HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Calcinus laevimanus








Clibanarius eurysternus



Clibanarius humilis


Clibanarius longitarsus


Clibanarius virescens


Clibanarius striolatus


Clibanarius snelliusi




May be Pagurixus sp. or Pagurus sp. (?)

Some sea snails:
Astralium calcar & Tectus fenestratus


Turbo cinereus


Strombus luhuanus




Nerita chamaeleon

Nerita spengleriana


Phyllidia varicosa - a colorful nudibranch

I can't help you with Iding them, but the Unknown Clibanarius sp. and possible Dardanus are spectacular looking critters.

I didn't know you were into marine hermits as well. What kind of setups are you running? Most folks in the US that have reef tanks have hermits, but usually as clean up crew and they don't pay any particular attention to them. A shame really - they ca just as entertaining as their terrestrial cousins.

I have a pair of little reds and a tiny unknown in my nano-reef. They are a hoot. Far more interesting than the fish.

Keith

Beautiful collection!!I think marine hermies and crabs are amazing!!

Your crabs are AMAZING!! I think MHCs are so beautiful.

The live Nerita snails a pretty cool; never seen 'em before with their original inhabitants.

Wow! Amazing colors on marine hermits. My parents own the top two species in their 92 g. saltwater tank. The top species is getting pretty big! Do you know what size they will max out at, they definitely have plenty of room to grow lol.

Thank you for your comments, friends ... here are some more new members of my marine tank:

Calcinus latens




Clibanarius corallinus




Clibanarius rhabodactylus






Unknown species of Pagurus sp. - once seemed dragging his female around the aquarium base:

Calcinus sp.

Calcinus elegans



Calcinus morgani


Ciliopagurus sp

Ciliopagurus strigatus



Dardanus sp.

Dardanus megistos


Dardanus guttatus


Dardanus pedunculatus - a Dardanus species who is fond of collecting anemones & sticking them on the shell for camoulflage.



Pagurus sp.

Pagurus birtimanus - a cutie with right BP.


Unknown species - perhaps a member of Pagurus genus with very long extending left BP.

Those are amazing!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

My new fist-size Dardanus megistos with his loyal companions on the shell: a rock snail and an anemone ( it seems that the snail doesn't want to leave him ).




He has moved into new shells ( twice ) - and now he's inhabiting a large Melon shell (Melo melo tesselata)








I have three decorator crabs (Camposcia discusa) - this is the largest one with the most colorful "accessories" on the skin



I got some horseshoe crabs ( Tachypleus tridentatus - but actually they are NOT crabs ).

The photos show up so nice on here.. any chance when you have time you can post the photo of the albino perlatus? in another thread some one was just discussing if there can be albino hermits?
The horse shoe crabs near us are everywhere.. they do research on the blood for them. http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/factsheets/ ... _crab.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_horseshoe_crab
http://www.lehsd.k12.nj.us/Summer2002/M ... 202002.htm
I live neat the tuckerton seaport where they often do blood samples and other research on the "not crabs" Amazing creatures!

To add to Suebee's post, the researchers take the horseshoe crabs from the ocean, bring them to a lab to extract a sample of their blood, which is blue by the way, and then release the animals roughly where they caught them so that they don't do damage to their populations.

The blood of a horse shoe crab has natural immunities and other properties that the scientists study to help with fighting diseases and such. Here is the excerpt from wikapedia which describes the blood of the horseshoe crab.

Unlike humans, horseshoe crabs do not have hemoglobin in their blood, but instead use hemocyanin to carry oxygen. Because of the copper present in hemocyanin, their blood is blue. Their blood contains amebocytes, which play a role similar to white blood cells for vertebrates in defending the organism against pathogens. Amebocytes from the blood of L. polyphemus are used to make Limulus amebocyte lysate, which is used for the detection of bacterial endotoxins.

It should also be noted that, like previously stated by Mokulele, a horseshoe crab is not even a crab, nor is it a crustacean, they actually belong in the sub-phylum Chelicerata. They are actually a close relative of spiders and scorpions.

That concludes your random animal lesson for today.

actually they dont even take the crabs to the lab any more they gather them and take the blood right on site and release them right away. The horseshoes are protected in New Jersey now. Once the Steve Irwin died from the sting ray tail people have been killing the Horse shoe crabs thinking that they use the tail as a weapon.. They do not ever, its only used to help flip them over if they get flipped on the back. They are totally harmless.

Beautiful marine crabs.

We have these guys in our reef. Along with some of the more common marine crabs found in the US.