Sally Lightfoot a.k.a. Nimble Spray Crab

[vike50brian]

I have a 24g nano-cube almost done cycling, being a complete nube, the sally lightfoot crab was one of the first things i put in my tank, i love it to death, really active, not shy, and great cleaner. When i lost one of my damsels, he eat the whole thing in less than a day! Thats really cool in my book. My question is now that ive read a litle bit, i see he might become a problem with coral and maybe the shrimp im definitley going to be getting. Should i get rid of him and not look back in anger or does anyone suggest i see if he can play nice?

[seahorsejl]

They definitely get more agressive as they get bigger. I had one in a 42 gallon tank at one time. That gave hime enough room to have his own little territory and he left my shrimps alone, as long as they stay away from him. Now in a smaller tank, it might be a bit more problematic. Hard to tell.

 

As for corals, my old tank had some, but nothing really fancy, and he never bothered them. So can't help you on that front.

[vike50brian]

Thanks SeaHorse for your input, it looks like there might be a big MAYBE for both my questions. Since it would it would be a major "female dog" to try and get that little critter out of my tank im still hoping to get some more input on the subject. Thanks again for your response Seahorse.

[vike50brian]

WHY WONT ANYBODY ELSE RESPOND, ANY INPUT AT ALL WILL APPRECIATED, I SEE 80+ REEFERS HAVE LOOKED AT THIS POST BUT ONLY ONE HAS EVER OWEND OR EVEN HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THE EXOTIC SALLY LIGHTFOOT a.k.a. NIMBLE SPRAY CRAB THAT CAN BE FOUND AT ANY LFS ON EARTH PLEASE, EVEN IF IT'S JUST TO TELL ME HELLO OR CURSE ME OUT, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

 

 

 

P.S. PIC IS A LITTLE FUZZY BUT I TRIED MY BEST.

 

HERE'S A PIC OF THE SALLY EATING A DOMINO DAMSEL THAT DIED SHORTLY AFTER PUTTING IT IN MY TANK. HOPE YOU LIKE IT.

 

 

P.S. AGAIN, PIC IS FUZZY BUT ILL DO BETTER NEXT TIME.

[Ecko]

 

Whats up Vike,

 

How long have you had your 24G-NG, you stated that you are almost done cycling but have already added a clean-up crew and a fish...

I would take the SLF out if you plan on keeping any corals, small inverts, and/or small fish.. Everyone seems to think that these are cool in a reef but if you do any research on them from real books (not on-line stores) then everything says NOT REEF SAFE. Even if you did feed them enough, if they get to liking the taste of your coral they will keep coming back for more. Just don’t see the point in have a $10-20 crab eat my $50-$100 corals. Trust me I had one, and it got a taste of my Fox Coral and everyday he would eat away a lil bit more, until I realized that I wouldn't be able to catch him (60G) without removing ~1/2 of my LR...so it was redecorating time for my aquarium....trust me, this was the beginning stages of my reefing life, every since then I do alot of research on anything I buy before it comes anywhere close to my aquariums...on a 2nd note the damsel...you stated domino, not that it matters...I would stay away from the damsels (except the clown fish or chromes) cause these guys can get real aggressive and cause problems with your other fish....just my $0.02.

 

Later.

[Fanof49ASU]

I saw on one board that SLF eats Xenia.

I don't have one, so I don't know if it's true.

[vike50brian]

THANKS FAN49/ECKO, FOR TAKEN THE TIME TO POST YOUR INPUT FOR ME, I APPRECIATE EVERY LITTLE BIT.

 

TO ECKO- I STARTED MY 24g NC ON APRIL 18, SO OFFICALY IT FINISHED CYCLING ON THE 18th OF MAY, going with the 4 week rule, BUT MY #'S LOOKED PRETTY STABLE ABOUT 2 1/2 WEEKS INTO THE CYCLE. AND YES I PROBABLY ADDED MY CLEAN UP CREW TO EARLY, I NOW KNOW I COMMITED THE BIGGEST DO NOT DO LAW IN NANO-REEFING, WHICH IS NEVER DO ANYTHING WITHOUT RESERCHING FIRST. BUT, AS MY STORY GOES I BOUGHT MY TANK, SAND, 28g OF SALT WATER & 15lbs OF LIVE ROCK BEFORE READING ANYTHING. I ALSO DID WHAT THE LFS GUY TOLD ME TO DO WHICH WAS COME BACK IN A DAY OR TWO AND BUY THE CLEAN UP CREW, INCLUDING THE SALLY CRAB. HE ALSO TOLD ME IT WOULD BE BENEFICAIL TO ADD 3-4 DAMSEL FISH TO THE TANK AS IT CYCLES. NEEDLESS TO SAY I NOLONGER DEAL WITH THAT LFS, BUT HAVE FOUND ANOTHER THAT SO FAR HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL.

