Red Legged Hermit

[dayzofspeed]

i have this red legged crab that is confusing me, he is spending all of his time on bare bottom of my tank(no sand in there as yet), he will not go anywhere near the LR, i have tried putting him on the rock myself, but he immediately climbs back down, is this normal, do they naturally spend all their time on the sea bed?

 

[weezawoo]

Mine are all over the LR so not sure what it would be!

 

[seffieuk]

Maybe he is acrophobic

But seriously, it may be that there are lots of nice juicy diatoms on your bare bottom

Seffie x

 

[Donya]

Must be something of interest on the sand! Or something frightening in/on the rock. While I have not kept Paguristes cadenati (what I assume you're referring to), the smaller hermit species I have run accross will share time between sand and rock, sometimes in phases sometimes more evenly distributed. The only hermits I have had that exhibited a sand preference have been very large (e.g. adult Clibanarius vittatus and Dardanus megistos) such that struggle a bit with seep rocky climbs.

 

[dayzofspeed]

Maybe he is acrophobic

But seriously, it may be that there are lots of nice juicy diatoms on your bare bottom

Seffie x

you may be right seffie as he/she seems to be feeding well on the detritus thats settled on the glass. i think his mom must have been a monkey tho, his acrobatic skills are something to behold when he realises i've put him on the rock and he rushes back down to the glass at breakneck speed

Must be something of interest on the sand! Or something frightening in/on the rock. While I have not kept Paguristes cadenati (what I assume you're referring to), the smaller hermit species I have run accross will share time between sand and rock, sometimes in phases sometimes more evenly distributed. The only hermits I have had that exhibited a sand preference have been very large (e.g. adult Clibanarius vittatus and Dardanus megistos) such that struggle a bit with seep rocky climbs.

there's nothing on the rock of any size enough to spook him donya, i have no idea unfortunately of the latin name for this crab as it was just listed at the lfs as "hermit crab" didnt even say it was red legged although that was fairly obvious as he does have red legs

 

[HappyGeorge]

Likely that it is Paguristes cadenati mate thats what all my red legs are. Mine spend a good deal of time on the bottom or will sometimes gravitate to one random piece of rock. I had a tiny dead coral skeleton about 4 inch long and it was invaded by 4 of my hermits for 3 whole days, when I thought one was stuck and moved it off he was back ten minutes later. I wouldn't worry they have obviously found something of interest there.

P.S Dayz stuck a reply to the shoaling fish discussion on my journal for you.

 

[dayzofspeed]

thanks HG, wil go check it out now