Help with hermit ID please no one knows where it's from or came from!

[Powah]

So my local reef store the guy was doing matienance on a customers tank and found this the owner had no idea where it came from so asked for it to be removed. I saw it at the shop the next day and the guy said he couldn't figure out what it was to determine if it was coral safe. I am a month in and he knew I didn't have any corals I really liked the look of it so he said I could have it if I observe and report back to him on it.

 

Behavior: After drip acclimated when first introduced to the tank I have 5 red leg hermits so I put 6 bigger empty shells for them in the front. The new guy went to all 6 shells and cleaned them.

 

He later let a snail cerith go on his shell and I guess clean it? Appears to be peaceful towards snails. The second picture is of him a great shot was when the snail was on top of him the snail flipped him over no retaliation.

 

I have seen it eat a little algae and some frozen reef special food so he is omnivore.

 

It appears his species is not adapt to walking on sand appears to struggle moving around so he has spent most of his time live rock.

 

The first morning he was locked in with the biggest red leg hermit both the shell opening were connected but when I went to check and separated them they both appeared to be healthy and moving around so I don't know how long their shells were locked.

 

His eyes are very big to me his whiskers are very long his legs are a light green it appears and his claws are bigger than my small emerald crabs.

 

Any guesses of origin would really help narrow my search down.

[billygoat]

Banded-eye hermit crab (Paguristes tortugae). Standard-issue small reef-safe hermit crab. Has all the same behaviors as scarlet or blue-leg hermit crabs. Pretty cool looking too imo. They are native to Florida and the Caribbean.

[Powah]

Thank you very much that's what it appears to be glad it's reef safe and yes he acts just like the red legs you are the best!

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, Powah said:

Thank you very much that's what it appears to be glad it's reef safe and yes he acts just like the red legs you are the best!

No problem! I actually have one too. 😅