Friend or Foe On Hermit Shell?

[gingerviolinist]

Any idea what this hitchhiker might be? I purchased this Halloween Hermit about 2 months ago and noticed a couple of these barnacle like growths on one end of the shell. I’ve never noticed any movement until last evening. I noticed a black proboscis coming out of the shell! I’ve attached a video and a photo below. The crab changes around shells every couple of days so when he changed out of this one, I removed it from the tank to quarantine just in case pending friend or foe status.

 

[Kasrift]

Any idea what this hitchhiker might be? I purchased this Halloween Hermit about 2 months ago and noticed a couple of these barnacle like growths on one end of the shell. I’ve never noticed any movement until last evening. I noticed a black proboscis coming out of the shell! I’ve attached a video and a photo below. The crab changes around shells every couple of days so when he changed out of this one, I removed it from the tank to quarantine just in case pending friend or foe status.

Perfectly fine, it's a friend. Just some limpets from the looks of it.

 

[gingerviolinist]

Perfectly fine, it's a friend. Just some limpets from the looks of it.

Thank you!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Nice pics! Agreed that they’re harmless (small info dump below):

Hoof snail or similar (such as a slipper limpet) - harmless, and not a parasite:

hoof snail (taxonomic family Hipponicidae). Some of the species you’d find on things living in shells feed on the waste of their host, others basically feed on whatever is brought into their range by their host. Harmless, sessile, and a neat find.

I know some hoof snails use a long proboscis - the siphon mouth - for feeding this way, I’m not sure if some slipper limpets/snails do too or not

 

[gingerviolinist]

Super informative - thank you!