EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 I just had a question for you guys. Could I keep a calico crab in this tank? I’m looking at one and it is only an inch and a half. I think for now it should be fine. I’ve been reading about other people keeping calico crabs and I’ve found multiple people who have kept them in 10 gallon tanks. Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 I believe a calico crab would prey on your other crabs. They eat small fish and other inverts I think? 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 Calico crabs get chunky and probably territorial. I don't know for sure what they eat, but by claw shape, I'd imagine they'd kill other things to eat. Calico crab in that tank, maybe, if you scape right so it can't knock anything over. Plan on, and scape for, it being at full size. Calico crab with other crabs, you won't have the others for long. 1 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 3, 2019 Author Share Posted October 3, 2019 8 hours ago, Tired said: Calico crabs get chunky and probably territorial. I don't know for sure what they eat, but by claw shape, I'd imagine they'd kill other things to eat. Calico crab in that tank, maybe, if you scape right so it can't knock anything over. Plan on, and scape for, it being at full size. Calico crab with other crabs, you won't have the others for long. I read on other people’s forums on other sites like reef2reef who kept calico crabs, and they were saying that they were surprising peaceful to other things in the tank. They didn’t attack any fish, or any crabs, it only ever ate the persons snails in the tank. They can also nip at soft fleshy corals, so I wouldn’t probably be able to keep corals in this tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 16 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said: I read on other people’s forums on other sites like reef2reef who kept calico crabs, and they were saying that they were surprising peaceful to other things in the tank. They didn’t attack any fish, or any crabs, it only ever ate the persons snails in the tank. They can also nip at soft fleshy corals, so I wouldn’t probably be able to keep corals in this tank. It's possible to get a placid animal but i wouldn't count on it Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 3, 2019 Author Share Posted October 3, 2019 22 minutes ago, Ratvan said: It's possible to get a placid animal but i wouldn't count on it Yea, well I’m probably gonna get the calico crab and I’ll fix my aquascape accordingly. I definitely think that the little crab in this tank would definitely be fine, he hides in a hole in a rock all day long. Calico crabs burrow in the sand and live in a deep sand bed, so he really shouldn’t bug the rocks too much. 2 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 He may be little now, but he's going to grow, and should grow fast if fed properly. You need to plan for that being a full-sized adult. Make sure you set all your rocks on the bottom of the tank, on the glass itself, and NOT just on the sandbed so he can't undermine them and collapse. 2 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 3, 2019 Author Share Posted October 3, 2019 51 minutes ago, Tired said: He may be little now, but he's going to grow, and should grow fast if fed properly. You need to plan for that being a full-sized adult. Make sure you set all your rocks on the bottom of the tank, on the glass itself, and NOT just on the sandbed so he can't undermine them and collapse. That’s what I was planning, in the future I was planning on upgrading to a 20 or 30 gallon tank for this set up. I was probably gonna get a long tank. I like longer tanks more than normal or tall tanks. I was planning on arranging the rock work to be against the glass, so there is an open sand bed for him to burrow in. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 It's not generally a good idea to lean rockwork against the glass. It puts stress on the glass, and can scratch or even crack it if something shifts. Settle it on its own weight, don't support it on the glass. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 3, 2019 Author Share Posted October 3, 2019 25 minutes ago, Tired said: It's not generally a good idea to lean rockwork against the glass. It puts stress on the glass, and can scratch or even crack it if something shifts. Settle it on its own weight, don't support it on the glass. Oh ok, I’ll do that then. If I can glue everything down so it can’t move, that would probably be my best move. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 Just a few update pics Changed the aqua scape a while back Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 3 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 You have an immensity of hair algae, I see. What are your parameters? That stuff'll choke everything else out, and appears to be doing so. Nice fan worms on that coral. The coral doesn't look thrilled, though, and be careful with that- looks like palythoas. Extremely toxic. Don't handle them without gloves, and do NOT touch them and then touch your eyes. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 3 hours ago, Tired said: You have an immensity of hair algae, I see. What are your parameters? That stuff'll choke everything else out, and appears to be doing so. Nice fan worms on that coral. The coral doesn't look thrilled, though, and be careful with that- looks like palythoas. Extremely toxic. Don't handle them without gloves, and do NOT touch them and then touch your eyes. This is my pest tank, so I do know about the hair algae. I have multiple other palys and zoas in my main tank, I know about the toxin. I always handle these things without gloves, but I still use caution. I always wash my hands after I’m done in the tank. I let the hair algae grow like that. The crabs enjoy eating it and this is supposed to be a low maintenance pest tank. The other red macro algae also grows like crazy in this tank. It used to be a small little bundle and now it’s pretty large. The palys also do like this tank a lot better than my main tank. They never opened in the other tank and they finally opened in this tank. They are grandis’. 2 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 I’m thinking about getting some other inverts for the tank, bc I already have some crabs in the tank, I was thinking a emerald crab to help lower the amount of green hair algae. I like the green hair, it gives it a more natural look, but I don’t want it to get too out of control 3 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 So I just want to say that I named this tank thread perfectly. This crab in this tank is a psycho. I came home to the palys that were in the tank torn apart and eaten. Any crab that eats palytoxin for lunch is something I don’t want to mess with😂. I was able to find one of the palys intact and I glued it to the rock. He carried the plug off the rock and took it to his cave. He also ate a snail shell? Like he actually ate pieces of a snail shell? Is that normal for a crab? That just seems crazy? 