Anemone crabs with alternative homes

[TWallace]

I have 4 anemone crabs in my 30g seahorse tank. Since I don't have an anemone, these little guys have had to find different homes. Sometimes they're just out in the open on the rocks, but most of the time they're hiding under/amongst corals.

This one likes a red chalice. Notice how tiny his claws are. He must have been in a fight with another crab and got them ripped off. After a molt, they came back as little tiny claws. A few more molts and they'll be back to full size I think.

This one likes a green candy cane coral. He's got 1 missing claw, and 1 full size claw.

I have 2 more of a different species, one pale blue, one pale purple. The blue one usually hangs out under/on a koralia nano pump, with his fans extended over the intakes of the pump to catch food. Due to the location of that pump, it's difficult to get a good photo, but here's my best effort.

I feed the crabs one mysis shrimp per day when I feed the seahorses. At first they were terrified of my feeding tube (it's similar to a turkey baster). But after a while they associated the feeding tube with food and they practically attack it now when I bring it near them.

 

[yukonblizzard]

The second picture is cool. I love the spots on the crab. Do you have any pictures of your seahorses?

 

[Recty]

Nice pictures. My anemone crab used to make it's home under my frogspawn, it was neat to see

I wish I had my nice camera back then.

 

[TWallace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15342682#post15342682 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yukonblizzard
Do you have any pictures of your seahorses?

Here's the female:

And here's both at feeding time:

They're erectus seahorses, which I got from a local breeder last March. They will only eat frozen mysis. I've tried all sorts of other frozen foods, but they ignore them. This is probably ok, but I just thought they may do better with a varied diet. They've done a mating dance once about 2 months ago, but have not done it since. They did not actually mate that time, they just turned pale and circled each other off and on for a couple hours one night.

 

[Recty]

You gotta put on the romantic music quick or they will lose interest.

 

[casademurphy]

TWallace : Great photos!

Two random questions for you though . . . how long have you had your seahorses and how often do you feed them every day?

 

[yukonblizzard]

Your seahorses are beautiful. Do you have to have a chiller with these kind of horses, or can they tolerate warmer waters?

 

[yukonblizzard]

Your seahorses are beautiful. Do you have to have a chiller with these kind of horses, or can they tolerate warmer waters?

 

[TWallace]

These are the first seahorses I've ever kept, so I'm far from an expert. I do not run a chiller and this aquarium hovers around 80 degreees, same as my reef tank. Erectus seahorses are found in a huge range of temperatures, from Nova Scotia all the way down the Atlantic coast to Brazil. I know they are common in Floria and the Gulf of Mexico where the water temperature exceeds 80 degrees.

The tank itself is a very basic setup. No sump, skimmer, carbon, UV. I do have an external filter with a surface skimmer, which I use to remove surface film. It's very low powered, as seahorses don't like strong water flow. Just live rock, a heater and some T5 lighting for the corals. Since it's a small tank, it's easy to do a 75% water change to reduce nitrates and replace with water from my reef tank.

 

[hitachi753]

Love your pictures - first about the crabs: do they fight each other? I noticed you said that you thought the crab in the first picture might have lost his claws from a fight; do they all get along in your tank? We have a few in our 150gallon and I would love more, but I'm afraid they may fight each other.
You seahorses are gorgeous - I'm very jealous, I hope to be able to get some one day - do you just have two? And how big are they?

 

[TWallace]

The crabs don't fight now (that I've seen) and I have 4 in a 30g tank. I think the fighting occurred only when I initially placed the crabs in the tank (I got them all the same day) and they were trying to stake out their own territory.

I just have the two seahorses. They're around 4-5" tall.