away.
Your hermit just has a couple of random hitch-hikers, and pretty ones at that. If he ever drops the shell, move it to a reasonably high-flow area to keep them alive.

I think your confusing two species here. The crab you described is none other than the Pom pom crab.

However what the person is asking is if he has an anemone hermit crab.. which are hermit crabs that normally and usually always carry an anemone around.. including when moving into a new shell they'll attach one to it. The resemblence comparing hermit crabs to anemone hermit crabs are quite obvious after looking through soem pics of them. Most notable of identifying hermit crabs is the eyes. Then the body color and size.

They're also more pyschopathic in behavior..
<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/gvbHa0ntUvs?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/gvbHa0ntUvs?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Very.. VERY aggressive and need to be in a species tank and aware from fish and inverts.

 

[Betta132]

Oops, my bad! Yeah, I got the two confused... I was thinking pom-pom.

 

[Kr320]

An anemone crab looks like a real crab, but it carries two tiny anemones around in its claws to chase things away.
Your hermit just has a couple of random hitch-hikers, and pretty ones at that. If he ever drops the shell, move it to a reasonably high-flow area to keep them alive.

Thank you, yea if he drop his shell I suuure hope I see it asap! I am not sure the kind of hermit crab it is but it is not very active, tends to just stay put on/tucked in the rock somewhere 99% of the time.

 

[Sky_Shark]

Looks like a scarlet hermit crab. They have bright red legs. Shouldn't harm anything so long as they have some food.