What kind of hermit is this?

Well I traded my nasty starfish for some snails and this mystery hermit crab:



That pic may not be good enough to ID him; I'll try and get some more pics later perhaps.

The LFS didn't know what kind it was, so I couldn't resist buying it for $4. Any ideas? After doing some googling the best I could come up with is maybe Calcinus tibicen but I'm not really convinced that's it.

On another note, this fella changed shells within 20 minutes of getting in my tank! Funny.

 

The picture in this link looks very much like your hermit. The picture is identified as the same species you noted. Have fun exploring if you don't think it is a match!

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/arthropoda/crabs/hermitcrabs.htm

 

Here is the photo:

 

yeah that's the one on the net that i saw that made me suspect that species, lol, cool we found the same photo

 

Here's a pic of the crab in its new shell:



One reason I'm not sure it's a Calcinus tibicen is because multiple sites have described that one as having orange eye stalks, and this guy has white eye stalks.

 

The eye stalks as well as the coloration sure seam to be very similar, eh?

 

I have 4 of those hermits. Nice crabs but they sometimes walk over some corals.

 

I had begun thinking it's a blue-legged hermit, and then I found a pic at this link that looks 99% like mine:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Tanks/Tankpics/reef-blhc.jpg

It looks just like mine, especially the claws, although his legs are a bit bluer than mine.  The owner calls it a blue-leg hermit.

It seems like mine might be Phimochirus operculatus.

 

I have a bunch of those Blue leg hermits. They are pretty neat looking. I have noticed that of the ones that I have 1 has grown twice as fast as the others. They are of the dwarf type and stay small anyway.


Jay

 

Hi folks - I picked up two hermits last week when we were trying to save some sea creatures from an abandoned drift net in Hong Kong.

I thought these two guys might be helpful to the tank but I've now put them in the "penalty box", separated from the main tank because they started overturning and eating snails, snipping off growth on live rock, and generally causing havoc in the tank.

I've tried to identify them using the above link that Craig supplied (link)). I think what I have are similar to Dardanus pedunculatus or Dardanus lagopodes. The ones I have are about 1.5 inches big, maybe bigger.

Here's a picture (I'll try to get a better one and post it).

I guess what I should do is return them to the ocean. Am I wrong on the identification? What do you guys think I should do with them?

Thanks.