How many aniimals can live on one shell?

Intricateart · Nov 27, 2013

So we recently posted our discovery of a local beautiful medium sized hermit, which has symbiotic anemones and symbiotic little crabs, and the adventure continues! All three hermits have 2 of the little crabs, 1 to 3 nems, though one made a shell change and hasn't moved his nem over yet, and then countless barnacles and monoplacophora. They have been awesome to observe and doing really great, eating readily (all of the animals) and seem to be getting along great too. They also can't climb. These hermits are by far the best of their size we have had yet, out of 3 varieties. I'm doing my best with the pics, the tiny crabs, which look exactly like a red porcelain crab with white polka dots, are very hard to get a clear shot of.

Intricateart · Nov 27, 2013

TJ's Reef · Nov 28, 2013

WOW! Very cool, thanks for sharing. Love the unusual inverts in this hobby and even better when one can collect their own.

Cheers, Todd

Eienna · Nov 28, 2013

One of my turbo snails decided to try sporting an aiptasia...needless to say, that didn't last long.

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

I often wonder if I could ever see all the kinds just in my area during one lifetime. Theres always something new, its amazing.

Todd & Amanda

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

Eienna that is funny! One of our turbos carried our sebae nem all the way to the top of the tank before I noticed, the clowns were freaking out. These are definitely symbiotic though, in addition to the three that we took, we found several more at the beach, all with the nems. Didn't know to look for the little crabs though LOL

Eienna · Nov 28, 2013

Intricateart said:
Eienna that is funny! One of our turbos carried our sebae nem all the way to the top of the tank before I noticed, the clowns were freaking out. These are definitely symbiotic though, in addition to the three that we took, we found several more at the beach, all with the nems. Didn't know to look for the little crabs though LOL

ROTFL!!
"COME BACK WITH OUR HOUSE!!!!"

Funny creatures, these seadwelling crustaceans....

tuna_bullet · Nov 28, 2013

i glue gsp to my snails, so much more colorful

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

AHHH I got a good shot of him!!!!!!! :high5:

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

I admit my ignorance, whats GSP

Rize2 · Nov 28, 2013

Those are so cool, love the little crabs on them!

GSP= Green star polyps

trido · Nov 28, 2013

So cool! Thanks for taking the time to get that extra picture. That red mottled crab must be tiny.

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

Hmm, neat idea! I know aren't the little ones beauties?! If you look extremely closely at the shot of the whole hermit, you can see that exactly opposite the noticeable tiny crab, there is an even tinier one! That is how all 3 sets are, so we are hoping very very hard that these will be breeding pairs. All the other crabs in our tank breed. It certainly makes the tank very happy when they do. But with these guys I'm mostly dying to know if they are going to keep the babies in the shell with them. The research continues!

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

Trido, under half an inch. About the size of my (my being amanda, not todd who has much bigger hands) pinky nail.

Intricateart · Nov 28, 2013

They are being very photogenic tonight! I think the daily copepod target feeding with a turkey baster has 'brought them out of their shell'.... lol I'm cracking myself up here, it's getting late.