Yeah, so I got one today too... it's so cool... So people were saying they've trained it to eat shrimp off a stick etc... what do people feed them? Brine... Mysis... something else?

Don't feed it unless you really want to.

They do fine just eating detritus.

Sweet pics, Chocolate! Mine seems to really like taking up a position under an overhang of rock or coral, as in your first pics.

Sharpie--Mine likes just about anything. I feed Cyclopeeze with a pipette, and he likes to have it squirted at him. He will also take other frozen foods, sinking pellets, etc.

Mine will grab some mysis and brine when I feed the fish.

Yea they love to perch under stuff ... mine will actually wrap it's legs backwards on the overhang teeth and collect stuff with the 'nems

If it uses its anemones to ward off a fish and it stings the fish... does it leave marks or splotches on the fish?

Nothing you can notice ... usually fish don't bother stuff that will bother them back. My 6 Line Wrasse was swimming checking out the pom pom and it was fun to see the crab defending

Yeah, your pom-pom is one of the nicest i've seen in a while. good luck with it.

i love these crabs! they are sooo cool. i would like to get one. do you think it would be ok with this stuff?

12g nc
3 shrimp
saddleback clown
small lt anemone
yellow polyps
scooter blenny
scarlet and tiny blue hermits
turbo and nassarius snails
feather duster

yes! They are ez to keep and peaceful. Make sure you have some iodine present in your system ... it's very important for quick and proper molting. They are most vulnerable when they molt as any invert.

two of mine have already molted since I've introduced them to my tank!

One hangs out under the powerhead (at the water inlet) funny to watch them upside down like that.

where do their anemones come from??

Very good question ... all I know is that if they have one then they can actually use their pinchers to split it into two.

The ocean?

Pom poms split their anemones when they grow to big or... if another one of their friends is missing theirs, they share... So in other words, they get the anemones from another crab...

Yes. As I understand it, this anemone is not found free-living. Nice case of co-evolution!

One does wonder how the crab larvae find their first anemones when they settle...

Very sketchy info:

The anemone:
http://www.edge-of-reef.com/anemoni/ESATriactisen.htm

See juvie crabs with anemones:
http://www.edge-of-reef.com/brachiuri/BRAL...essellataen.htm

And, just for the heck of it, an interesting crab link I found in passing:

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/liv...9&inhab=166

--Diane

The anemones do grow away from the crabs.

Here is my pom pom stealing some brine shrimp from some closed sun polyp heads.

Joy, I have joined the pom pom crab owner assosiation

nice tubastrea and nice crab!

and good luck with yours endolith!

I love mine. I never thought of getting more than one. But I just ordered two more. I have had my original one for almost a year and 3 months. He came from my 55g to my AP24. He still is shy and it is hard to find out from which cave he is peeking. I think he has the tank mapped out preaty well.

I just got a pom pom last thursday, and I havent seen him since, its in a 12G JBJ with invert safe fish.

^^^ get a flashlight out and check around at night.

They dont like fishees not matter what kind...so they tend to hide at day and out at night to feed.
Pomees are endogenous to Hawaii...so Im sure thats where they get the anemone.
But as some one posted earlier...not much info on the anemone.

Izzue

I really want one of these guys. They are pretty much impossible to find locally, but I keep pestering my LittleLFS, since they get some cool oddball critters now and then in with their regular shipments. The LFSuperstore you can forget here; they get truckloads of ocellaris clowns and mandarin gobies (which they blithely sell without so much as a word about the 'pod diet they need -- thank G*d I didn't buy one when i was brand new!) -- but no pom-pom crabs.

I wanna pom-pom!

And since it's winter I'm really afraid to order them, even via overnight -- who knows what kind of system shock they might get in transit? Yikes.

But that's a moot point 'cause I can't even find them anywhere! (Not to mention which I am spending enough to finance another family. )

quick question, i have a pom pom crab but he lost both anemones, i recently took out the sabae anemone because it was harming other coral. The only thing left is a frogspawn. i assume i will need to add a anemone into teh tank so he can get some pom poms?