1 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 Here’s some pictures just so you don’t think I’m crazy. You can obviously see that the shell has had chunks taken out of it and the other picture is of the frag disk that he just tossed in the back and the other picture is the lone paly that does not look happy glued to the rock. Not to blame the paly for not being happy, he was just attacked by a psycho crab. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Your crab isn't psychotic. Psychosis is a mental disorder characterized by a certain type of disconnect from reality. It's seen in humans, and it's possible that some of the more intelligent animals (parrots, dogs, etc) could be psychotic, but they can't be said to be psychotic because we can't ask them about their experiences. Your crab is just eating a food source, it does not have a mental disorder. Big crabs of some species eat palythoas and zoanthids. I can pretty much guarantee you that there is nothing on this planet that lives around other animals and isn't eaten by something. If you don't want those palys to get completely eaten, take them out. I would take them out regardless, them being predated upon will likely cause them to release palytoxin, which may harm your livestock. Wear gloves! They're guaranteed to be pissed off and probably kind of slimy at the moment. The snail shell, he probably broke because he was investigating if it's something he can eat. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 16 minutes ago, Tired said: Your crab isn't psychotic. Psychosis is a mental disorder characterized by a certain type of disconnect from reality. It's seen in humans, and it's possible that some of the more intelligent animals (parrots, dogs, etc) could be psychotic, but they can't be said to be psychotic because we can't ask them about their experiences. Your crab is just eating a food source, it does not have a mental disorder. Big crabs of some species eat palythoas and zoanthids. I can pretty much guarantee you that there is nothing on this planet that lives around other animals and isn't eaten by something. If you don't want those palys to get completely eaten, take them out. I would take them out regardless, them being predated upon will likely cause them to release palytoxin, which may harm your livestock. Wear gloves! They're guaranteed to be pissed off and probably kind of slimy at the moment. The snail shell, he probably broke because he was investigating if it's something he can eat. It was a joke... I was just joking about him being psychotic😂. I was just trying to say that he’s a weird crab is all🤷♂️. I don’t have anything in the tank except for the palys, macro algae, hair algae, some sponges, feather dusters, worms, and two crabs. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 It's not a very funny joke, people who are actually psychotic (which, by the way, does NOT make them a serial killer. People with some form of psychosis are far more likely to be harmed by others than to harm anyone else) get a lot of unpleasantness aimed their way. There's a lot of stigma around mental illness, and especially the delusion-related ones. Palytoxin, if there's enough in the water, will irritate, harm, and potentially kill all your animals. I wouldn't let your crab eat those, because eating them is one thing, and breathing the toxin in constantly is an entirely different matter. If you have to keep them in there, run a lot of activated charcoal, and treat the water like a potential skin irritant. The latter precaution may be overkill, but without actual testing it's hard to know, so the safer thing is to just assume the worst in terms of toxin saturation. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 4 minutes ago, Tired said: It's not a very funny joke, people who are actually psychotic (which, by the way, does NOT make them a serial killer. People with some form of psychosis are far more likely to be harmed by others than to harm anyone else) get a lot of unpleasantness aimed their way. There's a lot of stigma around mental illness, and especially the delusion-related ones. Palytoxin, if there's enough in the water, will irritate, harm, and potentially kill all your animals. I wouldn't let your crab eat those, because eating them is one thing, and breathing the toxin in constantly is an entirely different matter. If you have to keep them in there, run a lot of activated charcoal, and treat the water like a potential skin irritant. The latter precaution may be overkill, but without actual testing it's hard to know, so the safer thing is to just assume the worst in terms of toxin saturation. Gosh ok, I didn’t mean to upset anyone. I was just trying to have a little fun here. I thought that reefing was supposed to be about getting to have fun and enjoying your tank. I’ve been on this forum for 2 years and I barely get criticized for what I post except if it’s something that’s just very stupid. Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 That's part of reefing, yes, but choice of words has nothing to do with reefing. There are better words and phrases to use that don't contribute to the flak that people get for things that aren't their fault. "Metal" comes to mind, since it's eaten palytoxin and has not died. Plus, ya never know. Some people probably would think their crab was mentally ill if it started acting strangely. Which, granted, it could be, but there's no way to tell. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share Posted January 7, 2020 Howdie y’all, I haven’t made an update in this tank thread in quite a while. I just wanted to say that the tank is doing great. The two crabs are still alive and doing well, both have grown much bigger. Still haven’t identified the smaller one that everyone liked that was tending to his algae garden in that picture. The other one is definitely a stone crab. That red macro algae that I had in the tank has been growing really nicely. It’s grown really large. Smaller pieces have even broken off and the smaller pieces have been growing to large pieces. I’ve been lowering the light period in the tank a lot lately also. The light has only been on for maybe 4 hours a day. It’s really helped to get rid of the hair algae. There’s not even close to as much. The red macro must’ve been getting most of it’s growth from the nutrients in the water. I really need to get some pictures, but I’m grounded from my phone at the moment and all I have is my computer. I’m also getting rid of the big stone crab, I’m hopefully gonna give it to my LFS, because I have a surprise addition coming. I can’t wait. It’s another crab, so I don’t want the big stone crab to kill him when I put him in. The other smaller crab can stay tho, he hides in the rocks almost all the time. Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted February 6, 2020 Author Share Posted February 6, 2020 For the past few weeks I’ve been on the hunt for pests and other neat things for this tank. So far these are the inhabitants: -Cheeto, the shameface crab❤️ 4 Quote Link to comment
EthanPhillyCheesesteak Posted February 6, 2020 Author Share Posted February 6, 2020 He’s a baby, less than half an inch. -Aptasia 1 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.