New Hermit Crab Species

[johnmaloney]

New to me at least and I have seen a few. I have a dozenish of them. Been finding them lately on my search for new and exciting decorator crab species. Anyone have a good hermit ID link? Rarer hermits are harder to ID. These guys are pink and black striped. Super smart. They see you coming and hide right away and try to roll in the water, which in a wave swept area worked great to keep them away from me. Having a very hard time getting a picture.They see me, and hide 100% in the shell. It looks empty. Will update when I get the picture.  

[patback]

12 minutes ago, johnmaloney said:

New to me at least and I have seen a few. I have a dozenish of them. Been finding them lately on my search for new and exciting decorator crab species. Anyone have a good hermit ID link? Rarer hermits are harder to ID. These guys are pink and black striped. Super smart. They see you coming and hide right away and try to roll in the water, which in a wave swept area worked great to keep them away from me. Having a very hard time getting a picture.They see me, and hide 100% in the shell. It looks empty. Will update when I get the picture.  

Commenting to see future pictures. I'll be ordering a cuc soon from you. 

[johnmaloney]

He won’t come back out for me. I can take a picture from a distance but it won’t be good. I will bring a glass from home and snap a pic in the morning. Promise to have it in the morning. 

 

-If if anyone can ID him for me before I can you get a prize of some sort. Let me see how bad the picture is to determine prize level. 

[Privateer]

Please keep us updated.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Could it be a variation of the thin-striped hermit (Clibanarius vittatus)? 

 

I know there was a new hermit species discovered last year - believe it was called the candy-striped hermit, but the crab has pink and white stripes. Not pink and black. 😕

[Rob22]

I am assuming this is in Florida? If so, Gulf or Atlantic? 

[johnmaloney]

Atlantic. But a gulf guide wouldn’t hurt most make it around to both. After the first 15 or so most common hermits I can’t find anything. I forgot which book I used to identify the MacLaughlin hermit. That would be good to know. 

 

In the Keys now. It will be a day or two before I get another shot at photographing him. Ran late this morning and didn’t have time. 

 

Pics or it it didn’t happen. I know. 

[Lula_Mae]

Sounds very interesting but after having an evil zebra striped hermit I dunno if I'll ever have striped ones of any kind again.   Would love to see a pic whenever they decide to cooperate though!

[Rob22]

Are the stripes vertical on the legs or horizontal?

[johnmaloney]

16 minutes ago, Rob22 said:

Are the stripes vertical on the legs or horizontal?

Horizontal. 

[johnmaloney]

25 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Sounds very interesting but after having an evil zebra striped hermit I dunno if I'll ever have striped ones of any kind again.   Would love to see a pic whenever they decide to cooperate though!

Looks kind of like a zebra stripe,  but pink instead of white. Had a hard time seeing eye color. I think I have an adult, has a deeper coloration than the others. About the size of blue legs. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

 

I found a pic that *might fit your description, but I have no idea whether it matches. 

 

1. Pagurus curacaoensis

 

 

Edit: I looked through some of the crab species listings in this PDF to find it. But I didn't look through everything since there are too many species to go through: https://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/26941/26941.pdf

[johnmaloney]

Nice link! 

 

I have seen that guy. He is rare but around, or another that looks like him. This guy is black where he is white and pink where he is red. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

34 minutes ago, johnmaloney said:

Nice link! 

 

I have seen that guy. He is rare but around, or another that looks like him. This guy is black where he is white and pink where he is red. 

Ah, noted! I hope you find the species name - I'm just as curious over this new hermit as you are. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I did some more poking around and I found an orange version called Clibanarius humilis. Only problem is that I don't think this species is found at your location. I think you might have a Calcinus sp. on your hands based on the C. elegans size-comparison and horizontal striped markings. 

 

Found another interesting link: https://www.reeflex.net/kategorie/51.html 

 

^^Not sure if it's helpful to your identification, but might as well give it a quick skim-through.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Dug a bit deeper, and this was the closest I found to pink-striped hermits under Calcinus genus:

 

 

Calcinus lineapropodus.

 

Another forum discussed hermit IDs at length here:

 

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/hermit-crab-species-id-with-photos.291467/

But most of the pic links are broken (at least on my end), so I can't see them. Hope this helps somehow. 

[HarryPotter]

Oh crabz

[Snow_Phoenix]

I *think this might be it: Calcinus latens (Hidden Hermit). There's a pink variation of it, but the pink is mild and not strong or neon-colored (unlike in C. elegans, which is electric blue and bright).

 

Link: https://www.reeflex.net/tiere/897_Calcinus_latens.htm 

 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Dug a bit deeper, and this was the closest I found to pink-striped hermits under Calcinus genus:

 

 

Calcinus lineapropodus.

 

Another forum discussed hermit IDs at length here:

 

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/hermit-crab-species-id-with-photos.291467/

But most of the pic links are broken (at least on my end), so I can't see them. Hope this helps somehow. 

Oh wow what a beauty! 😍

[Rob22]

Here are a few links I have found that may help;

 

https://www.gsmfc.org/pubs/SEAMAP/A Picture Guide to Shelf Invertebrates from the Northern Gulf of Mexico.pdf

 

https://www.crabdatabase.info/en/crabs/anomura/paguroidea/diogenidae/calcinus/calcinus-mclaughlinae-8127

 

The second one is a good link with over 10,000 species of crabs, but only 763 have photos and I can’t figure out how to search by location. I spent a couple of hours on it yesterday and haven’t been able to match a description, but it does have the McLaughlin that you said you wished you had the book that identified it. The first link the hermits start at around page 195. It identifies gulf species but gives their range and some will go pretty far up the Atlantic coast. 

 

I don’t even know if this is possible, but will hermit crabs change color with molts depending on environmental, dietary, age, sex or depth conditions like some stomatopods? The wennerae mantis from Florida can be either red or green depending upon depth it is found and can change in one molt. I also have a g. Falcatus who switched from an emerald green that went into a deep blood red with yellow legs to a bright red after a couple of molts. 

[johnmaloney]

None of the species I am aware of. They just tend to get bolder colors as they get older. 

[johnmaloney]

7 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Dug a bit deeper, and this was the closest I found to pink-striped hermits under Calcinus genus:

 

 

Calcinus lineapropodus.

 

Another forum discussed hermit IDs at length here:

 

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/hermit-crab-species-id-with-photos.291467/

But most of the pic links are broken (at least on my end), so I can't see them. Hope this helps somehow. 

That is as close as I have been able to see him myself.

 

You guys are awesome by the way. I have been googling around awhile before I mentioned it, wanted to be able to ID him myself and be all cool. So hard to find these links. 

[johnmaloney]

 

[Rob22]

That’s a neat looking crab. I was about to suggest a species from Singapore maybe hitchhiked on a ship or something, but this doesn’t look anything like that one. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1. C. latens. Light pink variation. 

 

 

2. C. lineopropodus. Darker pink bands visible.

 

 

Weblink: https://www.diverosa.com/categories/Hermitcrabs.htm