Brackish hermit crabs

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:51 am

Continued from http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... php?t=5760

I googled and read for quite some time, but didn't come up with much regarding brackish hermits.

My blue leg:

Which looks exactly the same as: http://www.petsolutions.com/Blue+Leg+Re ... 75-C-.aspx

The above link describes theirs as being C. tricolor

I'm almost certain that my specimen is also C. tricolor

On a side note, can anyone identify this hermit crab? I have not been able to. It was a one of a kind hermit form my LFS, which I have yet to see another of. Sorry the picture is not the best.

So, I guess my questions are if there are any other commonly available hermits/crabs that are euryhaline. And furthermore, if any can tolerate very low salinitys, such as 1.005. It would be cool to have hermits with a F8, provided the F8 doesn't make a meal of them.

I wonder if emerald mithrax crabs are euryhaline...I shall google it.

Wow, I find myself obsessed with finding out more about brackish crabs. Ii'll go spend a few more hours googling info

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:48 pm

Maybe i'm just not very good at google and wikipedia, but i havent been able to find squat.

Does anyone know how to find a list of all the known genera of aquatic hermit crabs?

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:57 pm

Heres some pics of some new hermits I got last night, can anyone identify? I have not been able to.

There is VERY LITTLE information about aquatic hermits on the web, that I have been able to find.
The things I have found have taken quite some digging.

I've decided to start a "study" on aquatic hermits, I think they rock. Euryhaline hermits intrigue me the most. There use in a brackish tank could be quite nice.

I really want to go to florida like nmonks suggested, but im not sure if my body would hold together

itd be awsome to record what genera were found in what level of salinity.

Just remember to bring some of that handy shark repelent, right Batman? ( if youve never seen the original batman movie with adam west, you wont understand this

)

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:31 pm

I've not had much luck with low salintiy hermit crabs myself, though i suppose it doesnt matter since my Ceylons are in marine conditions now and would rapidly dismantle any crab i put in there.

i'm thinking about using a divider in my 55 gallon and using snails/crabs to clean up one side at a time so they puffs dont get the free meal they seem to live for

.

I'll check the price list if i can get my paws on it at work monday and see if there are any species listed that might possibly work.

PS nice pick up on those odd hermits, i keep checking over the ones at work but i dont get a lotta time to roll and watch 1/4 inch crabs

.

Jason

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:46 pm

Jason wrote: I'll check the price list if i can get my paws on it at work monday and see if there are any species listed that might possibly work.

PS nice pick up on those odd hermits, i keep checking over the ones at work but i dont get a lotta time to roll and watch 1/4 inch crabs .

Jason

Hehe, yeah my good friend at my LFS looked at me funny when I was staring into the hermit tank, spotting any oddballs. I've managed to find 3 that "didnt belong" and I have not been able to identify. The one gorgeous red one is large too, almost 2 inches i'd say. Its not a megistos though lol

Those blue ones are gorgeous...I managed to pick out 2 of them. I don't know what species they are, either. I think a good common name for them would be Mithril hermit, since they remind me of the color of mithril armor.

Yeah, I have part of my 55g GSP tank sectioned off for shrimp and hermits. Strangely enough, my GSP doesnt seem to bother the hermits, when I did have a few in with him. Hes also only an inch long ATM.

Maybe nmonks can identify the 3 oddballs that I have.

I'll see if I can spot anymore oddballs at my LFS tomorrow. I want to try breeding hermits too.

Let me know if you find any of those species, too.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:58 pm

i work at VI on division and i'll be toddling around tomorrow at work we did just get some larger than average looking blue legs in i'll try to get a good look at them after i chase the vac around tomorrow. Should be busy as heck so i wont be doing many projects (aka cleaning) but i'm going to do my best to get the BW cleaned it seems to have gone to crap in the last two days.

Jason

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 1:22 am

Jason wrote:i work at VI on division

Really? Nice. I'll be working at the VI on plainfield soon, more then likely.

Hmmm, I am very interested in aquatic hermits...I'm tempted to start a webpage, since there is very little info on them out there.

Theres bound to be a few other people on this rock that are as crazy as me

I'm going back to VI tomorrow, to look for more oddballs and probably pick up a Scarle hermit ( Paguristes cadenati). Hehe, i've been doing my best to dig up picture ID along with scientific name.

There is also a MONSTER blue leg at my LFS. He is pusing 2 inches, and lives in a huge turbo snail shell. I doubt its C. tricolor, i'll have to look into buying him and trying to find a ID.

I have confirmed that I have:

Cortez Hermit (Paguristes digueti)
Blue Leg Hermit (Clibanarius tricolor)

And 3 un-ID'd hermits, whose pics I have posted already. I'll post better pics and more detailed descriptions later. I have no idea if they are euryhaline hermits.

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:10 pm

Yay, just got home with 8 more hermit crabs. (Can you tell i'm addicted to them already?)

At least 2 of them are "oddballs" that I havent seen before. I also got some more of the blue hermits pictured above.

I got a nice blue leg as well. I'm tempted to see how he does in my F8 tank...The salinity is 1.009 in there right now (I usually let it fluctuate a bit.), and since I have to raise it because of the ich....

Pics of the new guys later

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:47 pm

Well, my GSP named Mickey jumped over the tank divider during the night...Into the side with the hermits and shrimp...

He didn't hurt or eat a thing. Not even the peppermint shrimp

You can imagine my reaction when I walk in, turn on the light, and go "Hey, that reflection almost looks like Mickey's really in there....OH CRAP!!!!"

kass · Post by **kass** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:16 pm

Curious little fellow you got there! Hopefully the tanks covered tightly.

The Fisherman · Post by **The Fisherman** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:26 pm

kass wrote:Curious little fellow you got there! Hopefully the tanks covered tightly.

*nods*

I'm sealing the tank off with press 'n seal wrap as we speak.

Thats what I usually do. My friends tell me that the fish couldn't get out even if he tried or wanted too

kass · Post by **kass** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:35 pm

Thats a good idea, using press-n-seal. I might try it on my snail tank to keep the condensation in.

Post by **nmonks** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:27 pm

Well, I am not a good person to identify tropical invertebrates, so I won't volunteer for that! Northeast Atlantic ones I can (had a job as a marine biologist for a survey company once) but out of that patch, and you're on your own! :lol:

Anyway, re: hermits in brackish. I have no experience of this personally except observation of it in the wild. Given there are several terrestrial hermits that dip themselves in freshwater, brackish aquatic ones should be pretty common. What I've learned is from posts on another forum, which I append here:

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?sho ... &hl=hermit
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?sho ... &hl=hermit
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?sho ... &hl=hermit

If you read through them, people seem to be keeping them down to about 50% seawater, which is pretty amazing really. Apparently these crabs are growing and doing well.

I'll also add that the Asian horseshoe crabs are low-salinity tolerant, too. They're more widely traded in Europe than the US, but I'm sure you can get them if you try.

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?sho ... =horseshoe

Hope this helps, and apologies to the moderators for posting links to other forums.

Cheers,

Neale

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:33 pm

Neal, we don't mind linking at all here!

Post by **nmonks** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:29 pm

Cool. I know some places are a little restrictive about that kind of thing. Anyway, those links do at least give some empirical evidence. But I'd like to learn a bit more about what the species traded actually are, and perhaps find a way to reliably identify the commonly traded hermit crabs.

I have to assume hermits aren't puffer-proof. I've certainly seen triggerfish take them apart without much trouble.

Cheers,

Neale

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