Great Red Hermit Crab Dardanus calidus

Hermit crabs have soft rear bodies and use a sea snail shell to protect their body from predators. They curl their rear body and hooked tail around the inside of the shell to walk about and move to a larger shell as they grow. The Great Red Hermit Crab, also called the Red and the Mediterranean Hermit Crab, is native to the eastern Atlantic coast from Portugal to Senegal and also to the Mediterranean. The body without shell can be 10cm long. The eye stalks are red and white banded. The red legs have pink joints. They sometimes live in symbiosis with a commensal anemone.