Please Help ID Hermit Crab

fishquaria · #1 11/14/2007, 04:19 AM

Hi, please help me ID this hermit crab... These pics were taken after lights out with the camera flash... Please help me...

Thanks

philter4 · #2 11/14/2007, 12:20 PM

If you could get a closeup of the guy it would be helpful. I need to see the eyes and stalks as well as a shot that is not so washed out.

With that said there are 2 from caribbean that it could be, red bandet hermit, Paguristes erythrops and tricolor hermit, P. tricolor. Please don't take this as an ID, it just looks similar to both of these from the photos. Another big help would be if you knew where it came from, both of these are atlantic only. If it is pacific, I could think of several similar from Hawaii and there are probably dozens from the rest of that area.

There are several features that help ID hermits, eye and stock color, description of the walking legs and claws. Are the dactyls (the segments at the tips of the legs) colored differently?, The same as the rest of the legs? Are the claws the same?, Is the right bigger? Left bigger? Things like these will help.

fishquaria · #3 11/15/2007, 01:34 AM

This guy is from Sri Lanka. It has green eyes and the legs are brown and white. One of the claws is bigger than the other. It has a purple thing growing on its shell which I think maybe an anemone. I will put up a better pic. Does it also help to know that it's more active at night. So I'll have to wait till lights out. It's been in the tank three days now, no signs of harassing anything, but it comes out to play about fifteen minutes before lights out.

Ooulophilia · #4 11/15/2007, 02:06 AM

That looks like D. pedunculatus to me (if it is from Sri Lanka), an anemone hermit. They are pretty destructive, they will grab inverts and fish, and will bulldoze your rock. That being said, it is pretty cool watching them with their anemones - if you ever get the chance to watch them change shell and move their protectice anemones, it is fascinating.

kar93 · #5 11/16/2007, 04:14 PM

it does look quite big and it will probably eat anything it can.

fishquaria · #6 11/17/2007, 01:27 AM

Yes, I think it is D Pedunculatus... But so far it seems very friendly and hasn't bothered any of my fish or inverts. In fact it spends the whole day virtually buried under the sand with only the anemone above it. In the night, soon after lights out, it moves around picking up whatever was left over from feeding and thens spends the rest of the night walking up and down the tank, like a militar officer. It's quite cute. What type of shells should I get for it?