Red Scarlett Hermit Crab - do I need to spot feed?

[Jakesaw]

1 minute ago, Broseff said:

But like legs, claws, all that looks super real when molting. 

It was 3 or 4 Big Red legs  No claws.  It what looked like something meaty at the end.  Like the size of a crab's eye.   Not much - definitely not the thin back of crab.

 

I took the shell out of tank when I found it and it looked empty.  I put it back in tank in case another crab might want it at a future date.  Now it's moving around tank again.  My initial though was the new crab took the shell.  but I saw the new crab shell moving around to locations in the tank.  It's lodged inside a cave now.  If it moves by tomorrow morning - it's a trio.

 

It's inside a cave where I can't get it with tweezers.  But where it's sitting up inside a rock I don't see how it's sitting there without live crab legs holding on.  Will check shell location first thing tomorrow morning. 

[Tired]

Hermits can retreat really far into the shell. Mine will often molt and sit with the legs of the old exoskeleton hanging out of the opening of the shell, which is probably what happened. 

 

A good test is to smell the suspected molt. If it doesn't really have much smell to it, just a bit of salty/beach, it's a molt. If it reeks like low tide after someone reenacted the Boston Tea Party with bug poison, it's a dead animal. 

[Jakesaw]

3 Crabs are all doing healthy and move around the tank alot.  Especially at feeding time.  

 

My only annoyance is randomly - not often - they flip over a coral frag.  I had a really nice ACAN frag that was pretty flat and lifeless when I got it.  ITs' grown to have about 6 full and healthy heads on it.  It's the healthiest coral I own. 

 

Today I thought my ACAN had died unexpectedly.  Upon further examination it was capsized.  It was either my Clownfish or my Red Scarlett Hermit crabs. 

 

Hermit Crabs <-- Little buggers

[Tired]

Scarlet reef hermits flip things more than other hermits. I've seen them do it- it's clearly an intentional behavior. I think they're either looking for food under it, or checking if it's a shell. Either glue your frags to things, or put them on large plugs so the hermits can't flip them.

[Seadragon]

Or if you want your corals in the sand, glue the frag plug to a Coral Frag Plug Stand.  Then twist the frag plug stand clockwise into the sand and it’ll keep the frag from being moved again.

 

[Kindanewtothis]

On 3/23/2021 at 6:13 PM, DevilDuck said:

Yes, crabs are total jerks. They will fight/kill each other to steal the other's shell. 

I've seen it first hand, one or more crabs will attack another crab causing the loser to jump out of its shell. 

So that's what was happenning. 4 blue legs jumped another blue leg in my tank. I splitted them.

[Jakesaw]

12 hours ago, Tired said:

Either glue your frags to things, or put them on large plugs so the hermits can't flip them.

Will have to consider that.  

 

I've got a small encrusting coral frag that's been flipped twice, and twice on  the ACAN which has about 7 heads.   

 

Being new to the hobby and a taking the spend / process slowly, I kindof just put things where I did with guestimates of places to put em.  I've kept things off my rock mostly til I see how fast / if they grow out and spread.  

 

Was planning on fraging my acan into several pieces but after owning, it grows a bit slow for that. I'm letting this one grow into a ball naturally to see what that looks like over time.   It came glued on a ceramic tile.  I should have kept the tile on it with hindsight but it looked pretty nasty when I brought it home and detached for cleaning..

 

Live and learn

[Jakesaw]

2 hours ago, Kindanewtothis said:

So that's what was happenning. 4 blue legs jumped another blue leg in my tank. I splitted them.

My crabs seem to like to fight periodically whether it's for fun, food, or shell envy.

 

The funniest I saw was 2 crabs in front of display were laying still.  Then one in the cave woke up and started crawling towards the 2nd crab.  Crab 2 knew what was coming and decided to get out of town and just start crawling away to side of tank to get around the rocks.  Dominant crab just slowly dragged his big ole shell around the corner in pursuit.  Never did catch him but tried really hard. 