 

I GUESS IVE BEEN PRETTY LUCKY SO FAR, HAD SOME ALGAE EARLY ON BUT NO BIG DEAL. MY CASUALTY LIST, SO FAR, IS 1 TURBO SNAIL AND 3 OUT OF MY 4 DAMSEL FISH.

 

AS OF RIGHT NOW I HAVE 8 HERMITS, 5 SMALLER SNAILS, 1 TURBO SNAIL AND 1 HARDY LITTLE 4LINE DAMSEL. I ALSO NOW HAVE 25lbs OF LIVE ROCK WITH ABOUT 2inches OF LIVE SAND, AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE PIC I INCLUDED.

 

VIKE.

[darkwaterdevil]

if you have a sump put him in there

[ScottKelly911]

ouch my eyes hurt, you might want to take off your caps-lock. Ecko had really sound advice. I'd get rid of him, neat looking and great personality since they come out in the open and walk around on the rock work, but can do way too much damage if he gets a taste for something it likes.

[ebin]

I AM A ROBOT, I HAVE A ROBOT ######.

 

CAPS MAKE ME SAD.

 

XOXO-EBIN

[vike50brian]

LOL.... Sorry guys, i won't use caps anymore.

 

To Darkwater - No I don't have a sump right now but looking into one.

 

To ScottKelly - I agree, I took Ecko's advise i got rid of that little S.O.B. I call him that because it was a major pain to catch him, but i recomend a Sally crab for anyone who has a larger tank. I never saw any aggression from him towards any of my other members of my clean up crew. Great algea picker and always visable.

 

To Ebin - Im not real sure what your trying to say, but if your insulting me, remember, im not the one with the pink aquarium. haha.... just kidding, you have a fantastic looking diy tank, maybe one day ill be brave enough to attempt something like that.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. I will leave you with some more fuzzy pics i took of my damsels before they met their maker.

[coralgirl365]

i had a sally lightfoot for about 5 months (he died today because of the extreme heat in my AC-less apartment, boo anyway he was great he did not eat any corals, did not bother my cleaner shrimp or other hermit crabs and didn't even hurt my nassarius when they try to climb on him. heck he didnt even hurt my starfish i used to have even when it was 90% dead. he was really good about he would quickly clean up anything that was dead or any dropped food, but would never touch anything that was remotely alive still. i say give your crab a chance, keep an eye on him but don't ditch him already just based on things you have read that they might do.

[Ecko]

i say give your crab a chance, keep an eye on him but don't ditch him already just based on things you have read that they might do.

 

If you say so....you are the first that I have heard of that has any good luck with a SLF.....was your SLF young??? cause they will be ok at first if they are still young, but once the start growing...watch out.

 

Trust me, I watched him eat my coral and go after my fish all the time...

 

You say give it a chance, he already got one of his fish.

[DementedLullaby]

Eh she's just throwin' in her 2 cents.

 

Doesn't really matter as the crabby is gone anyway

[Ecko]

Eh she's just throwin' in her 2 cents.

 

Doesn't really matter as the crabby is gone anyway

 

As am I....but I also like to see good information given, and not BS like I hear at some LFS, that always seems to recommend putting in a SLF Crab in every aquarium (including reefs)...I was simply wondering how long she may have had the crab and possibily hadn't seen any of the bad effects as the crab grows older.....sorry if this OFFENDED you....but I like to see $0.02 that is worth it....and it was hard for me to read "give something a chance" after the poster already stated that the SLF got (1) fish....um..how many chances do you get....well I leave that decision up to you, how many fish/corals/inverts your willing to give up for a SLF....and it does matter, cause alot of people who have this same question, that will not post it, are looking for good answers and might use this as a resource.

