Hi all! I added a pom pom to my 90 gallon tank (no worries, no aggressive fish or those dangerous to inverts), though I do have a large coral banded shrimp who has taken out a couple of skunk cleaners. Hopefully, the pom pom is able to retreat into tight crevices if the coral banded comes attacking.

Anyways, I was worried that I'd never see the little fellow, considering it is a 90 gallon tank, with 150 lbs of live rock. However, he's been in there for a couple of weeks, and I've already seen him several times! He's so cool. Unfortunately, he's lost one of his two front claws, and thus the anemone that he held in it. He's still got one though, hopefully he'll regenerate his lost limb next time he molts.

Here's a pic I just snapped today!

Ok this one is for the experts.

I have had a pom pom for almost 2 years now, just upgraded to a 28g so I added 2 new pom poms understanding that the might live in groups. Not happening!!! The original pom pom (larger) has ripped both of the arms and a leg from one and 3 legs from the other! Every time I look he has one pinned down. This crab has shown signs of aggression before I witnessed him kill a yellow watchmen and a clown.
I know people on here thought I was crazy then, but now with the aggression towards his own kind it seems like my pom pom is a bad egg. What do you guys make of this?

I been reading this thread before and decided to get 3 pompom crab. When I bought the crab; Two of them have their anemone and 1 did not. After lights off: I could see these crab fighting - all three of them. Until non of them have an anemone. In my understanding, the one without the anemone started it all.

fast forward three months after, I've only seen two of the three. Perhaps one is already dead. One is clutching her orange egg and notice that the two crabs don't hang out together. They only mind their own business.


2 days ago though, I've noticed that the have that don't have eggs has a single minute anemone on it's pincers. Not sure where he got them but it's looks like the anemone they always carry. It's not different from what he use to have.

d'you guys think he hid it somewhere and now he's sporting it back?

As mentioned before I added 2 new pom poms bringing my total to 3. The 2 that I added did not have their nems. Well one of them seems to have picked up a small aptasia! I did not think that they would use anything but the real thing. What do you guys think?




And Here is a cool pic i snapped a few days ago:

so now we know if you have a problem with aptasia throw in some pompoms without nems!

Technically it's using the aiptasia and keeping it alive soo...

I was going to read through the thread, but decided against it. In a post by the OP he said they pick up ball anemones and tiny zoa's some times. I guess it makes sense that the little fellah grabbed an aiptasia.

Havent seen this thread in forever. Gotta post some pics of my two. The new one of mine just split its single nem into 2 peices to fill both claws.
Does anyone feed their pom pom's? I feed mine with bits of squid, shrimp and such. It comes out when I feed the fish and I use a pair of tweezers to feed. It grabs it right away. I also spray plankton (oyster eggs, plankton etc...) directly at the crab and it begins to sway back and forth waving its pom pom's in the stream of food. Then if I do that enough for a couple of weeks its sometimes, not always, but sometimes broods a clutch of bright orange eggs. Anyone else try anything like this?

I'm still looking for mine!
My friend and I were at the LFS he saw it and bought it
before i even got a chance =[

Next time they have one for sure tho!

could one of these sweet guys eat say a 3.5"-4" skunk cleaner shrimp? or a 2"-3" peppermint shrimp?
how about a 1"clown and a 1 1/2"clown? will they bug any corals? um how about snails? will they kill them?

hm thats all i can think of atm. i want one. if i see one at the LFS maybe just maybe. ill get one. but only if i get these questions answered. to Google!

These guys have always sparked an interest. I have finally found one. It's an interesting little charactor but has now disapeared into the rock work. I hope to see him soon.

Unfortunatly they do, as I witnessed it saturday night. They have to be really close to death though... my cleaner shrimp died within minutes of my tiny nass crawling all over him.

I've had mine with hermits, clowns, angels, nass snails, shrimp and never a single death or problem. Understandable if something was dead or at deaths door. That it may take a bite. Great additions.

HI,
So I Just got my Pom Pom Crab!!! I am so excited!! he is soo cute. i found him in this little hole in the wall fls. my local ones don't carry anything neat. he's soo tiny i didn't realize that they would be sooo tiny!
I so want another one. Mine was only $14.99 and i have seen them sale online for over $30. i was very excited. I also found a tiger pistol shrimp for my watchman goby. both of these little critters are soo nifty!
I only have a nano 20gal long tank but we are so excited to add these little guys to our tank.

