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Innovative Marine Aquariums

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


Islandoftiki

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Islandoftiki

Nice! What is that thing? Reef cookie?

 

It's an algae wafer. They go nuts for those things.

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Islandoftiki

hmm...perhaps I'll try those. Thanks!

 

The ones I have are "Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers" that I had left over from my dwarf freshwater shrimp tank, but they're good for marine critters, too. The crabs to ape for them!

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I can't believe the orange crab changed into this pink/white/red guy. What a change in color. Makes me wonder if his color will change again after the next molt? Goes to show you can't always depend on coloring to determine crab species.

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Islandoftiki

Some video of amphipods and other critters in the crab tank. Taken with my smart phone through a jeweler's loupe for magnification.

 

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Islandoftiki

This dude is getting comfortable with me around. He doesn't hide when I approach the tank now...

 

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

You are amazing in how you create ecosystems that bring out curiosity to other reefers that would never go this route! Who wants to know? "INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW" :)

 

Your tanks are taking us to places others have dared to explore!

 

Thanks,

 

MG

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Islandoftiki

Your tanks are taking us to places others have dared to explore!

 

I guess I'm just fascinated by everything; not just the common and ordinary. I look at other peoples' saltwater reef tanks and while most are impressive and pretty, they all have the same basic critters and things in them. So, the difference between one guy's tank and another are the dimensions of the tank. And I'm never too impressed that someone has a super rare SPS that more or less looks like every other SPS with the exception of some minute detail. I find these wacky little crabs just as much fun as anything else I have.

 

I don't know why, but this tank grows coraline algae like mad. It's really impressive.

 

I'm thinking about swapping out the rock on the far left of this tank for the rock on the far left of my 10 gallon. I like the shape of this rock better, and I'd love to get the GSP out of my 10 gallon.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Islandoftiki

Moar crabs! MOAR!!!

 

 

Ok folks, I just picked up some more cool hitchhikers... Sorry, they're still in the bag. I'll get better pictures when I get home.

 

Tiny tiny urchin. I'll have to try to ID it. Might me a tuxedo urchin. He's wearing a macro algae hat.

51C1C9CC-orig_zpsbb6f2368.jpg

 

Another black crab. I have two of these already. They're some kind of mithrax crab. They don't seem to eat corals, mostly algae and detritus.

1AAF6FCC-orig_zpsb25f624f.jpg

 

Two Trapezia sp. acropora crabs!

EDE0F227-orig_zps9ccf33a2.jpg

 

Hard to tell from this picture, but those are two tiny brown sea cucumbers. I might put one or both of these into the 25 gallon mantis tank.

92F39A9C-orig_zpsa8112ed8.jpg

 

There is also a Cymo andreossy hiding in there somewhere.

 

More pictures tonight when I acclimate them.

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Mr. Microscope

Woohoo! Looking forward to more on the new livestock. What does that make the new crab total?

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Islandoftiki

Here's one of the Trapezia cymodoce.

 

E46415E6-orig_zps86eff7b5.jpg

 

And here's another:

 

70627DDB-orig_zps02af1fd7.jpg

 

Another black mithrax crab just like the other two I have:

 

9CA1FA11-orig_zpsa525dd2a.jpg

 

This little guy:

D673AB35-orig_zpsb6693b75.jpg

 

And a couple of little tiny brown sea cucumbers. These two went into my 25 gallon tank.

A180B220-orig_zps6decefd0.jpg

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Islandoftiki

The last crab is Cymo melanodactylus. Another sps crab.

 

Some information on these guys.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342836

 

Awesome. I have like 3 of them now. I'm starting to give them to the local SPS junkies.

 

 

Where did you get the trapezia crabs from? I just bought 3 of them from Divers den. :o

 

We have a local importer that is about 2 minutes from where I work. Every couple weeks they get a new shipment and there are always hitchhiker critters that they would otherwise discard. Since they found out that I was looking for oddball hitchhikers, they started to give me all of the crabs and other oddball little critters like tiny urchins, elephant slugs, weird worms, mantis shrimp, pistol shrimp, and other common or uncommon live rock hitchhikers that they find when they're fragging corals.

 

So neat that this is still going. Want some weird nudibranchs? :lol:

 

If you want to send them to me, sure.

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Islandoftiki

Somehow, I manage to catch all of the really odd and special events in my tanks on video. For example, I caught my

, and my
.

 

As luck would have it, I was walking past the 2 gallon pest tank yesterday and noticed one of the black mithrax crabs I put in there from the 7 gallon pest crab tank was up at the front of the tank and acting weird.

 

Check out what happened!

 

 

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