Coenobita perlatus

Species of crustacean

Coenobita perlatus is a species of terrestrial hermit crab. It is known as the strawberry hermit crab because of its reddish orange colours. It is a widespread scavenger across the Indo Pacific, and wild caught specimens are traded to hobby aquarists.

Adults may grow to a typical length of and weight of , and inhabit discarded gastropod shells. C. perlatus and the other members of Coenobita should not be considered easy pets, as the conditions they need in the wild are difficult and expensive to set up in captivity. Even ideal captive conditions still considerably shorten their life, and they never reproduce.

C. perlatus lives in a wide swathe of the Indo Pacific, from Indonesia, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Aldabra in the west to Samoa in the east. In Australia, the species is limited to Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Sea Islands Territory. In the wild, animals may live for 25–30 years, but in captivity they only live for 1–4 years and do not reproduce. In the heat of the day, it can bury itself in damp sand as a means of thermoregulation and to prevent water loss. It can also withdraw into its shell and close the aperture with its claws. It has also been observed to use its claws to pinch the live flesh from the invasive land snail Achatina fulica. Eggs are brooded inside the shell that the female inhabits, but are released into the sea.

C. perlatus was originally described in 1837 by Henri Milne Edwards, based on material from Mauritius.

C. perlatus is the rarest of the six species that are frequently found in the hobby aquarium trade.