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Lethargic decorator crab
7/20/16 Brittle Stars Living Inside Decorator Crab --
10/19/2009 Decorator Crab; Feeding And Compatibility
8/30/09
Decorator crabs. Comp. 04/03/09 Decorator crab... something growing on it... no pic... Uhhh? 3/23/07 I have read up about as much as my brain can absorb, <Mmm, may I be excused, my brain is full?> but I have something on the back of my decorator crab, other than the many things that looks like he put on its back purposely and can not identify. It has spread from maybe a small percentage of the crab's body to about a third over a period of 5 to 6 weeks. <A fast grower!> It is clear to white in color with very small specks of bright orange. <Hmm, maybe a sponge?> I don't know if it is a disease or maybe even a flatworm. <Unlikely, I think.> It doesn't seem to bother the crab, but it is getting closer to the crab's eyes and mouth. <Hopefully, the crab will be able to prevent this from being a problem.> Any info would very helpful. <Can't really tell you much without a photo.> Sorry I couldn't send an image, if I can find a camera with close enough lenses I will send you a pic. <Check to see if your camera has a macro setting, looks like a small flower, will allow you to take close ups.> Thanks, <Welcome -Mich> Jeremy Camposcia retusa... decorator crab, comp.
2/16/07 Hi Crew <Angel> I have a question regarding the
above. I have bought one, I suppose it was a bit of an
impulse buy as I wasn't planning on getting one, <Mmm,
you're learning...> I'd never heard of one, but I saw it and
was fascinated. The shop didn't give me the Latin name
but from pictures I have seen on the internet it is definitely this
one. It is approximately 10 cm in diameter from tip of leg
to tip of leg. <Yikes... Giganto!> So he is fairly large compared
to my other shrimp and hermits. So basically I have a tank set up with
fish, shrimp (dancing) and hermits (red ones) waiting for my new and
improved 700 L new Christmas present tank to cycle. <Wow! Send your
Santa my way!> It is a reef set up in that I have live rock in it, 2
types of algae plants, under tank sump, skimmer (thinking of getting an
ozonizer to make the water crystal, but that is another question for
the future may be). Any way as I have told Bob F in a past
email, my LFS only gets small stocks of marine life and quarantines
them for about 6 weeks before selling them and I am very good friends
with him and the manager and know that all their stock is disease and
parasite free. <Mmm, just my usual cautionary note here re... Most
all stores, wholesalers even... can't actually promise such...
there is just too much going on... mixed nets, containers, staff... to
warrant that contamination hasn't occurred, that new livestock
coming/going haven't passed things on...> So I took the crab
home and very excitedly put it (Kev) straight into the new tank
(acclimatizing obviously). Kev is doing really well, but now
that I have seen him trundling around and realized how big he is,
although small claws, <...> I am worried about what damage he may
do to my fish and hermits when I put them in. My LFS friend
said watch with small fish and shrimp, but now I am worried what would
be classed as small relative to his size and eating habits. <Ah,
yes> My smallest fish at the minute is a young clown who
is approximately 5 cm. So at the moment I am holding
back on transferring my buddies into the new tank. <You
are wise here> I know that in the aquarium world you cannot be
certain of anything, but I thought you probably know more about their
track record for compatibility than most. On a positive note
though the Caulerpa sp. I bought had some hitchhiker xenia on it and so
I have attached this to the rock and he hasn't demolished it and
only took a little, so maybe Kev is the caring type. <Or not caring
for Pulsing Soft Corals... as the present "menu item">
Have had no replies on the chat forums so its over to
you! Thanks in advance Angela (WWM fan). Please let Bob
know that his book CMA is brill!! <Much good help with
this tome. I would definitely keep your eye on Kev... and a spot in a
refugium to move it/him too not if, but when he becomes too much of a
tankmate sampler. Bob Fenner> Sponge Crab Questions (4/16/04) I have a 1 1/2 inch sponge crab that I am keeping in a 20L aquarium right now with a few fish..... I call him "Sponge Bob." Bob is a cute little fellow but I know very little about his dietary requirements. He is eating small pieces of silver side right now. What else would give him a good balanced diet? I assume, like most crabs he is not reef safe, right? <Exceedingly unsafe and very destructive.> I would love to put him in my Harlequin Shrimp tank ( it has a few limpets too) but fear he might hurt them, would he? <Quoting Calfo & Fenner, they "have no place with a casual marine aquarist or in mixed invertebrate reef aquariums.> He lost his sponge and is currently carrying around a small piece of green 3M Brillo pad on his back........I call him "Brillo Bob," now:) Thanks for the help! Janey <These crabs do tend to be omnivorous with a leaning toward meaty foods. I had a hard time finding much info. I'd suggest you search the terms "sponge crab" and "Dromid" on WWM & Google to get more info. Steve Allen.> Decorator Crab Woes [Not A Question; More Of An FYI]
- 04/26/06 Hi Gang, <Hey there> I
had an unfortunate event yesterday with a decorator crab that I wanted
to share in case anyone else is considering getting one of these
creatures. <Share away, we love this
stuff!> My partner and I have had our aquarium for
about two months now and are having a great time with it.
