HCA: Hermit Crab Association

those are all blues from what I can tell, mine were a big range of colors. But the ugly bodies give it away

Thanks Kuza! They are very beefy compared to my rugs who have much more slender bodies. These have more a pp body if I were to compare to the crabs I have.

All pictures in this thread do not show violascens.

But not normal purpureus color.... In eyestalks, antennae and exoskeleton.
Anyway ... Hope that they will stay healthy

One clear way to know a blue is the yellowish color in their joints, which yours have. They also have big ugly bodies to Kuza's point. The one in question doesn't look like a ruggie to me. The shield leg is not the right shape, and I don't think the BP is right for a rug, too. I can't really see the stitch marks to be sure. My blues all came in as a purple-greyish color, except for my largest who is vibrant purple. I'm sorry you've had such bad luck. I was devastated over the one I lost.


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Thank you. I knew there was a chance some of them wouldn't make it. I got the last few LHC had (even though I ordered in March) and she warned me they weren't doing well. My 6 year old has wanted blues since day one so by golly I'm going to do my very best to save the 4 I've got left. 2 I hope are molting since they are MIA. One seems to be doing very well so far. The one I'm most worried about has no BP. He does not get around well at all. He has no balance. I'm keeping a close eye on him. I'm not sure he can dig down to molt.

I'm thinking the crab in the third picture from the start of this thread may be a ruggie. This is why and I'd love to know if anyone thinks this could mean anything or just be coincidental. Today I moved the one "blueberry" that was up alone in the 60 to the 150. Eventually all 4 (if all 4 survive) will go there. She just seemed so lonely that I risked the stress of the move. Immediately one of my ruggies in the 150 found her. There was some feeler talk and a small one climbed on her back. After that the "blueberry" spent the day exploring the tank. I've been keeping an eye on her to make sure no stress related streaking etc occurred. Most of the time I check on her she's with another ruggie. Upon inspecting 2 very close together they do look similar. I'm going off of basic coloring, joint coloring, antennas. I don't want to take them out as to not stress the newbie. They are very different in size and I haven't gotten a good look at their BP. The "blueberry" is much beefier than the ruggie although the ruggie is a small while the "blueberry" is a medium. The "blueberry" does have a lot more purple color although the ruggie definitely has a purple hue on parts of her. Mainly I find it interesting that my other species in the 150 haven't paid her any attention while the rugs seem to find her very interesting. Any merit to that or coincidence? I LOVE ruggies so if it turns out she is one I'll be just as happy. I only had one female ruggie and 3 males so that would be great. Whatever she is she is all over the place exploring and is much happier in the 150.
My husband took her out. This is her BP.

There are some differences in behavior. The blueberry loves to swim in the salt water. I've never seen the ruggies do that. The blueberry is out a lot more than the ruggies. The blueberry eats tons of protein. Well she eats tons of everything! Piggy.

one if mine is pretty small, like a small medium, or even a big small.
I'm pretty sure it's this guy



Next time I see him I'll take a picture of his claw.


I found this picture online. It will be interesting to see if your one with the bp missing will molt back a white one.

I had a ruggie with a missing leg and his was white after molting.

Still looks like a blue to me. It doesn't have the very pounced stitch marks that a ruggie has. It also has the eyeliner marks under eye like a blue. Ruggies are much more "angular" meaning pointier shield leg, almost pointier BP. Yours is rounded and chunky. Much like a blue. I think he just found a pal, not a species buddy.


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You are right about her being a chunky monkey. Lol. I do know what you mean about ruggies being pointier. I just found it so interesting that the ruggies seemed drawn to her while the others ignored her. Today I haven't seen her at all. I hope she's doing ok in there. There's a lot of places to hide that I can't see. Makes me nervous. It was a lot easier to find her when she was the only one in the 60. Lol.

I am ordering blues from another store, so i'll take pics of them in comparison to LHC's blues