Invertebrates on and near the beach in Khao Lak

Invertebrates at and near the beach in Khao Lak - Land hermit crabs

Land hermit crabs can be seen here very often, and quite often they have chosen apple snail shells as their home. In our eyes maybe not the best choice, because the shells are rather thin and break easily, but you can find the hermits very often with exactly these shells. The animals live in hundreds on the beach. During the day they are also active, but at night you really see them in action. They go over the beach like an army of cleaners and remove all kinds of food left behind by the tourists. Restaurants sometimes deposit their food and cooking waste, such as fruit peels and vegetable scraps, in piles on the beach, and the hermit crabs then fill their bellies there.

Land hermit crabs at night

A very impressive experience: We rented scooters, which have a lot of power in Thailand. They are not throttled as much as in Germany, such a Thai scooter drives 120 km/h, if you put it on it ... With the car license you can drive scooters in Thailand without problems - that was a bit funny, it was my first scooter ride ever! Partly we were then on the road at night with our scooters and also drove into the woods and to the beach. It's incredible how many hermit crabs are active there at night on the beach, you really have to watch where you step! Apparently they hide in the forest during the day and go to the beach at night to feed - an incredibly impressive spectacle! Being able to witness this migration was really something special and one of the many highlights of our trip.

A classic biotope for land hermit crabs

Here on the photo you can see a classic land hermit crab habitat. Here the animals were en masse on the move. You can also see other small invertebrates like shore crabs on the sandy bottom. At the mouth of the river the sea water mixes with the fresh water from the river to brackish water, and on that side were the mangrove crabs, which unfortunately you can't see on this picture. A little further back we found a small lake or pond that was connected to the sea, and here there were mangrove crabs, lava snails, batman snails, and I also saw a large number of anthracite cup snails. When the sea recedes a bit, you see all the snails, which really number in the thousands there.

Climbers par excellence

Here on the picture you can see very nicely what good climbers the rather stolid looking land hermit crabs actually are. They crawl up tree trunks like nothing and hold on with their strong legs armed with strong, pointed claws.

Keeping tips for land hermit crabs

So, land hermits are definitely very social group animals that actively interact and need the proximity of conspecifics. Under no circumstances should they be kept alone! Depending on the species, they need in the terrarium besides a nice deep part with terrarium humus, in which they can dig without danger, also stable climbing branches and other things they can climb, as well as sand zones and 5-10 cm deep bowls with water (freshwater and seawater). These trays should definitely have several exits such as pieces of roots or chunks of cork bark and so on.

What do land hermit crabs eat?

As omnivores, land hermit crabs are quite easy to feed (as we could observe so impressively, they really eat EVERYTHING). However, the food should be balanced and should not only contain fruits and vegetables, but also for example some raw unseasoned fish or frozen food. The pigment astaxanthin plays a very important role for land hermits, not only for their body coloration, but also for immune defense processes, so it is beneficial if they also get a share of colorful (mainly red and yellow) vegetables and fruits.

Shell flowers on the sea

The mussel flowers we are so familiar with are often found here on freshwater streams. They are sometimes washed into the sea by the current - a funny picture to see shellflowers floating on the sea. Unfortunately, they break down quite quickly in salt water.

Invertebrates on and near the beach in Khao Lak - giant land crabs

When we were out at night on our scooters, we almost got a bit scared because we were getting further and further away from the human settlements and into the rainforest. The background noise in the forest was enormous despite the late hour. We were close to the sea, but still in the forest, when we suddenly saw large creatures in the dark of the night. Everywhere were mounds of earth on which these creatures sat. In the light of our lamps we recognized huge land crabs that reached well and truly 12 centimeters carapace width.

In the next picture you can see one of the burrows that these giant land crabs dig and live in. When you came closer, it became funny: First the crab sat on the mound, then it disappeared quickly in the hole. The caves are located in the marsh area under the puddles and pools and continue under water. In these underwater caves, the crabs then chill in the water.