Hermit Chaos :) Pics!!!

[Ashling]

I posted the story on here of my mum buying 2 hermit crabs against my advice, couldn't care for them, and how they ended up in my care Well I transferred the lucky crabs to a huge (over 2 foot long) tank recently. I used to be quite the hermit keeper when I was younger, and I've gotten right back into them. They're just so cute! Since they have so much room, today I bought a new hermit! When I got home to put the newbie in, Ghost (true to his name) was missing. After much panicked searching, I found he had crawled UP and OUT of the over 1 FOOT HIGH side of his GLASS tank and fallen onto the floor and hid behind my bin!? WTH?!? When I put the newbie in, Scarlet was following him around... I think she likes him :) He is very active compared to the others, I hope he teaches them a few things. Now to pick a name for him that goes with Scarlet Lush and Ghost.

I included a few pics for fun ^_^

Little Hermits in a biiig tank!




Scarlet, Newbie, Ghost




She likes the salt bath water

[Andie]

wow those are some lucky hermies!!! And I love your water monster ornament!

This is a picture of one of my hermies. I love their hairy little legs and beady eyes!

[Ashling]

My hermits don't have hair legs. They are the rugoses species, if I recall that correctly, and they come from Australia. I got three more today :D I'll have to update my sig!

[Andie]

You must have the C. Rugosus. I have the other native one the C. variabilis from the northern territory. I didn't mean they have hairy tarantula legs just tiny little 'hairs'. You can just see them in the other macro shot I posted.

They are so much fun to watch and I love the little tracks they leave on fresh clean sand.

[Ashling]

Oops I thought you meant really hairy, and I *glanced* at mine and couldn't see any hairs I had a close look at their legs today and saw the tiny hairs, then I came and read your post and felt like a bit of a goose! Blonde moment (must need dying again).

Can you tell the difference between Rugoses and Variabilis, the only help I have is from google...?

I have 6 hermies now... here they all are :)

[Andie]

They look pretty much the same as mine. I don't know how to tell the difference.

[greencinacheeks]

cool cool
and um..you spent too much time on that sig for you hernits!
and Aubrey? i thought we agreed Eurig or Kremlin....*Shakes fist at Mel*

they look awesome!

[Ashling]

Hmm I wonder then what species mine are... if there's no simple way to tell... I was sure they were Rugoses.

Nate Aubrey suited him more :(

[Andie]

From the pictures I have been seeing on Google, the ruggies are purpler than my crabs and purpler than your crabs. Do you know what shop they came from (the ones your mum bought that is!) If it is Pets Paradise they they are coenobita variabilis because i think they dela exclusively with merv coopr's crazy crabs.

i looked through he environment.gov website where it lists the permits to collect native species for commercial purposes and I could not see any permit listed for any HCs but Merv Cooper and the C. Variabilis.

Further to this, some sites seem to say that the Ruggies are only native to parts of africa and the SW pacific and east africa and others (wikipedia) list australia too.

So

Your guess is as good as mine.