Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

ReefCleaners micro decorator crab info thread


Tired

Recommended Posts

Yeah, the guy says he has a ton of them running around in some algae, but he's not sure exactly how many. I guess he counted them. 

 

Honestly, I would probably get rid of the emerald, if I were you. Plenty of people keep them and never have problems, but if you look around the forum, now and then one causes problems. They are crabs, after all, and have decent-sized claws, even if they aren't normally aggressive. Hell, I can't promise the micro decorators won't get up to anything, I can just tell you they have very small claws. 

Link to comment
growsomething
52 minutes ago, Tired said:

Yeah, the guy says he has a ton of them running around in some algae, but he's not sure exactly how many. I guess he counted them. 

 

Honestly, I would probably get rid of the emerald, if I were you. Plenty of people keep them and never have problems, but if you look around the forum, now and then one causes problems. They are crabs, after all, and have decent-sized claws, even if they aren't normally aggressive. Hell, I can't promise the micro decorators won't get up to anything, I can just tell you they have very small claws. 

I think that's the way to go.  He is responsible for my wife's clown carpet surfing after only 4 days.  Saw him snap at him several times when the clown came around a corner, spooked the clown out of his mind.

Link to comment

My crabs came in! 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

I put them in this teacup for awhile to see if I could timelapse-film them dressing up. The bigger one crawled over and stood on top of the smaller one, poking at it, so I took it out. I think it was trying to steal something from the smaller one? Definitely didn't damage it. 

 

They took a few hours to dress up, after I put them in the tank. I'm not sure what this one is doing in the video. It looks like it's putting something on its back, but I couldn't see any difference after ten (timelapsed) minutes of whatever this was. Maybe it's not very good at decorating yet.

 

 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

The smaller one found a bit of cyano (I'm feeding heavily lately and might need to increase flow) and is wearing that. It's also wearing a zoanthid polyp that it came in with. It's pretty vigorously exploring this algae, and seems particularly interested in the codium. It's bottom center in this pic.

 

image1.jpg?width=472&height=630

The bigger one got some hair algae, and also some anemone poo. It's top left here. It put a LOT of algae tufts on its legs. It cleaned all that algae it found off my codium, which is nice, then went to sit back there. 

They both seem to decorate particularly heavily around their rear end and their hind legs, I assume to help break up their shape while leaving their face and eyes free. This one's got a whole chunk of hair algae attached near its hind legs. It was actually supporting the algae with one of its smallest legs at one point, and is able to use them to maneuver things into place on its back.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
On 7/8/2020 at 9:20 PM, Tired said:

My crabs came in! 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

I put them in this teacup for awhile to see if I could timelapse-film them dressing up. The bigger one crawled over and stood on top of the smaller one, poking at it, so I took it out. I think it was trying to steal something from the smaller one? Definitely didn't damage it. 

 

They took a few hours to dress up, after I put them in the tank. I'm not sure what this one is doing in the video. It looks like it's putting something on its back, but I couldn't see any difference after ten (timelapsed) minutes of whatever this was. Maybe it's not very good at decorating yet.

 

 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

The smaller one found a bit of cyano (I'm feeding heavily lately and might need to increase flow) and is wearing that. It's also wearing a zoanthid polyp that it came in with. It's pretty vigorously exploring this algae, and seems particularly interested in the codium. It's bottom center in this pic.

 

image1.jpg?width=472&height=630

The bigger one got some hair algae, and also some anemone poo. It's top left here. It put a LOT of algae tufts on its legs. It cleaned all that algae it found off my codium, which is nice, then went to sit back there. 

They both seem to decorate particularly heavily around their rear end and their hind legs, I assume to help break up their shape while leaving their face and eyes free. This one's got a whole chunk of hair algae attached near its hind legs. It was actually supporting the algae with one of its smallest legs at one point, and is able to use them to maneuver things into place on its back.

Seems like micro decorator and mime crabs got put under the same category now on reef cleaners so when I went to order 5 micros it went into the system as either micro or mini crabs and I got all 5 mime crabs. Still cool but wish I would have gotten the option as now I have five super tiny crabs that I won’t see again 

 

I have emailed him, waiting to hear back

Link to comment
growsomething
1 hour ago, Frozen_Reef said:

Seems like micro decorator and mime crabs got put under the same category now on reef cleaners so when I went to order 5 micros it went into the system as either micro or mini crabs and I got all 5 mime crabs. Still cool but wish I would have gotten the option as now I have five super tiny crabs that I won’t see again 

 

I have emailed him, waiting to hear back

Oh boy, mine come in today, too. 🤞

Trying to lure emerald crab into the net w algae wafer.  

 

20200710_131547.thumb.jpg.cb4342729123b221b83a14c78397a646.jpg

 

 

Thes 2 are battling it out outside of the net.20200710_131506.thumb.jpg.96d3f3beaaefbff3491344533590e4e0.jpg

 

Every critter in the tank has slithered out

20200710_131610.thumb.jpg.b3549bab78b692625242bfa86e7f48d9.jpg

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, growsomething said:

Oh boy, mine come in today, too. 🤞

Trying to lure emerald crab into the net w algae wafer.  

