Saw these on floridapets.com and thought they would be a good buy. Well, happened to be in the Cocoa beach area and found hundreds of them in the Indian river. So I brought a bunch back to my tank. So far, so good. They are not messing with corals at all and they are a small hermit. They also love algae. Was wondering if anyone else has any experience with these guys? Thanks for any input!
Right handed hermits?
- Thread starter KyleP
- Start date
sanfordbhines
New member
Re: Right handed hermits?
Hello. Do they look just like the picture on the floridapets.com website? Do you know what kind of snail shells they are using? Did you find them on rocks or in seagrass?
I recently found some over on the west coast of FL. They are very calm Hermits compared to the bigger Flat-clawed Hermit which is very aggressive.
I have tried to get a positive ID on these "right-handed Hermits but I'm still researching that. They have been doing very well in my tank also. They have interacted very well with Blue-legs, Mexican Red Legs. They stay very calm. I can also see them eating algae off the rocks or sifting through the sand.
Hello. Do they look just like the picture on the floridapets.com website? Do you know what kind of snail shells they are using? Did you find them on rocks or in seagrass?
I recently found some over on the west coast of FL. They are very calm Hermits compared to the bigger Flat-clawed Hermit which is very aggressive.
I have tried to get a positive ID on these "right-handed Hermits but I'm still researching that. They have been doing very well in my tank also. They have interacted very well with Blue-legs, Mexican Red Legs. They stay very calm. I can also see them eating algae off the rocks or sifting through the sand.
Yes, they are the same as the ones on floridapets website. They use crown conch shells and some other small snail shell. There were crown conchs everywhere of all sizes on the flat we caught them. Obviously they only took the smaller shells. Found them on rocks with grass/algae growing on the rock. I'm glad yours are staying cool in your tank. So far so good!
greenbean36191
Premium Member
I think the ones on FL pets are Pagurus longicarpus, but I can't tell for sure. I've seen them in the lagoon, but not nearly as much as Clibanarius vittatus which are the ones you typically find in crown conch shells. They get really big and very destructive.
I would guess they are longicarpus then, because I did not see a single hermit larger than a dime along the whole stretch of rocks we collected from. There were hundreds of them. I believe I know about the second one you are talking about and I have seen them in crown conch shells too. They are typically the ones I come across the most in the inshore areas in Georgia and Florida. They do get big. I have had up to ten in my tank at any given time and have not had them touch a coral. All softies. I have two of them now, but still haven't harmed a thing. I bet they would do some damage to certain inverts though. I was worried about them messing with my sea cucumber, but they never touched it. Anyhow, I'm really liking these little guys though, pagarus I guess.
