Image: Calcinus laevimanus hermit crab with Calliactis sea anemone. 2 frames in one

Description: w:Hermit crab, Calcinus laevimanus with w:sea anemone, Calliactis. The images were taken in Tidal Pools in Kona. It is a vet unusual find. I was contacted by a researcher, who gave me a kind permission to use their email for the image description: "Actually the species you saw, Calcinus laevimanus, always lives only in shallow tidal pools. I'm sure the shell+anemone you saw recently belonged to a Dardanus because the anemone-associated Dardanus hermit crabs always carry that particular kind of anemone (Calliactis). So I think this was just a rare, happy 'accident' for the C. laevimanus. Dardanus lives deeper than C. laevimanus, I see it when I'm diving (around 3-15 meters of water). So it's kind of interesting that the Calcinus laevimanus found a shell that came from deeper water! By the way, I asked my adviser and he thinks the original shell occupant was probably Dardanus deformis or D. gemmatus, not D. pedunculatus. This is because D. pedunculatus is not known from Hawaii. Congratulations on finding a cool and unusual animal association!"
Title: Calcinus laevimanus hermit crab with Calliactis sea anemone. 2 frames in one
Credit: Own work
Author: Brocken Inaglory
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
Attribution Required?: Yes