Not sure what type of crab

[cindib]

I inherited a crab and I'm not sure what kind he is.
He's kind of a grey color with lots of hair. So far he's grow out of three shells. He's getting huge.
Twice now I thought he died. I saw what looked like half his body laying on the sand. It looked completely whole. But I guess he was just shedding. Is that what's happening?
Also, what's the best type of food for a crab. He pretty much eats everything in the tank. Obviously not too finicky.
My tank is fairly new so I don't have a lot of growth on my live rock yet. I also have two snails. So I hope there's enough food for all of them in my 30 gal tank.

 

[purplehaze]

What you have been seeing is the crab s exoscelleton. THe crab has to molt in order to grow and reproduce.
If you post a picture of the crab or complete molt, it would be easier to ID it. Just spot feed the crab or just let it eat the rest of what you feed you other inhabitants, unless you underfeed

 

[cindib]

Thanks Purplehaze(great pic by the way)
I wish I could post a pic but my camera's not working right now. He's a pretty tough crab. I love to watch him. He hardly ever slows down except when he's ready to do shed his exoscelleton. Pretty creepy actually. I keep thinking that one day I'll wake up and he's going to be as big as my tank. (I have my tank in my room, I love the noise and the calmness I get when I watch everything)
Thanks again.

 

[purplehaze]

Do you have any other inhabitants....he might go after them..keep an eye on it...in any case just take it back to your LFS

 

[cindib]

I have a Mandarine and two pretty big snails. He's constantly trying to move the snails but so far they're strong enough to hold on. He pretty much leaves the Mandarine alone.
I'm new to this sight could you please tell me what LFS stands for. I'm assuming it's a pet store but I could be wrong. There's a lot of abbreviations and I'm not sure what most of them mean. I got QT down so now for the rest.
Thanks Purplehaze

 

[purplehaze]

Hi, yeah LFS stands for "Life Fish Store".
How is your mandarine doing? Is he fat and healthy. Does he eat prepared food? These fish should be kept in well established aquariums with a lot of live rock. Do you have a refugium?
Mandarines usually eat only pods..so keep an eye on him.

 

[cindib]

My rock probably isen't what it should be for him unfortunately. I've been placind Nori on a clip in the tank but I haven't seen him eat on it yet. Actually the crab's been working on it more than anything. There aren't any places near by for me to buy live shrimp. What are pods? Mandy(the mandarine) was given to me along with a lot of other fish so I've read alittle about him but I'm still pretty "green" about all this. So any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

 

[purplehaze]

Well mandarins won t eat algae, they are carnivorous. Pods are small animals that live in the sandbed, rocks and macroalgae (refugium). Amphipods and copepods are easily seen.
Here are some images of amphipods.

http://images.google.com.br/images?svnum=10&hl=pt-BR&q=amphipods

You said Mandy was given to you together with other fish..what happened to them? Can you see if Mandy is picking on the live rock..does he look fat..a pic might help.

BTW, what is your setup like (filtration, lights, pounds of live rock etc).

 

[cindib]

There was a Naso Tang, Yellow Hawiian Tang. None of these fish should have been in a tank my size but I didn't want them to go to our pet store in town. (bad situation there) Then it turned out a bacteria bloom occured in my tank and I lost them all. So I put Mandy, the snails and the crab in a QT while I got the bacteria bloom in control. It took me 4 months of reading, talking to people from Doc Fosters, and a local pet store to try and figure out what was going on. It was so frustrating. Finally someone from this sight help me figure it out. Unfortunately I lost fish before I did. I have a friend that has a lot of live rock with a longer established rock. Do you think I should give Mandy to him? I'm afraid he's going to starve in my tank.
Right now I have a Penguin filter for up to 50gal, a pretty good sized bak-pak protein skimmer and a Tunze, nano powerhead on hold thru Marine Depot. I have live sand and two pretty good sized live rock with some good stuff growing on it. All my water perameters are right where they should be too.
So what do you think I should do with Mandy?
I'd hate to see the guy die of starvation.
Oh and I don't have a camera right now that works to take a pic of him. Sorry.

 

[purplehaze]

They live rock will not support Mandy´s demand for pods...
Giving him away is a wise choice. Now you have to make sure that the person that takes him will have a tank to support him.
A 75gal tank with tons of live rock should do the job .
How big is your friend's tank, and what inhabitants does he have.

What is in your penguin filter? Bioballs will only add extra nitrates and the sponge should be cleaned a few times a week in order to keep the detitus from braking down.

So you don't have a sump , right?

Are you planning on keeping corals?
I would suggest you choose a couple of small fish for you t tank, don t overstock.
Stick to small fish like, pseudocromis, gobies, cardinalfish, blennies, clownfishes (ocellaris or percula) or firefishes...

HTH