Whitenero

There are over 60 species of Hermit crabs known in New Zealand. Hermit crabs have a very soft, vulnerable abdomen so inhabit empty shells of marine snails for protection. As the hermit crab grows, it needs to find larger shells in which to live.
 
NZ Hermit Crab
(Pagurus novizelandiae)
The NZ hermit crab has blue nippers with rows of bumps on them its antennae re smooth.

 
Plankton hermit crab (Paguristes setosus)

Similar to Pagurus novizelandiae but main distinguishing feature is the fine long hairs on its antennae, it uses these to catch plankton in the water.
 
Halicarcinus whitei

Easy to keep
Does not create permanent barrows is nomadic and probably feeds on polychaetes
I have seen mine eating mussel that i have dropped in to the tank. Must be a hardy species as has survived the cycling of my tank and having a Olive rock fish for a temporary flat mate.
Can be found under stones or Buried in the substrate all over the intertidal zone

 
Glass shrimp
(Palaemon affinis)

The Glass shrimp grows to 3cm it has a clear body and its internal organs are visible.
It can swim forward and backward using its pleopods or rapidly with a flip of its tail, the Females hold their eggs under the tail between its pleopods . This shrimp is commonly found in habours and rockpools and is easy to keep.
They will eat almost anything that you feed them and dont need to be fed to often eating dead animal and plant matter also seen them eating Brine shrimp and probably pods.
Palaemon affinis has a wide range of salinity tolerance and regulates the osmotic concentrations of its body fluid.
 
Reproduction:
The male deposits spermatophores on the sternum of the female, Eggs then issue from the females genital openings.The eggs pass over the spermatophores and most are fertilised.
eggs are attached to special setae on the four anterior pairs of pleopods (on the female).

 
Unfertilised eggs fall off after a few days and the fertilised eggs remain until the planktonic stage hatches..
 
 
 
Camouflage crab
( Notomithrax peroni)

The camouflage crabs get their name for their habit of nipping bits from seaweeds and gluing these onto their hairs. They eat almost any food and can damage anenomes by using their claws to pull food out of them.
The Peroni has bigger nippers than ursus and is larger overall.  One i had was about 12cm along the carapace.
 
Hairy Decorator crab
(Notomithrax ursus)
Similar to decorator crab but smaller with smaller nippers and the carapace is covered in stiff hairs