What’s growing on my hermit shell?

[trevorhiller]

Can anyone ID what’s growing on my hermits shell? It’s been there since I got him and thought it was just part of the shell. Today I found him out of the shell and moving slow… I think he’s a goner. However, I’m curious what this thing is as it appears to be bigger than originally when I got him.

it almost looks like another shell growing, it appears to spiral. I’m not sure if it’s related to the hermit not doing well. I tried to offer it a replacement shell, but it wouldn’t climb in and now he’s just blowing around the tank, shell-less.

the first picture has a ghost flatworm on it, it’s not part of the red “growth”

 

[MoreReef]

Hmm looks like a spinoid worm...

 

[cocoReefer]

Its a vermetid worm. Bust it off and throw it away. You may have little babies all over your rocks already. Thats the large kind too, they can get annoying

 

[rmorris_14]

The second and and third pic kind of look like the molt of the hermit. It could still be in there.......

 

[EricR]

Pics show the hermit completely out of the shell, correct?
1st pic looks like something growing on the actual hermit crab's tail.

 

[trevorhiller]

Its a vermetid worm. Bust it off and throw it away. You may have little babies all over your rocks already. Thats the large kind too, they can get annoying

Thank you! He’s been in there like 3 months, I’m not sure how fast they reproduce. I’m going to chuck the empty shell .

the first picture there’s a ghost flatworm crawling over the shell. I’ve got a little outbreak of those guys at the moment.

 

[ying yang]

Red thing I would say is vermitted snail also.
As its on shell,would be easy to remove from tank and remove and throw shell back in

 

[BostonReefer300]

That big reddish thing is definitely a vermetid. Get it out as soon as you can. Hopefully it didn't reproduce, but my guess is that it likely did. Welcome to the sucky vermetid club!

 

[trevorhiller]

Is there any reason that this could have caused the hermit to abandon his shell? From what I’ve read, they are annoying, but not really harmful.

it definitely wasn’t the molt because I saw the hermit slowly moving, but not very powerfully. The current was blowing him around when I found him this morning.

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[EricR]

Referring to first pic -- is something attached to the tail flesh of the hermit crab,,, like a spirorbid worm or something? (Maybe pic just looks weird to me)

 

[BostonReefer300]

Is there any reason that this could have caused the hermit to abandon his shell? From what I’ve read, they are annoying, but not really harmful.

it definitely wasn’t the molt because I saw the hermit slowly moving, but not very powerfully. The current was blowing him around when I found him this morning.

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It's possible the vermetid burrowed into the shell instead of just being "on top" of it. I'd imagine that they scavenge minerals from wherever they can in order to build their crappy homes. As you may guess, I'm not a vermetid fan