[filefishfinatic]

On 2/27/2021 at 11:22 PM, Tired said:

It's actually an opae ula. They're a species of tiny, Hawaiian brackish water shrimp, the same ones you see in those little "ecosphere" things. Ecospheres don't actually work, the shrimp slowly starve, but they're incredibly easy to keep in a proper setup. All they need is a couple gallons of brackish water, and enough light to grow algae. They're so small and have such mild bioloads that the algae uses up all of the waste, and they eat the algae. Just top up the tank as needed, leave them alone, and they'll grow and breed. Individuals can supposedly live up to 20 years in proper care, and they need few, if any, water changes. No filter (the larvae are planktonic), no heater unless it's really cold, just water, light, and rocks for algae to grow on. The easiest aquarium pets in the world, possibly second to those moss ball things.

whats the difference between a biosphere and just a sealed aquarium where the salinity wouldnt change or is that not an issue. i think a brackish blackwater biotope with microfauna and the ope ula would be a intresting use for one of my tanks. 

[filefishfinatic]

1 hour ago, Jakesaw said:

My crabs seem to like to fight periodically whether it's for fun, food, or shell envy.

 

The funniest I saw was 2 crabs in front of display were laying still.  Then one in the cave woke up and started crawling towards the 2nd crab.  Crab 2 knew what was coming and decided to get out of town and just start crawling away to side of tank to get around the rocks.  Dominant crab just slowly dragged his big ole shell around the corner in pursuit.  Never did catch him but tried really hard. 

dont make a sterile box and dont frag frags, 2 rules you should follow and you will have a good tank. if you dont you will kill your corals and you will get a living hell of algae. imo best idea would be go to reefcleaners and get a few different macroalgaes for your crab to nibble on and to grow in your tank. sometimes imo macro look better then corals. 

[Tired]

6 hours ago, filefishfinatic said:

whats the difference between a biosphere and just a sealed aquarium where the salinity wouldnt change or is that not an issue. i think a brackish blackwater biotope with microfauna and the ope ula would be a intresting use for one of my tanks. 

Don't seal anything shut with animals inside. They'll slowly starve to death, or suffocate, depending on what goes out of balance first. That's what gets the opae ula in those sphere things, they starve. There are no closed ecosystem containers with animals larger than springtails that have succeeded for any significant length of time, and putting anything that feels pain in any kind of sealed enclosure is cruel. 

For opae ula, you want rock, sand, no filter, mayyybe a heater if it gets really cold in your house, and a light sufficient to grow algae. Put in macroalgae and shrimp, feed very lightly (if at all), top off regularly to keep salinity stable, and don't touch it otherwise. I don't know where you'd get microfauna, you'd need brackish water Hawaiian microfauna somehow and I doubt anywhere is collecting that legally. Or collecting it, period. I'm also not sure you'll be able to do a biotope, since that would require macroalgae that naturally grows in the Hawaiian rock pools. The microalgae you get in the tank isn't going to be Hawaiian rock pool algae, either. 

[filefishfinatic]

14 hours ago, Tired said:

Don't seal anything shut with animals inside. They'll slowly starve to death, or suffocate, depending on what goes out of balance first. That's what gets the opae ula in those sphere things, they starve. There are no closed ecosystem containers with animals larger than springtails that have succeeded for any significant length of time, and putting anything that feels pain in any kind of sealed enclosure is cruel. 

For opae ula, you want rock, sand, no filter, mayyybe a heater if it gets really cold in your house, and a light sufficient to grow algae. Put in macroalgae and shrimp, feed very lightly (if at all), top off regularly to keep salinity stable, and don't touch it otherwise. I don't know where you'd get microfauna, you'd need brackish water Hawaiian microfauna somehow and I doubt anywhere is collecting that legally. Or collecting it, period. I'm also not sure you'll be able to do a biotope, since that would require macroalgae that naturally grows in the Hawaiian rock pools. The microalgae you get in the tank isn't going to be Hawaiian rock pool algae, either. 

biotope solution: the algae i grow in my tank should probably be so circumglobal with sea lettuce and microalgaes that grow almost everywhere. i wouldnt worry much about biotope microfauna but id just make a enviroment similar to what they encounter. i know of someone who kept isopods and centipedes in a sealed jar and its been running for a long time. could the ope ula last for a week or 2 without a top up when i go on vacations? i think the ope ula are very cool. 

[Tired]

If you have a tank of 5 or 10 gallons with a relatively tight-fitting lid (you need some gaps for air circulation), yes, you could definitely leave them for a couple weeks without topping up. Just add the topup water slowly when you come back, in a few batches. They can handle the gradual salinity shift just fine, as opae do fine in many salinities.