for the crab
Observed during the 2023 South Florida City Nature Challenge (CNCSOFLO)
Project page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023-south-florida-cncsoflo/
Website: https://www.cncsoflo.com/
Instagram: @ cncsoflo
This animal is absurd.
At first, the horse conch shell I had found it in I suspected to be empty- the hermit crab is small enough to retract completely inside of the shell and be completely obscured. I had captured it from a pier using a long-handled dipnet- the location and time are accurate to where I had initially acquired the shell (and unknowingly captured the hermit crab).
I was at that pier for a little over two hours. The hermit crab never made itself known during this time, and even inside the bucket of seawater in which it was kept it did not move or even peer out of it's shell. For a time it's shell was laid in the open air, exposed to the sun. It made no attempt to escape from the heat or lack of moisture, and instead stayed within it's shell.
My plan from the very start was to keep the shell. I thought it was unoccupied, and in very good condition. I even thought to myself that it's quite a surprise that such a nice shell isn't inhabited by a hermit crab. I was... incorrect.
I brought home the shell in a bucket of seawater, along with the test of a sea urchin (observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172616882 .)- i brought the seawater home with me in case there were any planktonic creatures I could observe and to keep any animals that clung to the test of the urchin alive for the time being before i put it in my aquarium.
There were no such animals in the bucket of seawater, and I was exhausted after being in the sun for so long- i placed the urchin test in my aquarium and left the bucket of seawater and hermit crab in my room, without any oxygenation or means to create any sort of flow for two days.
When I decide to dump out the seawater as I have no use for it, I notice something odd- the molted shell of a hermit crab. In the moment I interpret is as the corpse of an unfortunate hermit crab, who I failed to notice. I attempted to remove it from the bucket to examine it and find out which species this ex-hermit was, however it promptly crumbled into disjointed fragments. What a tragedy, to perish in a bucket of stagnant seawater, and decompose to the point of being reduced to nothing more than a hollowed shell.... I thought.
I had thought about placing the shell of the horse conch in my aquarium as I did with the urchin, but I decided against it as I didn't spot any good places for it. There were plenty of hiding places for the gobies, and I didn't want to cover up any sand the hogchokers had to roam in.
So I decide to keep it on a shelf for display- maybe I will find a spot for it eventually. I rinse the shell, inside and out, in cold tap water. Distracted by something else, I place the shell, still wet, on the bathroom counter, right beside the sink. The opening of the shell is faced downwards.
Here the shell, and the hermit crab within, stayed for two days.
At around 2AM I enter the bathroom to brush my teeth before settling into bed. I finish brushing, and I glance to my left. There's something in the shell. The body of a barely-living hermit crab is draped out of the shell's aperture. The creature appears to be flowing out of the shell, more like a viscious liquid than a living animal. The hermit crab is barely resisting dessication, with slow, feeble attempts to withdraw into it's shell before sliding out again and again.
These are where my pictures were taken- to my shock, horror, and awe, the hermit crab had survived all of this... barely. The blunted claws, exterior of short fur now flattened and damp like that of a drowned mammal, banded eye stalks and mouthparts, now stuck to the extremities of their owner gave away this creature's identity: Paguristes karenae, a species I have only seen once before.
It would be something of a crime to let this creature die- never have I been more thankful that I have a brackish water aquarium that can house hermit crabs before. I immersed the animal and it immediately retreated fully into it's shell.
It took another full day for the hermit crab to reveal itself again- it still lays in the exact same spot from last night, but now with the tip of it's leg visible from the aperture of the shell. It's slight movement an indicator that it's wielder still stubbornly clung to life.
A day later, and the hermit shows it's face, but still does not move from it's position. It does not retreat when I offer it a small scrap of shrimp, which it eagerly begins to consume, though moving it's claws and maneuvering the food weakly. Despite this, it is much stronger than when it was first placed within the aquarium and especially when it was laid to dry on the countertop.
...And here I find myself now, growing attached to the little creature- if it doesn't threaten the smaller inhabitants of my aquarium or destroy my gardens of algae, I may keep it.
If not, I will release it nearby where I unknowingly captured it- only after I have given it enough care to return to the strength and vigor it once had.
tl;dr: I took home a horse conch shell and didn't know there was a hermit crab inside. It survived periods of exposure to the sun in open air, survived and molted in seawater left stagnant for two days, and continued living despite being rinsed in tap water and left to dry for two more. As of now it resides in my aquarium, where I am nursing it back to it's full strength.