Views on porcelain anemone crabs?

[Irishdolphin]

Hi

I bought a malu a couple of weeks ago and it came with a porcelain anemone crab. Anybody have any positive / negative experiences with same? LFS is currently selling these crabs and I'm thinking of adding a second one. I have approx 15 BTAs in tank so suitable host shouldn't be a problem if it is advisable to keep the crabs separate.

Thanks

 

[Evolve29]

I have two but not that many anemones compared to yours.
3 flowers anemone, one purple LT hosted by a clown. From my own observations. Clowns will push out the crabs again territory might be depends on size of anemone.
As far as two crabs goes. Mine tend to anemone hop from one flower to another as I put it. The larger ones pushes the other out so I would imagine there is a territory boundary these crabs occupied. They don't share the anemone together but the anemones aren't big enough to share anyways. Just my personal observations.
I would imagine with 15 BT adding another crab won't have much of a dispute if any.


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[Irishdolphin]

@Evolve29, thanks, appreciate the response. I reckon I'll go ahead and buy another.

 

[Evolve29]

@Evolve29, thanks, appreciate the response. I reckon I'll go ahead and buy another.

From what I read the spots pattern on the crabs also may play a role whether they pair up since while anemone crabs they are different kinds. But again you got so many bubble anemones, I doubt getting another one would pose any issues.
Post some pics!

I got my two anemone crabs as said. One anemone hops across the tank to where it likes one day to another as to where another doesn't even go into the anemone. Just chills on the rocks.
My tiger pistol shrimp leaves them alone so there isn't any potential predators in the tank even molding. They are awesome animals I love watching them. Here is mine.


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[Irishdolphin]

Here is a photo from late last year. I'm going to take some of the nems out and sell to LFS (hopefully tomorrow). The nems keep splitting over time so I reckon I will have a pretty steady supply. The hard part will be actually removing them so will probably remove a rock with 3 or 4 nems on it and bring rock to LFS

Yep, love looking at the crab - he is in the malu and his biggest excitement each day is defending against fire shrimps that are trying to grab food from the nem - you can tell when he nips one of them - they really jump back suddenly!

 

[pfan151]

I had two with 2 gigantea's and a Magnifica to choose from. The bigger crab killed the smaller one. I didn't check if they were both males though so you may have better luck if you get a male and female crab.

 

[Irishdolphin]

@pfan151 - interesting. I just read an old thread on same topic. I wasn't aware that female vs male would be relevant. My first thought was that even if they're both male they might coexist in ignorance of each other's existence due to number of nems, but that rules out possibility of pairing. Fingers crossed so!

 

[taylor t]

I once had 2 of those crabs in a 75 with 7 gigs. I don't know what happened, but I only see 1 crab now. There could be 2 in there somewhere but I never see 2 at the same time anymore. They seem to live pretty long, had them(2)/or now it(1), for a few years now.

 

[Irishdolphin]

Thanks taylor t

I bought 2 additional crabs today so fingers crossed they can get along or stay away from each other.....

 

[OrionN]

I have multiple crabs in my tank. I have 2 that live in a Gigantea. I think they are a pair. I have three more that on different anemones. They have multiple anemones to choose from, either Magnifica, Gigantea or Haddoni. The mostly stay on the same anemone, but not always. I got a Harlequin Tusk in my tank, so these crabs stay close to their anemone. In my office tank, I have one in my Gigantea, he have been with this anemone for many years. This one Porcerain crab is abnormal in that one of his claw is completely white. The other claw have normal coloration.

 

[Irishdolphin]

Cheers Minh,

Encouraging to hear a success story with multiple crabs. Hmmm, now thinking about getting some more but will relax and see how numbers 2 and 3 get on first. One of them has definitely established himself in a BTA but other one is harder to locate