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Islandoftiki's 7 Gallon Micro-Reefs Pest Crab Tank.


Islandoftiki

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Crabs!

 

Here's what we've got:

 

One orange crab that I will now attempt to identify, and one smaller sand/beige crab that I'm not 100% sure about.

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This guy is really quite cool looking.

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This tiny guy is kinda cute, too.

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And into the tank they went!

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This guy is going to be hard to find until he gets a little bigger...

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Also, the light came in.

 

So, the good news is that the 18" fixture is 15.2" long!

 

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The bad news is that it's about 1/4" from fitting nicely on the tank. I think I'll build some custom acrylic brackets to hold the fixture.

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Other than that, the color looks great. The magician palys I have in the tank looks excellent. The drab mushroom actually shows some of it's green color now.

 

Now, to ID the crabs and see what kind of corals they eat so I can avoid those.

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Very nice he looks even better in those pics. Didn't see the black on his claws that's cool. He looks great in the tank too little grumpy orange crabby! Great score! Light looks good to. Can't wait.to see how this one looks in 2-3 months!

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Very nice he looks even better in those pics. Didn't see the black on his claws that's cool. He looks great in the tank too little grumpy orange crabby! Great score! Light looks good to. Can't wait.to see how this one looks in 2-3 months!

 

I imagine I can keep quite a few little crabs in here. Unlike mantis shrimp, you can house multiple crabs together. We'll see what turns up. I have multiple saltwater shops keeping their eyes out for goodies.

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Well, there was an exceedingly simple solution to the the fitment issue with the adjustable arms being slightly too wide.

Just remove them!

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Would you want/have any desire for a piece of LR with "Pest" Polys on it? I have one in my 55g that I am wanting to remove.

 

Also, you've got crabs!! :). Just had to say it.

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Would you want/have any desire for a piece of LR with "Pest" Polys on it? I have one in my 55g that I am wanting to remove.

 

Also, you've got crabs!! :). Just had to say it.

 

I should be good for pest palys. I have every local variety of ugly brown and sea foam green palys known to our reefing community.

 

I stole some GSP from my 10 gallon tank... I'm starting to hate that stuff in that tank.

 

One of the local reefers gave me a rock with blue cloves on it for the tank.

 

I'll probably steal another frag of xenia from the pest tank.

 

Oh, and the first thing the crabs did when I put them in the tank was to burrow under the rocks and hide. Haven't seen them since. LOL

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Ok, so I bought some actual corals from the local supplier that is giving me with free hitchhikers for this tank. I went to pick them the corals up today and they had some more goodies for me!

 

What we have here appears to be a tiny needle pincushion urchin and a Elephant slug/Shield Slug.

 

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Now, check this out. This dude is cool!

 

 

This little guy might go into my 10 gallon mixed reef tank.

 

My the way, check out the link for my Mantis/Mushroom/Damsel tank in a couple days and I'll have some picture of the corals I bought. Good stuff!

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That slug is so cool!
Can you try and get a picture/video of him going into his shell. The discription of their shell has me a bit curious how it works.

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Mr. Microscope

Crabs!

 

Here's what we've got:

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This tiny guy is kinda cute, too.

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omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg

 

I forgot to hit, "follow" on this thread. Can't believe I missed these guys. So fun!!!

Those are great looking crabs. I imagine as they settle in that you might start seeing them more often. Good luck.

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I should send you, Kong, my teddy bear crab. I think I still have him. He's in an 8g with a tangle of chaeto and caulerpa. Haven't seen him in months.

 

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Great idea for a tank.

 

L

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I'll take 'em. It's funny. Since I put those two crabs in there, I've seen them each once. They bury themselves under the rockwork during the day.

 

Neither one has eaten any of the palys or the chalice coral in the tank.

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That red crab is totally awesome!

The bummer is that he lives under a rock during the day... So far he hasn't eaten any corals yet.

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I got another something for the pest crab tank. Lord help those crabs! Actually, she's really too small to mess with them.

 

Cute as a bug!

 

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Still haven't been able to ID what kind of mantis she is, she might have to grow a little bigger to tell.

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Beautiful mantis! LFS, I presume? In any normal tank I would have thought it to be an amphipod.

Oh, also, I have a Bobbit worm! I wished and I got!

Would you like it? I want to give it to someone with experience in these areas.

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Islandoftiki

Beautiful mantis! LFS, I presume? In any normal tank I would have thought it to be an amphipod.

Oh, also, I have a Bobbit worm! I wished and I got!

Would you like it? I want to give it to someone with experience in these areas.

 

I'd be happy to take it!

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Paandemonium

Do you know how large that mantis is going to grow? They really intrigue me and I wonder how large of a tank they need

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Islandoftiki

Nothing too exciting here. Here's a picture of the tank. All of it's inhabitants prefer to come out at night. Elephant slugs, crabs, etc.

 

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I'm about to move that macro algae over to the 25 gallon mantis tank.

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Islandoftiki

Do you know how large that mantis is going to grow? They really intrigue me and I wonder how large of a tank they need

 

The best guess for that mantis is that it's a Gonodactylellus viridis and it's probably going to top out at 2". It moved to it's new home, a 2 gallon fluval spec, like my pest tank that also has a G. viridis in it. A friend of mine set up the tank especially for this little cutie. The day it moved, it also molted and is now a beautiful shade of emerald green from what I've been told.

 

Mantis shrimp can range a lot in size depending on the species. Anywhere from the big dudes that top out around 7 inches to the little guys that grow to a maximum of 2 inches.

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