Acro crabs and their hosts overall health?

[MauiReefer]

Question everybody. I'm curious to know if you have acro crabs in your sps colonies, and are the colonies healthy? Good color? Good polyp extension? Please post your experience. I was so excited when I noticed my first acro crab hitchhiker, only to find out it was a fuzzy blue eyed bad guy. Had to re-home him. I'm looking to purchase a few and am curious about everybody's first hand experience. Also on another note, any leads on good guy crabs, I'd love the heads up. Thanks you all. I look forward hearing what you got.:bounce3:

 

[glaukos]

Personally i love acro crabs,especially the bandit!
Acro colors are not affected imhe(i think my water qualllity plays a bigger role) and even polyp extension is very good.
A few years back when i had aefw(),acros with bandits where the least infected pieces.
Of course,maybe it was something random but i've read other guys stating the same exp.

On the other hand,i have never had a hairy crab that didn't cause the coral troube.
In the best case they were harmless only until they got a little bigger.

 

[Tweaked]

My largest healthiest colony is the only in the tank with a crab (bandit).

 

[MauiReefer]

Wow guys! I now know I need these guys. I love natural symbiotic relationships in the aquarium. Any word on any available? Please PM me, I'd take 3-5 right now. Still want to hear from others and their experiences, but I suspect they will all be similar and positive. But still love hearing about your tanks. Thanks everybody. :dance:

 

[Tweaked]

Wow guys! I now know I need these guys. I love natural symbiotic relationships in the aquarium. Any word on any available? Please PM me, I'd take 3-5 right now. Still want to hear from others and their experiences, but I suspect they will all be similar and positive. But still love hearing about your tanks. Thanks everybody. :dance:

Best way to get em is have a friend where they bring in lots of maricultured colonies at a LFS. LA gets them in and you get an email when they get back in stock, but every time I get the email, rush over to LA, they are all out of stock already. Guess I'm not the only one looking :headwally:

 

[Dapg8gt]

I've been trying to get some from live aquaria also.. Get the email and they are out of stock as soon as I respond.

 

[MauiReefer]

Thanks Dapg8gt, I already signed up for the email notification myself. Just called a buddy who runs an import/export business. Hopefully he gets back to me with good news. In the meantime I will search diligently. Anything you or anybody hears I would love the heads up. Thanks again.

 

[NatureNerd]

I love bandit acro crabs. But please keep in mind that if you take them off a coral at the LFS and move them to your tank they often refuse to move into another acro. I have seen this many times. Probably about a third of the times myself or a friend has tried this, it has ended up bad for the acro crab. Maybe one of our experts can offer an explanation. Perhaps subspecies only live in one type of acro host and do not adapt to other species of acros.

 

[MauiReefer]

I thought about that, but just like a clownfish and anemone and they can host in many (depending on species) anemones. I am not an expert but I would hope that would not be the case. Considering they sell them a la carte. I would hate to find one for sale legitimately and have I'm suffer and die because he can't host. I do have over 19 species of sps in my tank, so I would hope if I got 3-5 they would be ok. Anyone have any conclusive experience with this? Crabs that can't find a host and perish?