Add one more to the club, I got my little Oscar today from the LFS. He's small, body is only about the size of a dime but he has two nice big anemones on his claws and seems to love his new home. I will try to post a picture as soon as my water clears up a little more (calcium additives really cloud up the water).

firstimereefer:

Try spot feeding it. Mine learned to come to a pipet containing Cyclopeeze.

sparticleveland:

The best lfs in my area will order what one requests. Have you thought of trying that? Like many things in this hobby, these crabs seem to come and go in availability. Don't you suppose the suppliers/retailers build demand that way? Plus, it would be awfully hard to carry everything, all the time.

maaron:

I hope you get a positive reply, but I don't think the specific pom pom anemone is available by itself. My crab started with two lovely anemones and is now down to one tiny one. I've read that it is common for the crabs to lose their anemones in captivity...

I fed my fishes Formula 2 (i believe that is correct, its the meatier one) and what did I get to see my little pom pom crab. Well he still has his 2 little anemones on his claws. I will tell you this though as soon as he was done eating boy did he disappear in the rock work. I will try to get a pic as soon as i can.

maaron, after reading over your threads and posts, i don't think your tank is ready for any form of life.

even algae?! LOL jk.


I thought maaron had a clam?

lol my tank is doing fine. nitrates down to 0 and i do have a clam and its doing great. with pc lighting.

6 hermits and a halloween hermit
pom pom crab
8 turbo snails
fighting conch
crocea clam
camel shrimp

royal gramma
1 clown
lawnmower blenny

7 mushrooms
frogspawn
6 sets of button polyps
zoos
toadstool

nitrates - 0

so there!!!

come on, CGNano and maaron hug and kiss , this is no place for a flame thread....

The only way to really replace the nems as far as I know is to add another crab with theirs still intact... They'll then share and split them until they both have two.

just got five of these guys, i think only two have tiny pom poms so i hope they split off and grow nice ones soon

That's fascinating! Jared, do report back and let us know if yours do this and if so, how quickly.

Here's a picture of Oscar, he did the funniest thing today. He decided to clean one of his anemones so in order to free up the other claw to clean with it, he put the anemone that was on that claw on his head. I also found out he's a big fan of krill.

yesterday my son saw a pom pom at our LFS. he asked for it, but i didn't know anything about them, other than occasionally seeing posts on here. came home and this afternoon i did a search. after reading these posts, i went right out and got one...what an awesome little crab. mine has a red and a white anemone (although the white one is much smaller than the red). i acclimated him and put him in the tank a few mintues ago...he's just sifting through the sand right now.

edit: here's his picture (ignore the fact that i was lazy about scraping the glass this week):

If my mantis ever dies (and it appears at this point that it may live forever), I would really like to get one of these. Very cool.

Wow, I haven't posted here in a while.

Maaron, your Crocea is dying a slow death; nice crabs everyone else!

a few more pics. I’ve kept pom pom's in a 75gal they just live off of detritus and i see them once every 3-4 months. The ones in my self sustaining tank has split its anemones 3 times in the past year.

The first pic is a pompom with eggs.

AWH, yours are really cute <3

Caught this shot last night -- right before she unloaded her babies in to the water column...

How do you take picture like that! I can never get shot on the spur of the moment like that. Does anyone have a UK site that sells these little marvels? I SOOOOOO WANT ONE!

I looove my little pom pom "Cheme". I'vd had her about 5 months now and she still has both her anemones. I like it so much that I'm thinking of setting up a nano just for pom poms. She's never caused an issue and I keep her in my 55 gallon.
I'd say I catch a glimpse of her about once every couple of days.

I found my Pom Pom carcass last night, what a bummer. I really don't think it shed.

Uploaded -- I shoot with a Nikon D50 coupled with a Nikkor 70-300 G lens with a Nikon 6T macro lens added to the end of that.

Oh and a tripod and a flash.

So I am picking up around 10 tonight

JR:-D

anyone have problems with the pom pom's anemones stinging and harming other corals? i just went through an annoying battle between some of my corals and dont want any more fighting in my tank...

Mine climb all over my zoas without any problems at all....

They're very reef-safe.