The hermit crab is a decapod, which is an order of crustaceans within the class that includes such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimp. However, they are not related to true crabs. Hermit crabs are often found in tidal pools or in the intertidal zone. Hermit crabs are invertebrates, animals without a backbone.
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Courtesy photos.
Hermit crabs will look for bigger shells to go into for protection as shown in these photos.
Their exoskeleton, an outer shell that provides support for their body, does not provide much protection from predators.
Their color varies widely from red to brown to purple, with patterns ranging from stripes, dots and other patterns. They have ten jointed legs; the front two legs are equipped with large, grasping claws (termed pincers or chelipeds) and the rear pair of legs is very small.
Most hermit crabs have long, soft abdomens, which they protect from predators by a salvaged empty seashell that they carry on their back and into which the crab can retract its whole body. More often than not the hermit crab will use the shells of sea snails.
The tip of the stomach of the hermit crab is adapted to clasp onto the columella of the snail shell. As the hermit crab enlarges, it has to find a larger shell and abandon its previous shell.
The crab’s style of living in a second hand shell gives rise to its name-Hermit Crab-analogous to a hermit, who lives alone. Several hermit crab species, both marine and terrestrial, use “vacancy chains” (social structures through which resources are distributed to consumers) to find new shells.
When a new, bigger shell becomes available, hermit crabs gather around it and form a type of queue from largest to the smallest. When the largest hermit crab moves into the newly found shell, the second biggest hermit crab moves into the newly vacated shell, which leaves its previous shell available for the third crab and so on.
The actual act of moving from shell to shell is quite a thing to see. The hermit crab turns its body so that the head of the hermit crab is positioned next to the opening of the new shell.
The hermit crab then slowly pulls his body out of the present day shell and quickly shifts its tail into the opening of the new shell and slides into it. Once inside, it comes partially out and starts to walk and resume normal activity. Of about five hundred species, most hermit crabs are aquatic.
The aquatic hermit crabs live in varying depths of saltwater, from shallow reefs and shore lines to deep sea bottoms. Terrestrial hermit crabs live in some tropical areas. At one time the hermit crab was thought to be derived from the king crab and they were placed in the same family. Later the two crabs were placed in different families.
As hermit crabs grow, they require larger shells. Since suitable gastropod shell are sometimes not intact or are hard to find, there is vigorous competition among hermit crabs for shells. The availability of empty shells at any given place is dependent upon the relative abundance of gastropods and hermits crabs that matched size.
An equally important issue is the population of organisms that prey upon gastropods and leave their shells intact. When the shell of a hermit crab becomes too small, it cannot grow as fast as those crabs with well-fitting and it is more likely to be eaten if it cannot fully retract itself completely into the shell.
For some larger marine species of hermit crabs, supporting sea anemones on the shell can scare away predators. The sea anemone also benefits because it is in a position to consume fragments of the hermit crab’s meals. Hermit crab species range in shape, size, from species with a carapace only a few millimeters long to one which has a carapace the size of a coconut.
The shell-less hermit crab, Birgus latro, is the world’s largest terrestrial invertebrate. The young hermit crabs develop in stages, with the first two (the nauplius and protozoea) occurring inside the egg. Most hermit crabs larvae hatch in the third stage (the zoea). This is the stage wherein the hermit crab has several long spines, a long narrow abdomen and large fringed antennae. After several molts, the next and final stage, is the megalopa stage.
The fossil record of in situ hermit crabs using gastropod shells stretches back to the Late Cretaceous. Before that time some hermit crabs used instead the shells of ammonites (an extinct group of marine animals belonging to the cephalopod class.
Several marine species of hermit crabs are common in the marine aquarium trade. OF the approximately fifteen terrestrial species in the world, the following are commonly kept as pets: the Caribbean hermit crab, Australian land hermit crab, and the Ecuadorian hermit crab.
Other species of hermit crabs are less common but are growing in availability and popularity as pets. These herbivorous or omnivorous species can be useful in the household aquarium scavengers because they eat algae and debris. Hermit crabs were at one time viewed as a “throw away pet” that would only live a few months but some species have a twenty-three year lifespan. If treated properly.
Some hermit crabs have actually lived 32 ears, In general, despite their moniker, hermit crabs are social animals that do best in groups. They do require a temperature and humidity- controlled environment as well as enough adequate substrate to allow the hermit crabs to bury themselves when they molt.
The Fishing report
# Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, was not detected in water samples taken in July inside of the Indian River Lagoon (both Brevard and Volusia counties). Additional samples taken off shore of Volusia and along shore of Martin County also contained no red tide organisms. Water samples collected from along Shore of Franklin County revealed no evidence of the red tide organism. Water samples collected alongshore of Pinellas and Collier Counties revealed no evidence of the red tide organism.
# The shrimp are running in the Halifax River. Your best bet is to use a cast net with a half-inch mesh, which will cull the smaller shrimp from your catch. Some of the shrimp have been reported as being six inches long. The surf temperature is in the low 80s.
# Surf fishermen have been catching whiting and spots. There are several barracudas in the surf. The pier fishermen report catches of whiting, sheepshead, black drum, flounder, and Spanish mackerel. Fishing on the jetties has not been very productive except for a few black drum and a few sheepshead.
# In the Halifax River black drum and bait are plentiful. Redfish ant trout have been pretty active at night. Some small tarpon have also been caught. In the Tomoka it is snook and redfish that delight the anglers.
# As you go up the Tomoka, large-mouth bass are hitting baits. In the Indian River there has been some redfish catches. In Mosquito Lagoon, Capt. Tarr reported that the tarpon bite is good from dawn to about 1000H. He also said that the redfish bite does not start until about 1130H and lasts until about 1400H. He has been using an EP fly to catch them. He also reported that a large amount of sheepshead have been tailing in the lagoon. Offshore anglers are still catching cobia.
# Tarpon are behind the shrimp boats as well as working bait pods. There have been some small kingfish, dolphin and sailfish catches.
Capt. Budd's Post Script
It has been written: “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out”.
So whether you charter, ride a head boat, run your own vessel, stay in the river, surf fish, or fish from shore or a bridge, there are fish to be caught. Fishing is not a matter of life and death, it is so much more important than that.
Tight lines
Capt. Budd
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