Need bad ass crab or funky invert to alleviate boredom

[Orphicdragon]

I tend to err on the side of caution. I'd hate to murder something because I was too inept to keep it alive

 

I'm leaning towards a herd of something or other and patiently waiting to see if the invert gawd stumbles upon something cool on one of his trips.

 

Patience sucks but gotta see the pastie crab

[ryeguy28]

mantis shrimp are not boring very intertaning acttuly

 

 

they are one of my favorite fish/ invert ever

 

i am setting up a new tank for one since my last one died

[bluefunelement]

Patience sucks but gotta see the pastie crab

 

Decorator crab could be cool with your macros - mine is only 1/2" but a real CUC - after manually removing all the brown algae Dictoya he went around the tank and picked up all the scraps and attached them to himself along with a crown of Halimeda just to let me know who rules the roost.

 

and did someone say Pastry Crab?

[Orphicdragon]

Close, but I imagine it a little more like

 

 

 

 

(I am not going to ponder what that says about my imagination )

[johnmaloney]

decorators are cool little critters, not as cool as pastry crabs though.

 

on the mantis - to each their own. personally i couldnt watch one for over a minute without losing interest. maybe they might come out to walk a few inches, maybe eat a hermit....eh...i know some people are just amazed at these guys, but I am not one of them. maybe it is because i have a bias against CUC eating critters.

[Orphicdragon]

Just found out the least stupid of my LFS' gets long nose and spider decorators in every few weeks

 

 

Now to find out if I can push my luck and have more than one in there without or

 

Maybe get a lil' of goin on but I don't want any of

 

 

Please blame nanobuds for my smiley abuse. I have a problem and nano sent me a link to smileys thus enabling my abuse

[supernip]

elbow crabs are awesome

[Orphicdragon]

elbow crab?

 

Edit : http://noolmusic.com/google_videos/elbow_c...harp_island.php

 

That guy? He's cool as hell, never heard of one before. That crab is not messing around at feeding time either

[supernip]

Ive kept a female once, very low maintenance and hardy. I've never seen it for sale again but it was awesome. Looks just like destroyer from the godzilla series or an angry face.

 

I couldnt tell if I had one of these two species

 

but most likely she was of this species

 

but personally I prefer cute things and segmented things. I want a nice chiton or cowrie

[Orphicdragon]

I want some kinda Star Trooper alien/bug crab

 

I don't think the elbow crab will work because I am an invert freak and it would eat my inverts : /

 

I love my chitons. I'm not sure why, they don't really do anything. Maybe it's the whole living fossil thing that appeals to me....

[supernip]

the one I had was rather docile and a bit shy, didn't even mess with my snails. Nocturnal though.

 

Have you considered the ninjastar aestrea snail or a pair of blue head/yellow coral banded shrimps? A lot smaller, prettier than the common coral banded shrimps and very strong bonding behavior in mates. Also, I really enjoy nassarius snails. I know they're pretty common but they're behaviorally very interesting. They're invisible most of the time but as soon as you drop food in, they rise from the sand like zombies

[johnmaloney]

they fight, unless they get along...so this:

 

Now to find out if I can push my luck and have more than one in there without or

 

Maybe get a lil' of

[Orphicdragon]

Damn crabby crabs.

 

I have a boatload of nass I love those guys. I have 5 or 6 ninja's too. This is sort of a project/live food/macro tank and probably my only shot to have something of the super awesome non reef safe genre.

 

I haven't had coral banded in a while, and never the blue and yellow. That could be interesting....

