Self respecting crabs

davantalus

davantalus

New member
I threw in a few shells for my hermit the other day. I was sort of figuring he'd figure out the right sized one.

Came home today and he's wearing the biggest shell. Apparently it's a "XXL" to his previous "Medium" and looks pretty retarded - I'm sure he's going to get stuck somewhere.

How do I tell my hermit his shell makes his *** look fat?
 
I wouldn't worry about it- Your crab's got the baddest house on the block now and may find he wants to downgrade to a little cottage after slugging it around for a few days or not, either way he'll figure it out- I'm not sure you can "coax" him with anything less than what he's got.
 
Gossipy update! Mr. Valentine had an exciting day... he got the double-wide stuck in the garage.

The shell was stuck between two canyon walls like the rock in "127 Hours", so I had to play god and move a rock just to pull the little guy out.

To my surprise there were no legs hiding in the shell! He must have jettisoned the "new hotness", run across the tank naked, and dove right back into "the old and broke". (where I discovered him, burrowed into the sand and clinging for dear life)
 
Shoulda left it stuck in the rock LOL.
I've watched crabs take on a big shell, drag it for a day, then the next day they look like they're a natural in it.
 
Someone once wrote hermits can grow to new shell, so like get gets into a bigger one then gets bigger himself quickly, no idea if that's so.

I keep few empty shells of different sizes and my hermits were trying them all out when they were growing, then they stopped. But I make sure there is a few to choose including 1-2 of bigger ones, just in case. Hope one they they will grow. Or maybe not? The bigger they get the bigger the problem they might become in my 65L tank.
One got significantly bigger then the rest of the band and he is wearing a shell that's kind of shaped to look like a pirate hat ;-)
 
Pirate hat? Hahahaha!

I saw these glass hermit shells the other day, looks like a really mean thing to trick your hermit into... but it would look so cool! Picture
 
Update. He finally abandoned the double-wide in favor of a more fashionable SUV. Guess parking that thing every night got old quick.

My Cortez red-leg hasn't upgraded since I bought him months ago. He's starting to look too big for his shell. Currently he's in a oval style aperture shell (the shells available have a more circular aperture). Do different hermit genus have a preference for particular styles of shell?
 
Shriss, hermit crabs do not grow to a new shell. They molt and probably then need a bigger shell.

davantulus: Surely they do. Some hermit crab species take nearly any shell that's available, others take just shells from one single snail species and many go anywhere between. Besides of the size and space inside and form the opening form can be of varying importance for a hermit crab. BTW sometimes they take shells which are much too big for them – wishful thinking or the try to impress the others, we don'T know. :D

Don't know what a Cortez red-leg might be but Ciliopagurs strigatus for instance needs special shells from cone snails (they take similar ones if the originals are not available but it is not perfect and stresses them).
 
davantalus said:
Pirate hat? Hahahaha!

I saw these glass hermit shells the other day, looks like a really mean thing to trick your hermit into... but it would look so cool! Picture
Click to expand...

Where can you get these glass hermit shells from?? They will get covered by algae and coralline eventually, but still cool thing to try :-)
 
BEASTIEPENDENT said:
Shriss, hermit crabs do not grow to a new shell. They molt and probably then need a bigger shell.
Click to expand...
I think you read that wrong, Shriss said, "hermits can grow to new shell" (Emphasis mine)

BEASTIEPENDENT said:
Some hermit crab species take nearly any shell that's available, others take just shells from one single snail species and many go anywhere between.
Click to expand...
Awesome. This was exactly what I need to know. Thanks! (Time for another trip to the LFS) ;)

schriss said:
Where can you get these glass hermit shells from?? They will get covered by algae and coralline eventually, but still cool thing to try :-)
Click to expand...
I'd rather not link to any specific vendors but I'm sure you could google it. I don't have any recommendations in any case and my gut feeling is that you'll encounter these for land rather than marine hermits.
 