I guess I will jump on board with this one. I picked up a Pom Pom that I had been eyeing for some time at a lfs about a month ago. By far the cutest little guy ever. My wife hates it she thinks it looks too much like a spider. Oogey boogey usually spends the day hiding in my rockwork caves but I do tend to see him near the front of the cave during lights out waving his now bigger anenomies around. I see him occasionally box my Mandarins or one of my other fish if they venture too close. I thought I had a pic or two on photobucket but I cant find any so ill have to take some new ones if I can ever lure him out.

do any of you have pictures of a pompom crab molt?

i found what i think is a dead pompom crab in my tank yesterday ( ) and was wondering if it was possibly a molt. it was basically a lighter coloured pompom crab without the anenomes.

im just hoping it's a molt, but i think it was my little guy...dead

there are too many pages to sift through, and the ones i did look through didn't answer my question, so apologies if it's been covered...but:

1) are pom poms a good member of a clean up crew for algae - hair, bubble (i know emeralds are), or anything else...i saw posts about spot feeding them, so is it recommended to add some hermits in the tank with them?

2) if i have 1 pom pom and it loses its anemones, how is it going to get them back? or will it grab some small zoos?

and just out of curiosity,
3) what is the function of its anemones?

dogfood, When mine molted I thought it had died because the molt looked Identical to the real thing. Give your self a few days hopefully it will turn up. I know alot of species will hide after a molt since that is when they are most vulnerable.

Sin, As far as I know and anyone can correct me if im wrong. PomPom's are pretty much worthless as far as CuC is concerned. They use thier anenomes like little mops pulling food out of the water column waiving them in the air and dragging them on the ground. They also use them for selfdefense. I imagine when the are molting is when they would be most likely to drop or loose thier anemones. If there is alot of current they could get away from them pretty fast. Not sure about the zoo part but I imagine it might try and find an alternative to help ease its anenome withdrawls.

my first pom pom came with only one anenome. a month later she was walking around with a red zoa in one hand, and an anenome in the other. i got a kick out of that.

thanks D3monic. that makes me feel a lot better. the little guy was doing so well, and the only thing that could snipe it is a little pistol shrimp, but that shrimp keeps to itself, on the opposite side of the tank, so im thinking it might in fact be a molt.

awesome info. i am setting up a nano (5g) after a long vacation from salt tanks. saw one in my LFS today an thought it was adorable!! glad for the info. is there a recommendation for number per gallon?? how do you know males from females (before eggs). is it better to have multiple females to one male or does it matter?

thanks
christi

so i still havent seen the small guy who may have molted.

on a different note, my large older female was out and about yesterday...WITH A BATCH OF EGGS!

last time i saw her with eggs they were a light pink colour. the ones that she has are basically "salmon roe" red...extremely vibrant. could that possibly mean they were fertilized?

can pom poms be put together with sexy shrimp?

i have two pom poms with sexy shrimp and they are fine.


on a happy note...

I FOUND THE LITTLE GUY TODAY!! guess it was a molt!

Hi everybody. I just got 2 beautiful Pom Pom crabs for my 4 gallon biOrb. All I have in the biOrb is LR, a large feather duster, a heater, a nano power head and a couple of little cleaners. I'll be watching these guys very closely to see how everything goes. I'm going to need your support in all of this.

I bought a Pom Pom back in beginning of March and needless to say I thought he died as I havent seen him once. Got back from church today and hes doing the wave right out in front! 2 months till this bugger came out in the open!

My pom pom just molted and I thought he was a goner. When I poked at the "dead crab" with a skewer, I saw it was just a shed and had no guts. This morning he was out and about like usual swaying in the current.

I have two in my 40g cube. Here's one of them.

Here's belly shots of both..............boys, girls?

I just found this thread.
good stuff but I have a question.
do they eat unwanted algea? like hair algea?
thanks,
F.

Hello everyone,

First thank you for such a fantastic Web site and information resource. I've read and learned a great deal here and wanted to say thanks to everyone.

