HCA: Hermit Crab Association

This is going to sound silly but i have a hard time telling breeds by the shape of there eyes.

I just bought 3 new hermits from my local pets mart *after seeing the tank and feeling sorry for them on top of it all*

I know i have 2 e's and I think 2 indos. My 3 new addition to the family where being sold as PP's but I'm not sure that they are. they look similar to the indo's all have purple pincers but none of them are very red.

So I'd really like to know if there are other tell tell signs besides eyes.

I'll try and get some pictures but my connection currently isn't good for uploading. I can do it better later in the week on my campus.

Hermits don't have breeds... they have species, otherwise they'd be able to cross-breed.


First off, what shade of purple are the claws? Do they appear over-sized? What shape are the eyes? What do the legs look like?


Goodluck!
Lakota

sorry i know better i should havev said species.

i'm going to post some pictures in a bit.

Only two species cab be identified by the eyes alone - PPs, who have tear-drop shaped eyes, and Indos, who have perfectly round eyes. All of the other species have similarly shaped, elongated eyes. The eyestalks aren't a great indicator either, though some might argue that the candy-corn shaped eyestalks of Es are a sure identifier.

ok i posted a couple pics in the gallery

heres the link

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/galler ... ?album=159

There's a species test somewhere in that menu thing over there ------>

The first two pics look just like my PPs. PPs seem to be the only thing I can identify. I thought I had two ruggies until I saw a really detailed pic in a different thread and realized they were Es. Yoshi siad it took time and experience and suggested looking at pics, so I have been looking at peoples pictures to try and learn a little more. Maybe that could help you too?

its very very confusing at first, but after a while you start to notice the little differences and then you can identify them from a glance haha

and yeah, they are all PPs

nice crabs!

woot thankyou i just wasn't sure.

I just redid the tank and their making a horrid mess already. >.<

Those are some pretty PP's alright. I think they're the easiest to identify, but then I have four of them in various shades so I've had practice. Hope they recover from the petstore for you.

Yes they're both pp's. I have a freshly molted pp that looks almost exactly like your first one there, and you can tell by the front first leg.. because of how armored (or fitted perfectly, almost tapered at it's edge) it is when it sits against the big pincher. Never hesitate to ask, no one will think anything of it.. we were all new to this at one time or another.