Oh, probably I misunderstood – non native English speaker. :o

If You could tell the exact species one might look up if there is known what shells they need or if one can find information in the scientific papers. If searching I found different scientific names for this vernacular name. Paguristes cadenati (more often called scarlet hermit crab) or Clibanarius digueti (many trivial names; takes different shells as far I see)…
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Your English is probably more accurate than his. ;)

Here's another problem. I believe he is a C. Diguetti but I'm not sure. Donya mentions here that their eyestalks are red but Mr. Crab has greenish eyestalks.

So I'll post a fabulous picture of Mr. Crab. What do you think?
mrcrab.jpg
 
Awesome! I want one for my tank now...what size sand is that in relation to him?

If it makes you feel any better I have a PILE of shells for my hermits...the hermits in my tank ignore them, continue roaming the tank on their daily quest to satisfy their desire for hooliganism (and to a lesser extent shenanigans) against their fellow hermit crab...

I saw one snip the antenna off another and start poking the poor guy with his own antennae once...I watched in awe as they circled eachother, sizing eachother up. My pistol shrimp began clicking in the background, to my ear it sounded faintly of the West Side Story snaps...the LED light above my tank began a weather simulation cycle with a dimming of the fixture to create the effect of a cloud then a FLASH! of lightning, startling them, in that moment another hermit jumped out from the shadows with his antennae twitching, he was tired of their scrapping, he was ready to ruuummmbllle! Okay, that antenna thing I took some artistic liberties with...but you get the gist...hermit crabs are Hooligans! You're right no self respect whatsoever in these guys...what would Rodney Dangerfield do?
 
Thx! :)

Oh, that's quite a remarkable guide Donya made there. I'm not that much in hermits (but true crabs, Brachyura – just interested in all the little critters *g*) but saved it on disc. For what I saw by a quick look he has much knowledge about hermit crabs and everything seems very accurate and well thought, my respect for it. Unfortunately I can't see Your picture (the server where the picture's stored does not answer).

Although I cannot clarify which one is C. digueti anyway. Here http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/tiere/3381_Clibanarius_digueti.htm it states it is this red one and I know gerrit and he usually is very accurate in identifying specimen. The same for http://www.recif-france.com/Database/391.htm (there is said BTW this one uses a lot of different shells), but CalPhotos, another trustworthy institution, says this is C. digueti: http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+1110+0170 . I'm not sure where to further look right now… or who knows enough of Clibanarius species… Maybe Leslie has an idea?
 
Donya mentions here that their eyestalks
Click to expand...

I do? :o I have done many, many edits to that section so it's not impossible that there are some goofs. I have a feeling that is one such goof, especially looking at the picture I have earlier in the document of one that shows the eyestalks clearly. Thankyou for noting the strangeness!

Although I cannot clarify which one is C. digueti anyway. Here http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/tie...us_digueti.htm
Click to expand...

Whoa! Well, I don't know about the ID for that one, but i would like some of those colorful little fellows to see up close. Anyway, UC Berkeley's Calphotos site is one I frequently use for IDing and what Calphotos shows is the animal I was describing as "C. digueti." If it turns out to be wrong, I will update my information to fix it.

EDIT: to make yet another change to this short post, Paguristes puncticeps (the "blue-eyed hermit") is actually coming to mind for that first link. I'm not going to jump on that name diffinitively though since, aside from the fact that I have not yet had my morning coffee, I have only seen one individual of that species in person and never did find much good documentation for it.
 
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Ah, You DO write here too. I thought I remembered Your name… ;)

Yeah, Berkeley normally is a really serious institution – on the other hand the best scientists make errors too in identifiying or describing species. I thought for a long time "when a scientist says this or that it must be so" but they are humans as everyone else and wrong IDs etc. are not uncommon. That is why I do not trust CalPhoto in this case BLINDLY. One would have to search the original description of C. digueti at best… or ask an up-to-date scientist who could know. Unfortunately I'm – as said – not that much in Anomuran science and don't know who would be the expert to contact. Could Joseph Poupin know? Donya, would You have an idea or would You ask? Else Gerrit or i could ask him too…
 
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