HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello!
Does anyone know what kind of bugs this is?

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/e20/e2 ... 150059.jpg

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/e31/e3 ... 150063.jpg

I found them a couple of hours ago in both of the water dishes in both of my crabitats, plus in one of the shells with worm castings. I didn't see them yesterday, but I can have missed them of course.

Last time I saw them was March 9 when one of my new hermit crabs died. She had a couple of those bugs on her abdomen. The two crabitats have no contact with each other.

Are these bugs harmless? What are they?

The largest of the bugs are about 1 mm long, with six legs and two antennas. They are grey/silverish while some are white - I believe that the white of the bugs are newly molted.

Thank you for your time.

Those are silverfish, totally harmless. And even helpful with cleaning up uneaten food.

Mike120 wrote:Those are silverfish, totally harmless. And even helpful with cleaning up uneaten food.

Thank you very much. Is it common that they can be found on the hermit crabs and in their shell?

If you recently got an order from LHC then that is probably your main source of the silverfish. They are commonly found on the crabs, but will usually disperse once they find food. They use the crab as a way to travel and find food. The crab looks for the food, the mites get off, if the crab can't find food and dies, the silverfish eat the crab. It's a symbiotic relationship.

ok, just wondering where the info about silver fish being common with hermit crabs comes from? I have never had silver fish near or in my crabs...And ive had hermits for a very long time. I however do not get hermit crabs from LHC.. Is that where the info came from?

These also do not look like silver fish to me.. silver fish look alot more tapered at the tail..more like a triangle.. with one long line coming out the back of the tail..

Mike120 wrote:If you recently got an order from LHC then that is probably your main source of the silverfish. They are commonly found on the crabs, but will usually disperse once they find food. They use the crab as a way to travel and find food. The crab looks for the food, the mites get off, if the crab can't find food and dies, the silverfish eat the crab. It's a symbiotic relationship.

No, I haven't ordered anything from anywhere, but I've recently bought new hermit crabs - though the new hermits are in another crabitat so they don't have any contact at all with each other.

And you are absolutely sure that they are silverfish? They don't look like this, that's why I'm asking. ^^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverfish

When I search google, the bugs I have remind me more about springtails, like in this picture:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2010/01/22/ ... ringtails/

And some other pictures on google:
http://www.google.se/images?hl=sv&xhr=t ... 80&bih=743

"My" bugs jump around at the water surface too, which I read that springtails can do?

Thank you for your time.

Hmmm...can't be due to LHC, SojMad is in Sweden, LHC doesn't ship internationally . But I think silverfish have a more tapered/pointy back end and are bigger than 1mm???

Sorry, I type slow on my phone! LOL!

"My" bugs bounce around like this, though they aren't that dark (but I guess that there are thousands of species of springtails. ), and they are in the same size.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIZdCOPMB8

http://static-wtb.cheshirecat.net/image ... e_jodi.jpg

?

Those are definitely not silverfish. I would be interested in a source for the silverfish in a symbiotic relationship with crabs-info as well. There are insects and most notably mites who will hitch rides on other invertebrates, but as far as I know, silverfish are not one of them.

Booklice usually have a well-defined head and I'm not really seeing that in the photos.
My guess would be springtails as well. I don't see any wings in the photos and since there are several sizes of bugs, that rules out beetles and flies for example. The jumping is pretty unique for them.
Very nice photos, by the way.

Jedediah wrote:Those are definitely not silverfish. I would be interested in a source for the silverfish in a symbiotic relationship with crabs-info as well. There are insects and most notably mites who will hitch rides on other invertebrates, but as far as I know, silverfish are not one of them.

Booklice usually have a well-defined head and I'm not really seeing that in the photos.
My guess would be springtails as well. I don't see any wings in the photos and since there are several sizes of bugs, that rules out beetles and flies for example. The jumping is pretty unique for them.
Very nice photos, by the way.

Thank you.

In some photos the head is visible, but mostly it's not. ^^ They are in maaany different sizes, and that's even more visible in the photos below. The biggest ones are at maximum 1 millimeter long, so they are really tiny. And they jump around like crazy, especially when they get a bit frightened.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/023/02 ... 150088.jpg

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/138/13 ... 150083.jpg

Sorry the pics wouldn't load for me last night.

Do book lice jump they do look like the picture sebby posted..

Just want to let you know that my silverfish DID NOT come from LHC!!
Kathy