<Wonderful!> We're very pleased with it's results and
with our damsels. We made the decision over the weekend
after positive tests that it was time to increase our stock from two
damsels to a couple of shrimp, a crab and a Nudibranch.
<Be very wary with the last. These do not survive so well
in captivity. Most times they perish fairly quickly.> So
we set off to the pet store and in our ventures wound up getting a
starfish, a decorator crab, two cleaner shrimp, a blood shrimp and a
Nudibranch. All was right with the world.
We got them home; floated them <Tell you the truth, you should float
them, but drip acclimate them.> and put them in the tank still under
the illusion that everything was great. With amazing speed
(which tends to happen in this hobby I've found) everything went
horribly, horribly wrong. Our tank is a forty-five gallon
bow-front with 15 pounds of live rock, a three inch live sand substrate
and giant piece of dead coral to provide hiding places. With
the rocks and the coral, there are a ton of places for the guys to
hide. As we expected, the decorator crab started off nice
and leisurely picking up stuff from the tank as we were expecting him
to do. When he came across the blood shrimp, which had
perched itself on top of one of our live rocks, he apparently
didn't like him there and quite simply attacked him. The
blood shrimp having a brain the size of, well, a shrimp tried to fend
his territory. <Ha! This isn't uncommon though.>
You can guess which one won. The shrimp lost half of one leg
on one side and one whole other leg from the other side . <Oh boy,
probably tasty, but an expensive snack.> The decorator proceeded to
make fast food of this delicious new meal and go back for
seconds. He started actively pursuing the blood
shrimp. Right before a second confrontation, during which
I'm sure the crab would have killed the shrimp, I finally took the
blood shrimp our of harms way and perched him on top of the coral where
I though he would be out of the reach of the decorator
crab. Once again, all seemed well.
Concerned about the crabs aggressive behaviour (we'd gotten mixed
reviews on this aspect of the decorator crab during our research); we
decided to keep an eye on him for a bit after lights
out. While we were observing the tank; we noticed that the
decorator crab had turned his attentions to the cleaner shrimp and was
actively pursuing them; stalking, we're almost certain, with intent
to kill. Fortunately, they were small enough and fast enough
to evade his reach. Satisfied that he at least wouldn't
decimate the rest of the aquarium, we made the decision to call it a
night and started debating taking him back to the pet store the next
morning. Sometime during the night he managed to get to
the blood shrimp again; this time dealing a fatal blow.
<Oh no!> The shrimps carapace was split down close to it's
tail, two more legs were missing and one of his feeler antennae had
been ripped in half. He died shortly after we found him like
that. At that point we were pretty upset because we loved
the shrimp (he was absolutely beautiful) and because he had cost us
twenty dollars. Where we were only debating returning the
decorator, we made the decision at that point. We figured it
would only be a matter of time before he got his hands on the
Nudibranch, the cleaners or the starfish (all of which had cost a grand
total of $130.00). I'm writing this to get the
information out there if you guys see fit to publish it.
<Absolutely!> The research we did on the net was mixed with
regard to aggressiveness of this species; although it tended towards
them being relatively easy to keep and working well with other animals
(possibly with the exception of SLOW moving inverts - I don't
consider shrimp slow-moving but could be wrong about that).
