HCA: Hermit Crab Association

These pictures were taken by one of my friends in Indonesia, Bobby Liauw. He lives on an island located on 20 miles away from Singapore. These blueberries are native to his home island.

They do look similar to ruggies!!! Which is why, at first, I was so excited when I got this guy:




.............But, alas, he was determined to be just a very purple ruggie.

But hey ! a beautiful ruggie anyway

Great pictures Mokulele. Blueberries are a very handsome species.

Kathy, that Ruggie is amazing!

Gorgeous pics, Mokulele_Hawai'i. Thanks for sharing!

And Kathy, that little one would have tricked me, too! lol

Wow... beautiful crabs! Kathy, I think that Rug is AMAZING even if he wasn't what you were hoping for!

*Kathy* wrote:

They do look similar to ruggies!!! Which is why, at first, I was so excited when I got this guy:


.............But, alas, he was determined to be just a very purple ruggie.

A purple cutie ... did you find it sold mixed with C.violascens / C.rugosus ? You're very lucky - I'm quite sure that it's a young blueberry. C.purpureus is minority in ruggies'/indos' area. On the other hand, in Riau Islands we can only find 2 species: C.violascens (minority) & C.purpureus.

Actually, Sugar Plum came to me with two other ruggies, and 4 cavipes....and I really have no idea what area cavipes come from. Do blueberries have stitches on their BPs?

i dont think i've seen a prettier hermie! but honestly how can you tell the difference between a blueberry and a purple ruggie?

*Kathy* wrote:Actually, Sugar Plum came to me with two other ruggies, and 4 cavipes....and I really have no idea what area cavipes come from.

C.cavipes comes from some Indonesian islands ( especially Sumatra and Java ). They live more inland than ruggies - mainly use landsnail shell ( such as giant African snail ), but I often find that this species caught & sold mixed with ruggies or Komurasakis. In Seribu Islands ( about 67 kms north of Jakarta ), cavs live together with indos in island forest.

Do blueberries have stitches on their BPs?

gothic_swimmer_1990 wrote:i dont think i've seen a prettier hermie! but honestly how can you tell the difference between a blueberry and a purple ruggie?

Yes, blueberries have stitches on their BP, but almost invisible.
The BP tends to be more "oval" compared to ruggies' BP and often have dark spot on the palm ( like C.violascens has brown or orange spot on the BP ).
Blueberry's legs tend to be bigger and more hairy compared to ruggie's ( actually blueberry's limbs are similar to E's - do E's have stitch mark on the BP ? ).

Some Es have stitch marks, and they also might have smudge marks on the eye stalks, which is why they are often confused with ruggies. I dunno.....I wouldn't think that a lone blueberry would end up in the States, so chances are that Sugar Plum is a rug.

I think these is just a blue colour rugs , not real blueberry.

tonycoenobita wrote:I think these is just a blue colour rugs , not real blueberry.

No ... I'm sure that the pictures I posted in the first message is absolutely not a ruggie - pictures sometimes cannot do justice. They are Coenobita purpureus but perhaps they could be a different sub-species than the one found in the Ryukyu Islands - and I'm very sure that although you also live in Asia, you've never seen this specimen in person since I've been the only person who identify the presence of this species in South East Asia. That's normal that sometimes we cannot differ between C.rugosus & C.purpureus - just like the pictures on the first post in this thread ... they were still young that the coloration tends to be paler. Most adult female C.purpureus also tends to have lighter coloration compared to the male ones.


Do you still think that they are blue-colored ruggie ?

Me and my cousins was walking along the shore of one of the resorts in my place after 2 days of beach partying and I think I saw a juvenile blueberry along a shore last week during the festival. And it has a light shade of blue and yellow joints. He was in a group of cavipes/violas (I dont know how to identify them back then). Unfortunately, shortly after picking him up, he went naked! So we put him back on the shore... They are really pretty crabs, prettier than straws I think.