Adults may grow to a typical length of 80 mm (3.1 in) and weight of 80 g (2.8 oz), and inhabit discarded gastropod shells.

[3] 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.

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.

[5] In the heat of the day, it can bury itself in damp sand as a means of thermoregulation and to prevent water loss.

[6] C. perlatus is an efficient scavenger, to the extent that the low numbers of carrion-breeding flies on many islands have been attributed to the presence of C.