← JournalNotes from the Kelp Forest

Thicket Hermit Crab

Paguristes silvaticus

Coastal7 cm shell · Climbing · wary

Field record

It climbs the kelp rather than the rock, working up a stipe hand over hand with a shell so thoroughly overgrown that the whole animal reads as a knot in the plant. It froze for ninety seconds when the lamp found it and then, deciding I was weather rather than appetite, went on climbing.

Marginal note: “wears a shell already grown over with weed”

Habitat

ZoneThe Kelp Forest

Depth range640–3,000 m

DiscoveryNo special condition — found simply by piloting close enough to identify it.

Catching it

A Coastal-tier catch needs at least a Fine Mesh Net— anything under that rating can never hold it, whatever the throw. Bought at the Quartermaster’s counter for 90 crystals. A held net inks this entry for good and pays its ledger bonus on the spot.

Ledger bonus on capture+10 Fleet Haul

Full capture mechanics — sighting vs. capture, the aim ring, why a net below a creature’s tier always bursts — in The Ledger.