My New Crab

[salth20newbie]

Just wanted to share a pic of my new hermit. I have 2 of these, but the other in chillin in a difficult place to photograph! These are the only creatures in my tank so far; soon to add fish to my 20 gal.

 

[salth20newbie]

the other guy

the other guy

ready for his photo

 

[Flightpipe]

Just remember.

When you pull hermits, crabs, fish, ANYTHING out of the local waters do not throw them back in when they dont work out.

Almost all of the stuff that is easy to collect around here will be a PITA! So be aware there is a reason you dont see all these guys in out LFS!

 

[salth20newbie]

So far I have been feeding these guys frozen brine shrimp...should this be sufficient? they seem to be doing okay. I have no clue what type of crab they are.

 

[Flightpipe]

I see them everywhere in our local waters which is why I said dont throw em back. but they are scavengers so they will eat anything, including your cuc and anything else they can get. they are lots of fun to watch and I'm sure someone else will chime in with their name.

 

[donya]

I have no clue what type of crab they are.

Clibanarius vittatus. Not at all reef safe, but fine in species tanks. Be careful with other stocking choices as these hermits get big, with walking legs sometimes up to 4"/10cm from base to tip.

As far as food, I just feed mine shrimp pellets and sometimes a bit of fish meat. They aren't picky eaters, but food that is too small (frozen brine seems on the small side) will just get blown away and lost in the rock where they can't reach it. They do well with medium to large sinking pellets and chunks of meaty foods.

 

[salth20newbie]

What kind of fish meat? Could the fish meat be frozen snapper, etc?

 

[donya]

I imagine they'll be happy to munch on just about any type of fish meat - they're really not picky. What I've got in my freezer currently to feed my various big crustaceans is a combination of frozen smelt and scallops. The hermits are usually able to find and eat up the fish meat faster than with the scallops, probably because the fish is rather stinky. In past years I've used other types of fish (can't remember which ones) and also the occasional bit of squid.

Just make sure that you thaw whatever meat you use in a cup of tank water and give it a good squeeze to get as much fluid and bubbles out as possible before tossing it in. That helps to both make sure that it sinks and will also help minimize excess waste going into the tank.

 

[salth20newbie]

Thanks so much for the advice, I have been so concerned that I wasnt feeding them enough as they are rather larger and the brine shrimp are so tiny! I am thawing fish meet now! Thanks so much. They are the only things in my tank, so its an interesting tank at that.

 

[thebkramer]

Just wanted to share my bad boy with ya
I was told he was a yellow-tipped hermit.. I now know they were wrong!!
I don't feed him anything specific.. and he hasn't done anything wrong.. yet
He does like to be my manicurist though and its hilarious when he does it lol He makes sure he gets every last piece of dead skin of my fingers!! Meet Turk:

 

[donya]

Just to note (although you may already know): Turk looks like a Clibanarius striolatus rather than a C. vittatus. The two species seem pretty similar in most respects, but most of the info I have on expected size for C. striolatus is iffy and I haven't seen many specimens myself. How big is Turk?

 

[thebkramer]

Just to note (although you may already know): Turk looks like a Clibanarius striolatus rather than a C. vittatus. The two species seem pretty similar in most respects, but most of the info I have on expected size for C. striolatus is iffy and I haven't seen many specimens myself. How big is Turk?

He is BIG!! He is using a, what seems to be, a full sized turbo snail shell. His legs are probably about 1.5 to 2in long and the claws are about 1in long and less then a 1/2in wide
And thanks for informing me I actually did not know what he is after finding that he is not what the LFS sold him as. And he was soo tiny when I bought him!!