Submitting and IDing Hermit Crab Observations

General
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With this week’s new goal for ID-a-Thon, I proceeded to classify observations of molluscs. I saw two organisms classified as molluscs but which were actually hermit crabs. I pointed it out in a comment. The person who posted the observation replied that the observation was of the shell and that there is a separate observation for the hermit crab:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/300526161

Then, there’s this:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/can-the-gastropod-shells-being-worn-by-hermit-crabs-count-as-their-own-observations/32376?u=cristinamontes

What’s the acceptable practice when submitting observations of hermit crabs and identifying them?

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It’s completely fine to upload an image of a hermit crab twice, once for the mollusc shell and once for the hermit crab itself

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Thanks! What about for IDing? If I see a picture of a hermit crab, should I identify it as a hermit crab or should I identify the organism whose shell the hermit crab is using?

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if the observer already made an ID, then you should follow that. If the observation has no ID at all, you can pick one and leave a comment for the observer

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Thanks again!

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Hopefully they would leave a note. When I am entering multiple records with copies from a single picture I always drop a note about which bird or other creature I’m referring to.

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