HCA: Hermit Crab Association

In August we rented a beach house in Dauphin Island, Alabama. Our last morning there we walked along the beach on the bay side. Our kids collected many shells and things like driftwood for the pet crabs they bought at a souvineer shop.

We made the long drive home. That night I opened the bag of shells and sand so I could place it in the crab tank. I freaked out when I found 3 of these critters staring right at me. Turns out some of the shells we found were already occupied.

Since these were found along the waters edge I realized they must be of the marine variety. I found a large rubbermaid tub and dumped sand and driftwood and water inside. Needless to say, they didn't survive for long.

I feel sooo bad for causing a premature death to these 3 crabs. The one in the picture was quite large. I know he was probably pretty old, he had barnicles growing on him, and also what appeared to be cataracts in his eyes. But man, these were the most hideous crabs I have ever seen!

RIP Barnicle Bill and his 2 little friends.

AllyAlabama wrote:We made the long drive home. That night I opened the bag of shells and sand so I could place it in the crab tank. I freaked out when I found 3 of these critters staring right at me. Turns out some of the shells we found were already occupied.

Yep, some marine hermits tend to scoot way, waaay back into the shell that sometimes the shells do seem lightweight and empty when compared to some land hermits. I discovered this when I used to purchase marine hermits or catch (and release) them on some California tide pools a long time ago - one moment, the shells I thought were occupied were all of a sudden "empty", I would tap them to see if they were occupied and shake them a little to check their weight and occupants and seem genuinely empty, but a moment later the hermit crabs would peer out of these seemingly empty shells again. Unfortunately, sometimes this is learned the hard way, well, at least "hard" to the unfortunate critters inside...sorry to hear about this.