Halloween Hermit Crab Ciliopagurus/Trizopagurus strigatus

Hermit crabs use a sea snail shell to protect their soft rear body from predators, curling the rear body and hooked tail around the inside of the shell to walk about. They move to a larger shell as they grow. The Halloween Crab, also called the Striped and the Orange-legged Hermit Crab, is named after its orange and red leg bands. It is native to the western Indo-Pacific through to Hawaiian Islands. The body without shell can be 5cm long. The eye stalks are orange and the body has a white shield. They live mainly in empty cone snail shells and are omnivorous mainly scavengers.