Hermit Crabs in Fiji
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:00 am
So, last October I spent a week on a dive trip in Fiji. My guest bure lawn was crawling with crabs! Mostly ruggies, but there were also some land crab burrows and plenty of ghost and shore crabs too. Took a ton of photos. Probably the only weirdo at the resort who was constantly staring at the ground looking for hermits. 
Stayed on a little island called Beqa (pronounced Mbenga) off of Viti Levu (the main island).
I found some of the tiniest crabs I've ever seen! It became my goal to find the smallest one on the island.
So.. I present... the Crabs of Beqa Island!
I think that last guy was the smallest. But it was a tossup, really!
A few slightly bigger ones, but still ridiculously, adorably small...
And here's a bigger one...
I have more photos of the larger ones somewhere, but can't find them at the moment. I probably photographed at least 50 different individuals over the week. They were all very patient with me as I picked them up for their photo shoots. Except one, who immediately pinched the crap out of me.
I left him alone after that, ha!
And then I found this pair mating late at night on my back porch...
That boy was so hairy! After they were done, he guarded her a while. Then they split up. He seemed a little love-drunk and didn't run away from me and my flashlight. If he were human, I'd imagine he was sitting there coolly smoking a cigarette in the afterglow. 
But oh my, what my fellow divers must have thought of me... crouched in the grass late at night with a flashlight watching crabs get it on.
I did notice that the crabs were pretty small overall on this island. And to me, it seemed tied to a lack of available shells. The largest crabs (barely medium sized) were in terrible shells. Crammed into shells far too small and broken, with big holes and bits of their abdomen showing through. I didn't find many crab-suitable shells along the beach, so I imagine competition must be pretty fierce. I'm guessing that's a big limiting factor to them there.
One of the other guests showed me a photo on her phone of a much larger crab she had seen on the beach. It looked very much like an Indo. I spent the rest of the week hunting for it, but never could find it.
Other Crabs...
There were land crab burrows everywhere. They were extremely shy, though. If I peeked into their holes, all I saw was a scurry of legs disappearing deeper underground. If I laid still in my hammock for a long time, this one would tentatively sneak out to look around though. Tried my best to get a photo, but this was all I could get.
This little sand crab I spotted in the late evening. He looked very startled by my camera flash, ha!
There were tons of these shore crabs clinging to my seawall late at night. This poor guy was missing all his legs on one side, but seemed to be doing okay nevertheless.
Here's another one of those guys!
And here we have the Common Chair Crab. I would LOVE to have a set of these crab chairs! There was a table to match, too!
There were fiddler crabs, too. But they were too shy to catch on film, despite my best efforts.
And here's a little video of a ruggie down by the beach: https://youtu.be/TzsB3M1DLT0
And.. not crabs.. but the reason I went to Fiji. Diving with Tiger Sharks: https://youtu.be/GDKXVL7mihI
And if you'd like to see what the rest of Fiji looks like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jadewolf/ ... 854341898/
Stayed on a little island called Beqa (pronounced Mbenga) off of Viti Levu (the main island).
I found some of the tiniest crabs I've ever seen! It became my goal to find the smallest one on the island.
So.. I present... the Crabs of Beqa Island!
I think that last guy was the smallest. But it was a tossup, really!
A few slightly bigger ones, but still ridiculously, adorably small...
And here's a bigger one...
I have more photos of the larger ones somewhere, but can't find them at the moment. I probably photographed at least 50 different individuals over the week. They were all very patient with me as I picked them up for their photo shoots. Except one, who immediately pinched the crap out of me.
I left him alone after that, ha!And then I found this pair mating late at night on my back porch...
That boy was so hairy!
After they were done, he guarded her a while. Then they split up. He seemed a little love-drunk and didn't run away from me and my flashlight. If he were human, I'd imagine he was sitting there coolly smoking a cigarette in the afterglow. But oh my, what my fellow divers must have thought of me... crouched in the grass late at night with a flashlight watching crabs get it on.
I did notice that the crabs were pretty small overall on this island. And to me, it seemed tied to a lack of available shells. The largest crabs (barely medium sized) were in terrible shells. Crammed into shells far too small and broken, with big holes and bits of their abdomen showing through. I didn't find many crab-suitable shells along the beach, so I imagine competition must be pretty fierce. I'm guessing that's a big limiting factor to them there.
One of the other guests showed me a photo on her phone of a much larger crab she had seen on the beach. It looked very much like an Indo. I spent the rest of the week hunting for it, but never could find it.
Other Crabs...
There were land crab burrows everywhere. They were extremely shy, though. If I peeked into their holes, all I saw was a scurry of legs disappearing deeper underground. If I laid still in my hammock for a long time, this one would tentatively sneak out to look around though. Tried my best to get a photo, but this was all I could get.
This little sand crab I spotted in the late evening. He looked very startled by my camera flash, ha!
There were tons of these shore crabs clinging to my seawall late at night. This poor guy was missing all his legs on one side, but seemed to be doing okay nevertheless.
Here's another one of those guys!
And here we have the Common Chair Crab. I would LOVE to have a set of these crab chairs! There was a table to match, too!
There were fiddler crabs, too. But they were too shy to catch on film, despite my best efforts.
And here's a little video of a ruggie down by the beach: https://youtu.be/TzsB3M1DLT0
And.. not crabs.. but the reason I went to Fiji. Diving with Tiger Sharks: https://youtu.be/GDKXVL7mihI
And if you'd like to see what the rest of Fiji looks like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jadewolf/ ... 854341898/
That sounds like an amaaaaazing trip!
