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


Islandoftiki

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Islandoftiki

Look what I got today...

 

0BD10C78-orig_zps878b6153.jpg

 

I'm not sure of the ID on this nice little pistol shrimp, but he's cool. Tan body with greenish claws. I'll ID him when I have a little time unless anyone knows off the top of their heads.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Bella's Reef

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!

 

One of the coolest video's I have seen, nice capture!

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Look what I got today...

 

0BD10C78-orig_zps878b6153.jpg

 

I'm not sure of the ID on this nice little pistol shrimp, but he's cool. Tan body with greenish claws. I'll ID him when I have a little time unless anyone knows off the top of their heads.

Cool shrimp. Possibly Alpheus parvirostris or Richardsoni. Alpheus certainly.

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Islandoftiki

Cool shrimp. Possibly Alpheus parvirostris or Richardsoni. Alpheus certainly.

 

I'll tell you what. He's louder than heck! About three times louder than my tiger pistol shrimp. Glad he's living in the basement right now.

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In the article Mantis vs Pistol Shrimp in Vol7 Num6 of Coral Magazine, the author shared this experience: (Just interesting and the new Alpheus made me think about it)

 

 

... But it is a fact that no mantis shrimp can establish itself long-term where there is an Alpheus living; after a few days there is loud cracking in the passageway system, then silence - and the mantis shrimp is never seen again.


One recent observation has now reinforced this particularly clearly: I obtained a splendid mantis shrimp, a young Odontodactylus scyllarus barely 4 inches (10 cm) long, from a colleague. As soon as it was introduced, it bolted like lightning among some loose fragments of coral and tried to disappear into a crevice. At the same moment, the significantly smaller Alpheus pistol shrimp, resident in the tank for years, came rushing up to the larger, well-armed mantis shrimp (literally like a bullet from a gun) cracking away and stirring up sediment. It had obviously noticed the intruder - this was not a chance encounter. It all happened faster than the eye could resister [sic]: in a split second, the mantis shrimp was seriously injured, floating belly-up and motionless in the current, and disintegrated into two pieces when I made haste to rescue it. A truly macabre, albeit impressive, execution, which gave me pause for thought.

- Ellen Thayer, Mantis vs Pistol Shrimp

The author then speculates that the primary role of Alpheus in the wild is to protect gobies from mantis.

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I'll tell you what. He's louder than heck! About three times louder than my tiger pistol shrimp. Glad he's living in the basement right now.

Glad he's living up to the 'pest' label for ya

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Islandoftiki

I wonder if he would pair with a goby. I don't really have a good place to set him up with a goby. Some of the pest crabs in that tank are big enough to take down a fish now. Of course, they won't mess with the pistol shrimp. If the goby paired, it would probably be safe, but if not, it would likely be crab food.

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I wonder if he would pair with a goby. I don't really have a good place to set him up with a goby. Some of the pest crabs in that tank are big enough to take down a fish now. Of course, they won't mess with the pistol shrimp. If the goby paired, it would probably be safe, but if not, it would likely be crab food.

That is not a symbiotic pistol shrimp species to my knowledge. OF course getting a confirmed ID would answer your questions but my Alphaes parvirostritis was not.

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Islandoftiki

That is not a symbiotic pistol shrimp species to my knowledge. OF course getting a confirmed ID would answer your questions but my Alphaes parvirostritis was not.

 

That's kinda what I thought. I ALMOST saw him tonight. He's extremely reclusive. I guess apropos for the pest crab tank where everyone is reclusive except for at feeding time. I'll tell you what though, I would not like to be on the receiving end of this guy's pistol claw.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Micro-Reefs Aquariums

Very tense moment as the hermit crab comes closer to inspect... Music made the video more hair raising... :)

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  • 1 month later...
Islandoftiki

I was doing some maintenance on the pest crab tank today and found a pair of molted claws. Look at the size of this monster!

 

26A23BBA-orig_zpsc6635f9a.jpg

 

After the tank cleaning, it was time to feed. Here's the monster that that claw came from. He's even bigger now!

 

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