To keep pressure on the cyanobacteria that has held the Seagrass Meadow substrate since November 2025, a group of hermit crabs was collected from the Tampa Bay coast on June 12 and put to work across the biome. Where the mud crabs already in the substrate dig and break the sand apart, the hermit crabs work at a finer scale: they sift the sand and climb the grass blades, picking hair algae and detritus off every surface. They do not eat the cyanobacteria directly, but they graze the exact spots it grows and keep it physically disturbed. Three hermit crab species feature in the effort, the Hairy Hermit Crab (Paguristes karenae), the Long-claw Hermit Crab (Pagurus longicarpus), and the McLaughlin's Hermit Crab (Pagurus maclaughlinae) already established in the meadow. The Hairy Hermit Crab is a left-handed diogenid, with an enlarged left claw, which can reduce competition for shells with the right-handed species. Extra empty shells were added alongside them as housing. With the substrate now being worked from the sand up, the open question is how far this combined disturbance sets the cyanobacteria back.
Related Subjects
Long-claw Hermit Crab, one of the three hermit crab species featured; right-handed Paguridae.
McLaughlin's Hermit Crab, already present in the meadow; right-handed Paguridae, completing the three-species cleanup crew.
The hermit crabs work the substrate surfaces the mud crabs cannot reach, extending physical disturbance of the cyanobacteria across the Seagrass Meadow.
The seven-month cyanobacteria the introduction targets; the hermit crabs graze the exact spots it grows.
Orangeclaw Hermit Crab, present in the footage; another hermit crab in the saltwater realm.
Mud Crab, the contrast species: digs and breaks the substrate, while the hermit crabs work the finer surfaces the mud crabs do not.
Florida Glass Shrimp, present in the footage from the same June 12 collection.