 

but this is just my $0.02.......

[Ratkiller]

OK. I have to step in here. By no means am I an expert but I have always had a SLF in my 30gal. Ive 3 in the past 2 years ranging form the size of a quarter to... what my LFS says the biggest SLF they have ever had. None of them have ever atempted to eat any of my corals. BUT I have always feed them their own piece of Formula One, if you keep them full they won't bother anything, well I shouldn't say anythin they will eat slow moving fish dead or alive. In that retro spec they are aggresive.

 

As you will find every living thing has it's own personality some good some bad. But I say keep it, your corals should be fine.

[vike50brian]

WOW, I'm glad to see my topic has sparked a little emotion and maybe even some controversy. Let try and clear up some misunderstandings. My SLF crab did not kill the damsel you see it eating in the pics i posted, it just ate it when it was dead. I wrote in an earlier post that i did not see any aggression from the sally towards my clean up crew, but, i did see it dart across the rocks to scare off the remaining damsels when they got to close. Seeing that is what made me do a little research and post this topic in the first place.

 

 

To rattkiller&coralgirl - Im happy to hear that some sallys can play nice, but you both have 30g tanks, which is'nt much bigger than my 24g but still adds much more square inches. Which means a whole lot more room for something that is only 2" big. If i ever get a larger tank, a sally crab will definitely be in it. Great little critter! But for now, im confidant i made the right choice by removing it before i add anything expensive.

 

To ecko - Keep preaching your $0.02 and reefers like me will follow.

 

 

Here is one of my clearer pics. The snail is a turbo and just above him you can see the sally crab coming out of his cave to tell me hello

[coralgirl365]

my crab was pretty big at least 4 inches toe to toe, i had him for about 5-6 months (the majority of the time i've had my tank). I hand fed him occasionally, but most of the time just let him find whatever he could. he would make quick darts at stuff to scare things off but never actually touched/hurt anything even if it was slow enough for him to catch. he picked at the bases of some of my zoos but upon careful observation i concluded he was eating algae off of the bases, he was not going after the coral itself.

 

i'm sorry you don't think i have good information, i am just saying it like it happened in my tank. As useful as the boards are, several times i've seen lots of people recommend something and then when i try it it doesn't work, or people will say you shouldn't do something but i try it anyway and it's fine, so i just hate to see people getting rid of their critters purely based on what they read online. as you can see the crab did not kill his fish. the claws on this crab are much too small to catch and kill a fish that is anywhere near alive. based on my experience i just think this crab gets a lot of bad rap it doesn't deserve, probably cause it is fast and admittedly a bit sinister-looking.

that said i am sure personality varies somewhat from crab to crab. I just had to put in my good experience for the record.

 

ps. aww, looking at your pics makes me miss mine

[vike50brian]

To coralgirl - I thank you for all of your valid points you made. My whole purpose of this post was to get opinions from reefers who had experience in keeping sally crabs. So any tips or suggestions you have been greatly appreciated by me and to anyone else referencing this post. Sadly though, most of the information i have read says "not reef friendly" which is why i got rid of my sally crab. However, there seems to be more than a few cases, like yours and Ratkiller, in which sally crabs have been peaceful. Most if not all, have been in 30g tanks or larger.

 

Although my questions have been answered and my decision to remove my sally crab has been made, anyone with anything they would like to add to this discussion please feel free to do so. This is the only post, on this forum, i have found that discuses this fairly popular crab. So please, lets keep this post going. I will still be checking daily for any new post and will reply to anyone to give my thanks.

[DementedLullaby]

You didn't offend me lol It takes A LOT more than that..and of course I value your 2 cents as well. **gives you 4 cents**

 

Seriously I like reading bunches of different opinions so keep them coming I saw this crab and liked it too but then saw this topic. So uh yeah..lol

[Ratkiller]

Yep, crabs rock!!!

[vike50brian]

The Greatest Aquarium of Them All, enjoy some pics i took while on the Gulf of Mexico.

 

P.S. im thinking about getting two non-anemone porcelain crabs to help fill my hole in my heart. Any comments?

 

Ooops, its telling i cant post the pics because of my post or global file limit. Not real sure what else to do.