A quick question / observation. I have been reading a lot about the Lybia tessellata and have not found much information on their territorial behavior. I currently have three of these in a 14 Gallon BioCube for about a week now. Today while one pom pom was feeding another walked by and the one with the food attacked the other pretty aggressively. No damage was done as I separated them with a turkey baster squirt.

Does anyone have information on how territorial they are? As I understand they are aggressive with food but what have you observed as far as just ordinary contact between the same species?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

if sexing them is similar to blue crabs then those are both males
females have wider tail flap thingys to carry eggs while males have little thin ones

This is what's been keeping me from getting one...

I was thinking about a pair of sexies. I havent found much info on housing them together though. Here is a pic of my pom pom.

I house 5 sexy's, 2 pederson cleaner shrimp & porcelain crab with 2 pom pom crab's and have never had a problem.

Thanks. Now I just have to find a place to buy them.

Ok, I have read this entire thread. I am wondering what everyone thinks about adding one of these to my 40gal tall seahorse tank that I am setting up. Will they mess with my seahorses. This crab is so cool that I want one. Thanks in advance for any help.
Angela

What are everyone's opinions on the genders?

I know the gender of one for sure but I'd like to see what everyone thinks.

My pom pom surprised me. I added a small porcelain crab to my tank and the pom pom immediately attacked and killed it.

Wow, sorry to hear that. I haven't had any problems with mine and I have a porcelain crab & anemone crab housed with my 3.

Two males and one female and in that order.

This is my pom pom, Thistle. He's not a very friendly fellow. I've seen him punch his anemones at one of my sexy shrimp and a couple of my ceriths.

I just got 2 pom pom at a LFS, awesome lil critter! I turned on the light one day to see both of em wresting / fighting... one win and took the loser's pom pom away (he now have 2), the loser crab didnt have an anemone so..... he substitute it by taking a very small clove polyps colony I had in there as his pom pom!

I will try to post pic of his "anemone" later.

Well this weekend I went to a LFS to meet a reefer for a quick exchange. Walked by the invertebrate tanks and came home with this little guy:





Named him / her Lucy. I don't know why, haha, it was just the first name that popped up as I was driving home. The dang thing is cute as hell so I had to buy it. It just stared at me with it's puppy dog eyes. (Actually it was being blown around in circles in one of those acclimation cups)

I bought my pom pom about 3 weeks ago and love trying to find him in my little 3gal tank. I want to add another one (or two), but I'm wondering if adding more than one will promote competition. I read many posts that many mutli-pom pom crab tanks have one or two crabs with missing anemones.

Has anyone had problems with their pom poms losing their anemones in mutli-crab tanks?

i have a few questions. do the anenomes that come with these guys need the same kind of water quality that normal nems do? could i put two or three of these guys in my 55g or is that too big a tank for them? they are really coo little guys. i have two clowns, a carpenter wrasse, a goby pistol shrimp pair and a cleaner shrimp. does anyone see these guy not getting along with my current inhabitants?

I got two and they seem to come out very often. One of them came with out any anemones so he grabbed a piece of Xenia plus a Plankton "a live one too, cause I can see it move on his claw still hahaha." The other one came with two red anemones but now is down to one so hopefully it grows and he splits them. I might one more if I can find one with two full size anemones.

what kind of anemones do these guys carry around? is it just anything they can get their hands on? i got one last night for 5 bucks but he didnt have any anemones, and i dont have any in my tank

Hahaha, wow! This thread is still around? I made it when I was 13 and my 18th birthday was Tuesday... I'm really glad to see that everyone appreciates these things.

I ordered another one for my nano from bluezooaquatics along with some other animals Thursday night.... lo and behold when I got my order on Saturday morning I had everything in the box except the pom pom crab has anyone ever had this issue with bluezoo before?

Hello...

Just wanted to show my new Lybia Tesselatta.

Happily it is out, much more than I expected. I see it wandering around, waving its anemones a couple of times a day.

Picture


Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMhGzo63vik

mine hides in a rock all the time

could it be because he doesnt have any anemones?

give him some zoas

mine hides all the time too and sometimes i see him when lights out =(