Crabs & Snails direct from Hawaii

[T1adler]

In the best snails thread I mentioned that I was rolling the dice and placing an order direct from Hawaii with an individual.

Well, they were shipped Tues and arrived Thurs with a 100 % survival rate!! The first thing I did was check the water temp. It was 68 degrees.

This is what I ordered. 20 snake head coweries(Cypraea caputserpentis), 50 nerite snails & 100 microhermits consisting of :
1. Elegant hermit crab (Calicinus elegans)orange and black,
2. Hazletts hermit crab (Calicinus hazletti)brown and white,
3. Left handed hermit crab (Calicinus lenimanus)brown and white,
4. Seurats hermit crab (Calicinus seurati)black and white .

This is what I got: 24 snake head coweries, 81 nerite snails + 3 unidentified & hold on to your hats, 237 small/micro hermits!!!!!!!

The above is great but get this, I paid $97.00 delivered!!!!

He sells on Ebay and I just asked him what he would do on a combo package and that was the price he came up with.





Snails & Crabs


Time to crack open a beer!

Tim

Cowrie pic and info.

 

[Hedonist]

WOW, that's a pleasant surprise!

If your crowie gets hungry, maybe he can visit Mikes tank

dg

 

[bunsenburner]

Nice. I might have to make an order. Due the the lack of snail in my 55 I am guessinf that Puff daddy has decided that snails are food. He seems less interested in the crabs for now. I might just have to toss in a bunch. At that price I wouldn't care too much if he ate them.

 

[smtarr]

Matt, Yeah, I consider snails and hermits 'critter' food. Seems like I always have someone in the tank that savors them. Escargot on the shell so to speak for my little scarlet reef hermit. Seems hermit fell victim to another creature, hope it's not another mantis. Oh well, if it is when I turn the tank into a Trigger tank will take care of whatever it is! Sue

 

[BriMc]

If anyone orders please let me know as I would be interesed in jumping in. I do not need a full order so maybe splitting an assortment.
-Brian

 

[T1adler]

The nerites seem to be a different variety from what I had gotten from Liveaquaria. The Hawaiian snail's foot seem to be a shade of white while the liveaquaria variety has a brown tinge to it. There is a difference in the shell also. These Hawaiian nerites seem to like going above the water line. I'll just have to see how they work out.

The coweries are awsome. They have no problems going across sand and their mantles have a fluorescent green glow when you shine a light on them at night. I think they are going to be great algae eaters. They seem to like cleaning LR & glass equally well.

I think I might have to thin out the hermit "herd" at some point down the road. Again, I''ll just have to see what happens and go with the flow.

Tim

 

[bunsenburner]

I'll probably put in an order towards the end of the month.

Tim, how long did it take you to count out 237 hermits?

 

[T1adler]

Tim, how long did it take you to count out 237 hermits?

It wasn't that bad. I counted out twenty at a time and placed them in a fishnet during the transfer process. Maybe 5-10 minutes total time. Before I started I was guessing that I would end up with 120-130 range.

I think I need to get some empty shells soon or I'll have some issues.

Thinking about getting some macro algae for my tangs from him also.

Tim

 

[bunsenburner]

I have as much chaeto as you desire. I need to thin it out and have pretty much saturated the local stores. One of my tangs loves this stuff the other won't touch it. I've also a good amount of a fern-like calupera species that both my tangs and angels eat. I've a few types of red algea as well. All is growing in a refugium so it should have an extra high nutrient load that some folks worry about when it is grown in a sump. Will trade for hermits (or beer) since it seems like you might have extra.

If you prefer to get it from him let me know since I may follow you lead and we could split shipping.

 

[BriMc]

Last call if anybody in Maine wants to split an order with me. I am posting on BRS tonight for someone to split an order down there.
-Brian

 

[T1adler]

Bunsenburner,

I would be open to a crabs for macro-algae swap at some point. I'm going to try and make the DIY rock meeting. Send me a reminder a little before. That will give my system some time to level out, give me an idea as to how much herd thining needs to be done and to get a refugium set up.

I have a purple and a yellow tang that go into a feeding frenzy when I give them partial sheets of dried algae.

I can't say enough about the mantles on the coweries at night. I'll try and post a pic if I can get a decent shot.

Tim

 

[TJimino]

hi I would like to order some just tell me how to go in with you

 

[BriMc]

TJimino I will be contacting the seller and I will give you details as soon as I get them.
-Brian

 

[bunsenburner]

Brian,

I would be interrested in 20 cowries and say 50 crabs. T1 will try and remember macro at liverock.

Matt

 

[nautilus808]

Thanks for the link. I got 200 crabs and 20 cowries. The cowries are beautiful

 

[pluvialis]

The guy is still making great deals. I got 50 crabs and 50 snails for $35. I ended up with about 80of each!