The Blue Banded Hermit Crab

Wait a minute, that’s not a snail. It is the snail’s shell, but the snail died. After the snail died, it decomposed and left behind an empty shell. Then this creature, the Blue Banded Hermit Crab, climbed into the shell. Now it uses the shell for protection. Just like the snail, it can retract into the shell and keep its
claws at the entrance. The Blue Banded Hermit Crab starts out as an egg. Next, it changes into different larval stages and swam around in the water. Finally, it becomes a tiny hermit crab and it finds a tiny empty shell in which to live on the rocks. As it grows, it will shed its exoskeleton, just like the Crayfish. Also,
as it grows, it will have to find larger and larger empty shells in which to live. Sometimes two crabs will fight with each other if they both want the same shell. Like the Striped Shore Crab, it will eat algae and dead animals. It looks like it is about to make a snack of that beautiful piece of red algae. By the way, YOU probably have eaten something made from this species of red algae. That is correct! This red algae species is made into a powder called agar. Agar gets added to recipes for ice cream, jelly, the filling in doughnuts, and puddings. So you and this hermit crab both enjoy red algae, but in very different ways.

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