 

20200710_131547.thumb.jpg.cb4342729123b221b83a14c78397a646.jpg

 

 

Thes 2 are battling it out outside of the net.20200710_131506.thumb.jpg.96d3f3beaaefbff3491344533590e4e0.jpg

 

Every critter in the tank has slithered out

20200710_131610.thumb.jpg.b3549bab78b692625242bfa86e7f48d9.jpg

See you got mime crabs too...hmmmm 

Link to comment

Just stick your hand in there and grab the emeralds, they don't pinch that hard. I generally advocate for gloves, but emerald crabs aren't sharp or toxic, and a couple seconds of (rinsed) hands in the tank won't hurt anything. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
growsomething
9 minutes ago, Frozen_Reef said:

See you got mime crabs too...hmmmm 

Haven't received my order yet, just trying to get the emeral out in case he kills them.  Tired, I may try that but there are so many crevices he can squeeze into.  I may make a miniature crab trap like the ones we use in the bay here.  I'm thinking short pvc pipe w the outside sanded rough so he can crawl in. Or leaned up against rock near the top of the pipe.

Link to comment

I know people will lean shot glasses against the rockwork with food inside, and I've used bottle traps in the past. The same principles that work for big crabs work just fine for small ones. 

 

You could put food right into the tank, on the sandbed, and grab them when they go to get it. Do you have any long tongs? Obviously you want to be gentle, but big tweezers can work OK for catching crabs, if you're gentle.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

I'm noticing that my two have hair algae on them, but they keep it pruned short. The first one didn't do that. I wonder if not pruning their decorations is a sign of poor health? 

 

As to reef-safeness: like I mentioned before, they might try and snip at a polyp or two. They do lose interest, but they can damage a polyp before they do. They don't seem to repeat it after they've picked at one and decided it's dissatisfactory, as far as I can tell.

 

They might terrify your pico goby by choosing to set up shop on his rock, though. Poor little trimma goby won't come out of hiding now. I don't think they attacked him, I think he just doesn't know what to do with them. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
growsomething

I got about 8 tiny ones in my order of 3.  They scurried into my rockwork and haven't been seen since, and thats in a 10g.  Nothing has changed with my livestock or zoa, either. I pbly wouldnt buy again.

Link to comment

Did you actually get decorator crabs, or mime crabs? Since they're under the same listing now. Mime crabs are smaller, smoother, and hide more, whereas decorators are a bit bigger, kinda rough, and "hide" by hanging out on your rockwork with camouflage on them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Tired said:

Did you actually get decorator crabs, or mime crabs? Since they're under the same listing now. Mime crabs are smaller, smoother, and hide more, whereas decorators are a bit bigger, kinda rough, and "hide" by hanging out on your rockwork with camouflage on them.

Because they are grouped together I don’t think I’ll buy them anymore 

Link to comment

Yeah, that's a shame, and an odd decision. I wonder if some of the crabs are too small for the shippers to tell them apart. You could always email and ask if it would be possible for them to send, specifically, decorator crabs, I suppose.

Link to comment

I can confirm reefcleaners is extremely responsive to emails, it's possible that the micro decorators are only around in certain seasons and the page simply wasn't properly updated to reflect that.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Amphrites said:

I can confirm reefcleaners is extremely responsive to emails, it's possible that the micro decorators are only around in certain seasons and the page simply wasn't properly updated to reflect that.

If I set up a reef again I might

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

image0.png?width=354&height=630

Always nice to have a small animal confident enough around you that it gets excited if you wave something over it. These are fun to tweezer-feed, and, if I approach slowly, will inspect my finger like cleaner shrimp do. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Very good!  Mine disappeared into the rockwork, never to be seen again. Maybe the emerald crab, or huge bristle worm got them.

Are any of yours decorated, or did they all turn out to be mime crabs?

Link to comment

Mine are definitely decorators. I got them before the listings were combined. And like you can see in the pics, lots of decoration.

 

I did get another mime crab, though. I asked for a larger mime crab, if they could spot one in the tank. I got a heart mime crab. Its shell is about a quarter-inch across. It had only three legs when I got it, but has since molted and gotten its legs back. I've spotted it a couple times since adding it, which is nice. The first mime crab, I've only seen once, and that was when I moved the macroalgae it lives in. That was the tiny one, half-pea sized carapace, that came in with eggs and is evidently an adult. I don't know if this one will get any bigger, but it's cute, 

Mime crabs in general are probably best for picos. Mini decorators should be OK in pico-to-nano tanks. 

image0.jpg?width=472&height=630

  • Like 2
Link to comment

I kinda wonder if they collected a bunch that are too small to easily tell apart. Could always email them and ask if they could specifically sell some decorator crabs. They're really cool. 

 

I kept the molted shell, because nothing seemed to want to eat it. I posed it and am leaving it to dry, and will post a pic when it's done drying. Probably the best way to get a size comparison, though it is of course slightly larger than the molted shell now. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment

I honestly couldnt make the crab in your pic out at first, thought it was right above your finger.  Had to turn off my phone's brown screen and turn up the light.   It's bigger than I thought, or you have a small finger.  Would love to have one of these with macro on it.

Link to comment

Bit of both, really. I should try and take a picture of it with proper size comparison. It's still pretty small, especially as crabs go, and much smaller than other decorator crabs. I haven't seen it wear macros yet, but it might. 

 

I'll see if I can find a clean plastic ruler or something. 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...