HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I just took another trip to the beach--this time to Howard Park, Florida. As hubby and I were walking down the beach, we saw literally hundreds of teeny tiny marine crabs in the tide pools. We also saw dozens of clear jelly like sacs with tiny specks in them that looked like eggs. This particular beach was very quiet with hardly any waves, and there were big patches of seaweed growing in the shallow areas of the water. I was wondering if the egg sacs could possibly have been hermie eggs, which were later carried out to sea where they hatched, and the tiny hermies swam back to the shallow water. Don't know much about this process, but it was SO interesting. The hermies were quite literally ant sized and they were everywhere!!

I love the beach.

Sounds awesome!!!

Aww *swoons* When my friend and I went to BVI last year we saw some tiny ones like that in a tide pool. Talk about Micros! They were blue, I'm not sure if its because they were babies or b/c of their species (I don't know the diffrent species, I'd have to look at a chart or something)

I live in Florida and I remember catching hermit crabs once when I was little, but it must have been at some park or something b/c the beaches in jacksonville stink.

Awesome! I hope i find some wild hermies next week at Rehoboth Beach. That'd be SO AWESOME!

Cool, I found a lot of wild hermit crabs on the beaches when I was in Hong Kong this summer too. I think they were a marine species. I haven't seen them before. Most were micro sized. I also got some pics:

They are SO TINY!

I have a few (maybe around 20 or so? i dont really know) marine hermits over there *points to coral tank thing.* they are my dad's really, but we have lots of tiny blue ones, and then 4 bigger hermits.

They are awesome, and you can actually hand feed them, they run right up to you