Ecuadorian hermit crab
From Freepedia
| Ecuadorian Hermit Crab | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Coenobita compressus Herbst, 1791 |
The Ecuadorian hermit crab (Coenobita compressus) also known as the Pacific hermit crab is a species of land hermit crab commonly sold in the United States as a pet, along with the Caribbean hermit crab.
Coenobita compressus is a member of the phylum Arthropoda and the class Crustacea. They have four walking legs, a small pincer, a large pincer, and antennae. Many people who keep these crabs as pets notice that Ecuadorians can be relatively fast walkers, more so than the Caribbean hermit crab.
Ecuadorian hermit crabs vary greatly in color. There are some that are bright yellow, dark grey or orange. More often they are a tan color, but sometimes have a bluish tint to their bodies or the insides of their legs.
Native to Ecuador, these hermit crabs live on the Pacific seashore around the tidal pools and high-tide zone. Their bodies have adapted to this seashore existence by becoming able to metabolize the salt in seawater. In fact, they have adapted so well to their environment that they actually need seawater to live. If these animals are to be kept as pets, they will need a small amount of sea salt or synthetic aquarium salt to replace that which they would receive in the wild.
In the wild, Ecuadorian hermit crabs are scavengers, like most other hermit crabs. They will consume seaweed, dead fish and other detritus that washes up on the shore. As pets, Ecuadorian hermit crabs may be fed a commercial hermit crab diet as well as vegetables, fruit, nuts and meat (although uneaten meat should be removed quickly).
A study done with Coenobita compressus [1] showed that the land hermit crabs prefer the odours of foods that they have not recently eaten. The crabs that were exposed to one food for at least 9 h preferred foods having other odours for the next 6 h. This short-term avoidance of food (like human beings who get "bored" of the same meals over and over again) that compels the crabs to seek out a wider range of food might be advantageous to the crab, possibly through the consumption of a more nutritionally balanced diet.