 

I was thinking maybe I would get a "herd" of something but I'm not sure of what. Sexies were suggested, but we have those in the pico and meh. They are neat but 200 of them wouldn't be all that different from 5 or 6. Though with 200 sexies I could make an awesome youtube vid with a shakira song to supply the beat. Maybe throw a pom pom in there and make him wyclef so I can do a "hips don't lie" thing

[johnmaloney]

if you want a mated pair of coral banded i have them in a tank that is slowly being broken down. free of charge. i have had them for about a year, neither likes to clean fish, they are always too busy hanging out, walk around constantly following each other. you can take them along with the grunt and hairy blenny that reside there. neither fish are reef safe, kind of bullies but they are fine together, and with the shrimp for now at least. the grunt will become too large one day and have to be returned to the sea. he is about 5 months old now, they grow pretty quickly - he is about 3 inches. (want to say a 3 line grunt, but that is a fisherman's term?) he was part of an experiment i tried with larval fish...he wasn't supposed to be in there but what can you do? Both fish are extremely hardy, it would take a lot to kill either. would fit in with your tank of trouble. the hairy blenny has the same back story. she is a female though.

[Orphicdragon]

Ooooo hmmm, may have to take you up there.

 

I don't know if I have enough rock to keep the grunt happy though. How much would he need?

[johnmaloney]

rock for the grunt or the blenny? The grunt doesn't care about rock, the blenny likes it, although he perches on the sand and the glass most of the time. She is kind of strange, and sort of sits on the side of the glass looking up.

[konolua]

Build a half water half land tank. Tons of options then. That's what I did when I got bored....

[johnmaloney]

You and weta have caused some stir recently in the "non-reef safe" vivarium/aquarium crab inquiries I get. Noticed a bump in those requests in the last few months.

[bluefunelement]

just an update that my HH deco crab molted out of his Halimeda disguise and into a Botryocladia disguise - might be fun to see what he's next - wearing my fish?

[johnmaloney]

thats pretty cool, he blends right in back there.

[bluefunelement]

Since I'm adding mostly zoas into the 6g to blend in his next molt will need to be zoa's - his next size will need to be ejected to the 29g so I guess it could be a good fragging strategy. I still think a tank of half-dozen deco crabs would be crazy with everything moving around that shouldn't be.

 

 

 

 

John - should I worry about him other then picking zoa's in a 29 softy tank?

 

thats pretty cool, he blends right in back there.

[konolua]

Since I'm adding mostly zoas into the 6g to blend in his next molt will need to be zoa's - his next size will need to be ejected to the 29g so I guess it could be a good fragging strategy. I still think a tank of half-dozen deco crabs would be crazy with everything moving around that shouldn't be.

 

 

 

 

John - should I worry about him other then picking zoa's in a 29 softy tank?

 

I am not John, but yes, he will pick at everything. Depends upon the safety he feels. It also goes off of instinct on what there is the most of....

 

You and weta have caused some stir recently in the "non-reef safe" vivarium/aquarium crab inquiries I get. Noticed a bump in those requests in the last few months.

 

That good?

 

[johnmaloney]

no, the crab is far cooler than any zoa frag. he seems to know what he is doing with the fragging too...I wouldnt worry at all, and be happy about it. I guess it depends on how you value things, but I think he looks cool.

 

by the way I vote that orphicdragon posts here again

[konolua]

if you want a mated pair of coral banded i have them in a tank that is slowly being broken down. free of charge. i have had them for about a year, neither likes to clean fish, they are always too busy hanging out, walk around constantly following each other. you can take them along with the grunt and hairy blenny that reside there. neither fish are reef safe, kind of bullies but they are fine together, and with the shrimp for now at least. the grunt will become too large one day and have to be returned to the sea. he is about 5 months old now, they grow pretty quickly - he is about 3 inches. (want to say a 3 line grunt, but that is a fisherman's term?) he was part of an experiment i tried with larval fish...he wasn't supposed to be in there but what can you do? Both fish are extremely hardy, it would take a lot to kill either. would fit in with your tank of trouble. the hairy blenny has the same back story. she is a female though.

 

Whatever happened with this?

[johnmaloney]

hah - i misread that other question - eh decorators will wear anything they can to blend in, but they generally dont kill anything. still got the botryocladia right?

 

that tank is still being broken down! I can find a home for the hairy blenny. I moved the pair of shrimp over to my 72 a few weeks ago. I think one of them is going to die soon though. They were adult size when I got them about a year or so ago I guess, and it just seems lazy. The other shrimp is still lively and moves about, but the other doesn't follow as much anymore.