saw amazing mhc at aquarium, what kind?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:40 pm

when we were at the denver aquarium, they had a marine hermie in one tank as a tank cleaner. the crab was amazing, it was jet-black with florescent neon blue stripes all over its legs and its antennae were bright orange

does somebody who knows about marine crabs know what kind this was? he was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

limeslide · Post by **limeslide** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:49 pm

maybe a tricolor of blue leg

annopia · Post by **annopia** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:42 pm

what limeslide suggested is the common Clibanarus Tricolor. is this the crab?:

[Link no longer works]

but to me, it sounds almost exactly like Calcinus elegans...here's a great site with pics of all the species, isn't english but the pics are so useful:

http://www.recif.be/article/hermit.htm

Caroline

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:44 am

the site is in french... sadly I don't understand enough to translate...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:10 am

LOL Well I'm not about to translate a whole webpage... lol But you don't really need to read it, anyways. Just scroll down to look for Calcinus elegans and you'll see it. The names of the crabs are listed under each pic.

annopia · Post by **annopia** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:00 am

haha, yes...just skip down to the pics, i don't speak french either (and Button isn't here to translate anymore), but the pic guide is so useful.

Caroline

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:09 pm

i found it on the second link, Calcinus elegans i think. thanx!!!

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:26 pm

>Quebecer here< lol

It would take a while to translate, but it might be easier if you're interested to go to: babelfish.altavista.com , then paste the website address in the box under "translate a webpage". Select the language, then search. It's not perfect, but still readable!

~Ryan

Gab33 · Post by **Gab33** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:17 pm

truthfully as much as i love hermit crabs i would never hold a marine hermit crab. i don't why they just give me the creeps.

annopia · Post by **annopia** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:09 pm

btw, i now own one of these MHC, he is an adorable little fellow named Delos:

Caroline

annopia · Post by **annopia** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:43 pm

gab33 wrote:truthfully as much as i love hermit crabs i would never hold a marine hermit crab. i don't why they just give me the creeps.

you don't hold them at all, really, theyre really there to observe and look at. in a single week of observing marine hermits you can experience more than several months with LHC-the MHC are active pretty much all the time and molt right in front of you, with no digging down. the only times i've touched mine is to move one from being stuck between live rock and the wall.

Caroline

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:20 pm

Yeah marine hermies are really active, mine love being handfed frozen fish

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:00 pm

Caroline

Thanks, the pictures were gorgeous or ugly, depending how you feel about MHC, although, personally, I'm more on the side that they are beautiful and so unusual. I do have a question though. It seems like all the crabs are in shells way too big for them. Is there a reason for it?

annopia · Post by **annopia** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:53 pm

Grammarcia wrote:Caroline

Thanks, the pictures were gorgeous or ugly, depending how you feel about MHC, although, personally, I'm more on the side that they are beautiful and so unusual. I do have a question though. It seems like all the crabs are in shells way too big for them. Is there a reason for it?

There is indeed a reason that their shells seem like ones our land hermits would never in a million years wear. The fact that they live in water means that the water supports the weight of the shell, so they can lug around something much heavier than their own tiny bodies. they also seem to have different shaped abdomens, more narrow to accomadate the types of shells available.

Caroline