Clibanarius sp. (Dwarf Red Tip Hermit)

Source: liveaquaria.com

QUICK STATS

• Care Level: Easy
  
• Temperament: Peaceful
  
• Reef Compatible: Yes
  
• Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
  
• Max. Size: 1"
  
• Color Form: Red
  
• Diet: Herbivore
  
• Origin: Mexico
  
• Family: Diogenidae
  
• Insert Date: 9 February 2010
  

The Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab is a voracious scavenger. Like its Blue Leg cousin, the Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab serves as an ideal member of your marine or reef aquarium's cleanup crew. Also known simply as the Red Tip Hermit Crab, this omnivore will scavenge all over your live rock and sand substrate - finding its way into the tightest of spaces - to feed on algae and detritus.
Like other members of this genus, the Red Tip Hermit Crab has claws of equal size and, for this reason, members of this genus are sometimes called "Equal-handed Hermit Crabs." Native to the coastal water surrounding Mexico, the Red Tip has a bright red face and legs. In the home aquarium it does best in saltwater reef or fish-only systems with sand substrates in which they can forage and dig. Its feeding methods also help aerate the sand bed and promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. The Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab should ideally be kept in a well-established system with plenty of algae and live rock to graze upon.

Making its home in abandoned snail shells of various size and shape, be sure to offer empty shells to accommodate the growth of these small members of the Diogenidae family. Additionally, offer dried seaweed if algae levels are insufficient. Like other invertebrates, care needs to be taken during the acclimation process to prevent pH shock. Also, take special care to ensure an invertebrate-friendly environment free of predators and copper-based medications.

Other Links:
http://frugalreef.com/wiki/Hermit_Crab
http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-HermitCrab.htm

No idea yet what kind this is, hope to find out soon (maybe anyone can help). Here are the pictures:

He is still doing fine, but he seemed to be stuck a bit yesterday. Also bought him some new shells, so maybe we will see him in one of those.

While browsing around a bit I finally found the name and species of this hermit crab. Its the Dwarf Red Tip Hermit, had a good look at it yesterday, and he has dark red legs with blue spots on them, just like the one in the picture below (its not my hermit)

Still doing great

Also one that shows a lot, except for yesterday when I took pictures, the dwarf red tip hermit. He is an excellent cleaner so far, for such a small animal. You can really see where he has been. I’m thinking of maybe buying one or two more, maybe different hermits.

Like I said yesterday, I’m very happy with my little dwarf red tip hermit. Yesterday he was walking over the rocks, so I got a shot of him. But he does great work cleaning, so one or two more will be a good possibility.

This weekend the hermit crab decided to move to a new house. I will make a picture soon to show him in his new house

Found a nice overall article on Hermit Crabs on Fishlore

This little creature bugged me a lot during the removal of rocks and corals. Just sat on the rocks and didnt let go. But when it was his turn to move he moved without a sweat.

He gave us quite a scare, we thought he got ripped out of his shell, but it seemed he had shed his skin. We found out when we tried to move the shell from the rock and it was holding onto the rock. He is back now in the new environment, but doesn't feel like moving a lot still.

The Hermit was hiding yesterday between the rocks, but this morning I found him scavenging the rocks. Think he will be fine now, will put in some shells for him to grow into.

The hermit crab is hiding a lot lately. Not sure why, could barely see him hiding under the Xenia yesterday.

The hermit crab is still hiding a lot underneath the Xenia

The hermit crab is mostly active and visible at night. This time I caught him moving around

Yesterday I caught the hermit moving to a new shell, and also moving back to his old one right away. Unfortunately he did this at night time and there wasn't much to see/photograph about it. He just puts the entrances of the shells together and you see his feet moving a bit and next thing you know he has a new shell on his back.

But he is back in his old shell again, guess the new one wasn't what he hoped it would be.

He tried before, but didn't like the house he had then, but now he officially moved to a new shell.

This morning I found him switching shells again, he keeps moving from one shell to the other. I'm going to add some bigger and smaller shells, maybe the ones that are in there now are either too big or too small.

He moved again. Think I need to put in some bigger shells for him.

Our first Hermit Crab has been with us for 7 months now. He moved 2 times to bigger shells already and is still growing it seems. He made it through the first big rebuild without much trouble, except for the fact that we thought he died in the backup aquarium. Last few weeks he is trying to find a bigger shell it seems, so yesterday we added a few bigger ones. But we reached the limit, so we need to find some new ones in the store.

The Hermit crab had his first birthday in the RSM, so he is moving around there for a whole year already. I hope to see him for many more years too