Acro Crab Source?

[weatherson]

I'm looking to purchase some acro crabs and was curious if anyone has a source they can share with me. I did a Red Bug treatment a while back which obviously killed all my acro crabs. I'd now like to replenish them but am unsure as to where, if at all, I can find them. Thanks.

Joseph.

 

[Don Berry]

I don't believe you can purchase them since they need the slime from the acros to survive. I've never seen them for sale online or at a lfs.

 

[thereefgeek]

Keep an eye out for cheap, brown-out colonies w/crabs in them. Move them to your nice cononies while you wait for the brownies to color up into something maybe nice. Mermaid runs brown-out sales from time to time and he's bringing a ton of stuff up for the WMC (but hopefuly no brownies). Maybe you'll get lucky.

 

[clkwrk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7175098#post7175098 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Don Berry
I don't believe you can purchase them since they need the slime from the acros to survive. I've never seen them for sale online or at a lfs.

They don't and will live away from colonies. I have 30 + and have found them far away from acros during the day . I think it is a myth that they need the acros slime to live .

IMO the acro provides them with shelter from the light and a safe place to gather floating food. I just find it odd that a crab that needs sps slime to live would eat mysis and cyclopese.Plus also live away from acros for the whole day until night fall......I will also point out that if an acro is large enough they will hang out all the time otherwise come first light they are jumping ship and hiding for the day .

You may also ask what experience I have with acro crabs............Well lets just say I haven't killed mine off my intercepter like almost everyone has ........

 

[Don Berry]

I believe there to be different types of crabs that live in acros. The ones in your pictures are nothing like the ones I have in my colonies. The ones I have are white with black bands around their eyes and dont' have the pointy claws. If I'm wrong about their relationship then there are many people out there with the wrong idea. I was just repeating what I've read in this forum many times.

 

[clkwrk]

I have lots of those also .

The ones pictures like pocci,stylo ect.

 

[ClownReef®]

I love acro crabs..they are so unique. Before i did an interceptor treatment i took them all out of my acros..then put them back in..LOL.. I had the luck of finding a small panda goby on a stylo i bought a while back.. It had 3 crabs and the goby..sadly, i took the coral out to frag it off the plug, and the goby jumped out and i later discovered it on the carpet..it sucked.. BUT, there's tons of life you can find on SPS's.

 

[oneil]

clkwrk that is a nice looking frag . I too have seen my crabs away from my sps.

 

[clkwrk]

Thanks! Here's a picture of the whole frag

 

[wentreefgirl]

I have one coral with a crab in it. Either I just missed it or it never leaves.

 

[Big E]

I have 30 + and have found them far away from acros during the day . I think it is a myth that they need the acros slime to live .

I disagree based on my experieces. When I treated for red bugs I removed all my crabs. The red pocci crabs didn't last 5 days.

The black masked ones.........half of them lived. They seemed better able to handle the 2 weeks away from the acro. They may not eat coral slime, but it's obvious the symbiatic relationship offers the crabs nourishment in some way.