greetings... and picture ID...

[nzdiver]

Hi Everyone,

I just received my shipment yesterday for the 100 gal. package. everything looks great. I had a couple of questions and hope everyone may be able to help..

I saw the pictures for good and bad crabs on the TBS website... I just wanted to post mine and see if these are the good guys..

I also have a snail wandering around..

and here's a pic of my tank right after dropping everything in...

hopefully the pictures show up...


Thanks again for the help

 

[jasonross]

welcome to Reef Central .. the first pic looks like good the second is bad the way to tell is to count the legs four is bad 3 is good ... Dont count the front ones with claws... not sure on the snail try to get pictures of the shell

 

[nzdiver]

Great!

thanks for the reply... I dropped the good crabs into the tank.. as soon as i mixed them with a little bit of the tank water the filters popped out of their mouthes...

 

[jasonross]

thats good.. the snail might be the one in this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=329346

 

[goblinsharkman]

the ones on the top are porclien crabs, theyre good, and the snail looks like a ceith snail, theyre great sand cleaners, dont know bout the one in the middle, looks a ruby emerald crab but im not sure

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

Pic 1 are porcelan crabs and are completely safe

Pic 2 is a red mithrax sp. (red emerald crab) and could be considered good or bad, depending on who you talk to. They have been known to munch on some corals but is also a good grazer. If you need to remove them, they are very easy to catch, unlike the elusive hairy bastages. I have left mine in for the time being since there really is not much coral for them to damage and they do a great cleanup job.

Pic 3 is a preditory welk. They bore holes into clams and such to eat. They will not dessemate your tank rapidly but serve no other purpose then to eat the inhabitants of the tank and will not touch algae or detritus, only meat. I slowly fed all of mine to my mantis. Again, no immediate concern.

 

[liverock]

Pic 1 are porcelan crabs and are completely safe

Pic 2 is a red mithrax sp. (red emerald crab) and could be considered good or bad, depending on who you talk to. They have been known to munch on some corals but is also a good grazer. If you need to remove them, they are very easy to catch, unlike the elusive hairy bastages. I have left mine in for the time being since there really is not much coral for them to damage and they do a great cleanup job.

Pic 3 is a preditory welk. They bore holes into clams and such to eat. They will not dessemate your tank rapidly but serve no other purpose then to eat the inhabitants of the tank and will not touch algae or detritus, only meat. I slowly fed all of mine to my mantis. Again, no immediate concern.

# 3 correct, we call them oyster drills.....

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com
:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[tlouie]

crap,#3 is a bad snail? i have tons of them, let me post some pics and see if they are the same.

 

[nzdiver]

Thanks for the replies everyone.. If I ever see the snail again.. I'll nab him... I think
Im going to go ahead and pass on putting the middle crab into the tank. I guess its better to be safe than sorry.

 

[liverock]

crap,#3 is a bad snail? i have tons of them, let me post some pics and see if they are the same.

Nobody is all bad, God put them out there for a reason, they all have a duty...

From top to bottom there is a critter to interact....

Thanks
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com


:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[thethirdofnine]

DIY

DIY

Maybe this little predatory whelk could be put on the DIY page for us newbies, along with our pestilential crabs?

 

[Bax]

I had my TBS in for a couple of weeks before I saw my first red emerald crab. And I was worried about the feather calupera! Once these three guys desided to come out of hiding, they are like lawn mowers! I have no more calupera, turf algea, they cleaned it out!.

I've read several posts that say you should judge these guys individually. FWIW, I had three. One went to a mantis (He's getting the hairy gorillias too) and one I found constanly gouging at my starlet corals, he's gone. And they are easy to catch just pluck'em off the coral they are eating.

The funny thing is, the largest one, almost 3/4" at the carepase (sp?), is the best tempered red emerald you would ever want. So he stays. I like him, he's always out in the open picking in cracks and holes and ceaning away.

I have some of those oyster drills too. A big one and a smaller one, they are very mobile but I've never seen them eat anything. I have a red footed snail too. Same shape shell with no proboscis. It's been discussed on another TBS thread. Havn't seen it do anything bad yet either.

A question, would these oyster drill snails do bad things to larger display clams?