Hermit Crabs, Rarely Seen.

[AK77]

Hi All,


My last remaining hermit crab had been quiet for a couple of days, perched ontop of the live rock pile. I'd had two snails die in my nano tank the past few days and after I lost 5 hermit crabs to some mystery ailment a few weeks back, I feared the worst.

I picked the shell up in the water and when I took it out, I thought I noticed a flicker of movement, so decided to put it back into the tank. I'm glad I did as it turns out that the little thing is merely molting.

I managed to grab a few macro shots of this in action, as its not often seen. Normally we just find what we think is a carcass and presume our critters have snuffed it lol. Anyhoo, here's a few shots of what a hermit hides in its shell...

Here you can see the molt coming off. Note at the bottom of the picture, near the shell opening, you can see the crabs eyes

Here the molt has fallen away and is what we often find in the tanks thinking its a dead hermit.

Here I managed to grab a very quick shot of the hermit venturing outside of its shell. Those short stubby limbs kinda creep me out.

My camera is still set up, so if I can get any more interesting shots from the molt, I'll post them up for all to see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh wow, amazing photos - would you be kind enough to add them to the Invertebrate of the month please, they are fasinating, hope you get some more but know what you mean about creeping you out, I totally agree

Seffie x

 

[AK77]

As luck would have it I witnessed another hermit crab molting but this time in a rather strange manner .

Bearing in mind that hermit crabs have very soft bodies, they usually molt in their shells and simply dump the cast outside, in order to protect themselves from predators.

This ballsy little fellow decided that there clearly wasn't enough room in his shelf to perform this task and I spotted him basking on a rock about 5 inches from his shell. I wondered what the hell it was doing at first but, rushed to get my camera set up all the same lol. It wasn't until I'd racked off a few photographs that I then spotted the casting floating on some nearby rocks, about 10 inches from the crab.

I managed to get a few shots of the crabs naughty bits, which it curls up in a little bun behind itself. Hope you like the pictures of this rarely seen event.

Here's the hermit apparently basking on a rock.

Here it is again walking back to its shell. Notice how its back end is curled up and the small legs that anchor it in place.

Back in shell

The casting

 

[milkton]

As luck would have it I witnessed another hermit crab molting but this time in a rather strange manner .

Bearing in mind that hermit crabs have very soft bodies, they usually molt in their shells and simply dump the cast outside, in order to protect themselves from predators.

This ballsy little fellow decided that there clearly wasn't enough room in his shelf to perform this task and I spotted him basking on a rock about 5 inches from his shell. I wondered what the hell it was doing at first but, rushed to get my camera set up all the same lol. It wasn't until I'd racked off a few photographs that I then spotted the casting floating on some nearby rocks, about 10 inches from the crab.

I managed to get a few shots of the crabs naughty bits, which it curls up in a little bun behind itself. Hope you like the pictures of this rarely seen event.

Here's the hermit apparently basking on a rock.

Here it is again walking back to its shell. Notice how its back end is curled up and the small legs that anchor it in place.

Back in shell

The casting

wow!! amazing photos!! how lucky you are to have caught your hermits molting!! i also agree, those limbs are uhh ... not so good looking for an amazing creature of the sea
btw, may i ask what camera you have?

 

[seffieuk]

fantastic photos, he would look right at home in a horror film

Seffie x

ps

would you mind adding the photos to the hermit crab invert. of the month thread pleeeese

 

[AK77]

wow!! amazing photos!! how lucky you are to have caught your hermits molting!! i also agree, those limbs are uhh ... not so good looking for an amazing creature of the sea
btw, may i ask what camera you have?

The camera is an Olympus Evolt E-510 DSLR. The lens is an old manual focus Tamron SP90 F2.5, which is 20 years old, and an extention tube. Its actually really difficult to take photos using this lens with the extention tube on live subjects as the operating distance is only a few inches, and the focal point is literally millimeters. This wouldn't be so much of a problem but hermit crabs don't tend to sit still on command lol.

fantastic photos, he would look right at home in a horror film

Seffie x

ps

would you mind adding the photos to the hermit crab invert. of the month thread pleeeese

Thanks. Will do Seffie. I