what is a sand sifting crabs?

here is a link to the crabs, i was wondering what their real name is and if theres any place on the net that would have more info on them

they call em sand fleas in florida. I have three in my tank (from the same place) and I love em. Every so often one of them comes out of the sand and swims a bit and then dive bombs back into the sand.

 

I've had these three for two weeks (all three of mine died in the blackout) and the sand is clean again and there is a ton of life in my sand so the crabs aren't taking away from the biodiversity

Sand fleas called mole crabs (Emerita talpoida) are small (1 inch in size) light brown crustaceans that commonly burrow along the surf zone. They are distributed throughout temperate (e.g., Cape Cod) and topical regions. Sand fleas are commonly used as bait in the south (especially along the gulf coast),

http://www.expandtheworld.com/html/mole_crabs.html

I want one, is saltwaterfish.com a reputable dealer?

 

Crakeur, I've lived here 15 of my 21 years and I've never seen a single sand flea! They say that sealice is sand flea or jellyfish larvae. I was going to get a horseshoe crab, but I think I like these better.

little,

When the wave goes out......scoop down in the sand, 6 inches or so deep.........sort through this sand........the sand fleas will be there.....

 

Dickie

LITTLEFISHEE,Saltwaterfish.com is unbeleivable.I have placed many orders from them and was never dissapointed. All livestock is healthy,alert and good size. Free shipping with 75 dollar order is great. give them a try. Compared to other places I have ordered from,SWF blows them away. P.S. dont get a horseshoe crab.They are big and bulky and will tip rocks over. I got 3 sand sifters from SWF. they are cool to watch.

You guys with the sandsifters, how big are your tanks? How much bio load do you think these guys place on a system?

 

Thanks.

my tank is only 10g, i have 2 and i dont notice any bioload

mine is a 26. I have three in the tank. two large, one small. Don't know how much of a bioload they add but they do a wonderful job of keeping the sand clean.

If you watch the wave go out, you can see tiny little dimples in the sand for a second. Dimples is the best word I've got. Little depressions where the little fellas are trying to dig in. I just got a net at one of those awful tourist shotglass/swinsuit/hermitcrab/turtle/nick-nack stores and in 10 minutes I had caught 20 or so. You just scoop up as much sand that had the most dimples and just let it wash out in the ocean.

i'd imagine these little guys prefer water that's cooler than what most of us keep our tanks at.

 

good bait though. catch um' baby leopards

adin, I agree that they might like colder waters but they seem to be fine in my tank.

 

Horseshoes are cool but I've never had much success with them. They have trouble turning around and in smaller tanks they don't have as much room to roam. They get pretty damned big (I've seen horseshoes at least a foot and a half long) too. These sand sifters supposedly get large too but I haven't seen more than one molt and I might have imagined that (I do a lot of late night or very early morning viewing).

I've seen these guys on the beach, never thought to keep in an aquarium. Any special needs that you guys know of? How long do they live in an aquarium? Any info from you guy that have them in your tanks would be great! Thanks!

don't know how long they live. last batch I had died in the blackout. this batch has been in for about a month.

I think I'll go digging next Sunday, I got some red mangrove pods if anyone wants them. If I can catch them, do I have to transport them in beach sand?

be careful, along the california coast it's illegal to remove anything from the beach... not that anybody's gonna care about some sand fleas, but you never know who's watching...

Toss em in a ziploc bag with some sea water littlefishee and acclimate as you normally would.

I was going to get hermit crabs to stir up the sand but these seem like just what i need. Do you think the hermits would eat them if i had both?

got three like a month or so. one died, dont know why but the other two are doing fine.

hermits shouldn't eat the sand crabs unless the hermits are predators and even then, the sand crabs are big and live under the sand.

Nice!! I live like 5 minutes away from the beach....going to have to go grab some of those guys.

 

Do you guys think they'll be ok with a porcealin crab??

I have a porcelain in my tank and it stays far away from the sand.

 

did find one sandsifter dead this weekend from unknown reasons. Autopsy is needed but the damned crab is stuck in the back of the tank.

what exactly do these things eat? detritus?

 

i live on the so cal coast. we have gazillions of these things running around. biggest one ive ever caught is 1.5 inch or so. 90% of them are .5 inch in the wild. neat little suckers i would like to put some in my upcommin reef

Has anyone had good luck with these things? I'm thinking of going down to Corpus or Mustang Island to get some.