<Sometimes they just have different personalities. Info
here or anywhere is based on the majority of cases, sometimes it may be
different because each specimen is different.> Our experience says
something very different. This particular crab was extremely
territorial and aggressive to the point he was actually hunting his
tank mates. It doesn't seem like a good choice in an
aquarium where other crustaceans are housed. We've since
replaced him with a few snails and feel much better for the wear.
<Great idea!> Thanks for putting this out there for
your readers and for the great work you guys continue to do at WWM.
<No problem, best of luck in the future, Jen S.> Warm
regards,
Decorator arrow crab- Hello I have an interested in getting a Decorator Arrow Crab <Hmmm, I'll assume Camposcia retusa?>, however I have heard they can be troublesome to other animals. <Mainly with sessile inverts that easily become body ornaments.> I have the following in my fish only tanks. 1 Blue Moon Angel 1 Yellow Tang 1 Starcki damsel 4 young Clownfish 2 Emerald crabs 4 Urchins 2 Serpent Stars 1 Orange Starfish about 15 Small Hermits About 20 snails 2 Blood Red Shrimp My tank is a 210 Gallon with 180 lbs of rock. Do you see any problem adding this Crab? <These guys are opportunistic carnivores, but shouldn't seek out and kill fellow tankmates. If what you are referring to is Stenorhynchus seticornis, then there is an added threat to tube worms and it can pick on just about anything. This one is the true arrow crab, but not a decorator. I hope this helps! -Kevin> Thank you for your time. Kurt Re: Decorator crab Would you also approve my tolerance of a small decorator crab? True he tears up some polyps and zoos from time to time, but I think that's good for the tank since the polyps and zoos end up getting seeded in other spots, plus the crab is kind of interesting. <You have my endorsement here. Perhaps you will help our species in self-governance one day... and soon I hope. Bob Fenner>
WHAT TO FEED A DECORATOR CRAB... I BOUGHT A DECORATOR CRAB TWO WEEKS AGO AND HAVE JUST BEEN LETTING HIM FEED ON HIS OWN. I CAN NOT FIND ANY INFORMATION ON THEM THAT TELLS OF THERE DIETARY HABITS. HE IS IN A FISH ONLY TANK, DOES HE NEED LIVE ROCK TO USE FOR HIMSELF AND WILL HE EAT BROWN ALGAE. >> These animals are feeders on other invertebrates: worms, shrimp and other crustaceans... and a minimal amount of greenery... They can live pretty well on newer live rock inhabitants, in addition to meaty scraps from feeding your fishes and other invertebrates. Bob Fenner Decorating by eating others I bought a decorator crab a few days ago, and this morning it looked like he was trying to eat one of snails. Will the decorators eat the snails or any of my other livestock? (I have 3 tangs, a clown, 2 damsels, mushrooms, button polyps, daisy polyps, and anemones) <Yes, most crabs will gladly consume most anything in the way of food... live or otherwise... Do you know which species this is? Time to do some investigating... Bob Fenner> Crab question I've got a question regarding Schizophrys dama (decorator crab). about how many species are in this genus, <this genus of the family Majidae, the Sea Toads, has at least a dozen described species, but several more undescribed as yet... and some majids are not "decorator crabs" per se... and other families contain "decorator" types...> and are they all in the same genus because they 'decorate', or is it for other reasons. <Other, morphological reasons> I started a 125g reef tank about 5 months ago and I'm going for a semi regionally accurate system going from the south of the barrier reef to a bit west of Australia (Christmas island). the furthest east ill go is Fiji, and the furthest north ill go is southern Indonesia. <Like the way you put this> anyways, I think the whole idea of decorator crabs is pretty cool and I'm trying to find out some information about them. are their any species that fit in that region that you can think of? perhaps some or the kind that use anemones as their main defense system? perhaps boxer crabs? any help would be neat <Best way to approach this IMO/E is to select for the animals on the basis of where they were actually collected... Schizophrys are not "reef safe" as the case with most all crabs... Do look into "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, volume 3" here... for about the most up-to-date, complete coverage of potential Decapod additions. Sven and Alf's website link can be found on the WWM sites Link Pages.> Jon Trowbridge oh, I've seen some online places that sell anemone decorators and I'm wondering s they sell the baby anemones on them, do they (anemones) usually end up living? or would I get a bag with a crab and a lot of goo.... <The associated anemones live/ship about as well as their hosts... both generally arrive in good condition. Bob Fenner> |
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