But to a hermit crab, it s a good home.
Hermits have a soft, curled belly that squeezes right into the twists and turns of a snail shell.
Inside the shell, the hermit is protected. A hermit crab can carry its shell house wherever it goes. While studying hermit crabs, I learned that snail shells make good homes for crabs, but not perfect ones. For one thing, snail shells do not completely protect hermit crabs from their enemy, the octopus. Sea anemones fasten onto the hermit s shell and live there as in the picture above.