New to MFT - Shame faced crab?? Ooops?

[ReeceandClaire]

Good morning all - After months of reading and study, my wife and I finally bought a 300litre / 80US Gallon 3ft tank this year. Following the initial cycle period, it has been up and running for a couple of months and we have been stocking the tank over a period of time. We are not going down the coral route until we have built up a couple years of experience keeping a successful FOWLR system.

We currently have 7 fish + 3 hermit crabs (Sorry about the names! Is naming fish weird?! lol)
2 clowns Amphiprion ocellaris (Special + Little Mo)
1 brown tang (Slim)
1 lemon peel angelfish (Lemmy)
1 Bangai Cardinal (Spike)
1 purple firefish & (unnammed!)
1 yellow tail damsel (Sonic)

After a trip to the store this weekend I may have done something silly and let impulse take over - I bought a shame-faced crab without any background reading prior to purchase! (Lesson learnt!). The store said that it would be fine in our tank (As they set up and know our system) but now I am frantically trawling the net to see whether this beast of a crab is going to ruin my aquarium as I suppose its best to always find out for yourself! I cant find much info on the net about these crabs other than they seem to be destructive with corals / inverts but I was wondering if anyone has any experience in keeping this type of crab with fish only?

He was out and about last night when I added some brine shrimp for feeding and I got some fantastic picks of him (which I shall post asap) before he burrowed into the substrate when a hermit crab scared him!!! (He is at least 10 times the size of the hermit!) Although he did put the hermit below him and roll him about a couple of times (I presume this is what he does with snails prior to eating them)

If anyone can give me any tips they have on what they are like to keep, whether he will pose any probs to our other fish, feeding (I understand he likes meaty food like snails & squid) etc it would be much appreciated.

I fear I will have to take him back to the shop but really want to keep him as he is awesome! (My wife freaked when he took his claws away from his face to grab a brineshrimp! He looked like something out of Alien!)

Thanks in advance for your help. Pics soon!

 

[KahluaZzZ]

never saw this one live, but i checked and found quotes from advanced aquarist :

"those heavy claws which protect the more delicate parts of the crab are specially designed for peeling sea snails apart."

"These are specialized predators that feed on marine snails and clams"


"With those huge claws, it's amazing that they are almost completely fish safe (except for the dumb one that tries to burrow underneath the pretty rock"


Min. = 24 °C, Max. = 26 °C

 

[TRe]

first let me say welcome to MFT but id take him back asap...sanils are essential to both FOWLR and reef tanks

 

[ReeceandClaire]

Thank you KahluaZzZ & TRe for the welcome and the info.

We havent ever had snails in the tank so I dont know if we will run into problems by not having them? What do you generally have the snails in there for? I presume cleaning and keeping algae at bay? The only algae blooms we have had are bits on the live rock and sand but it's never posed a problem. I was thinking of getting some snails and letting him eat them as and when he wants to but I suppose they will become rather expensive snacks in the long run!

Thanks again

 

[TRe]

how long has your tank been setup??

 

[ReeceandClaire]

Set up on 16th June 2007. Cycle took 3weeks with live sand, cured live rock, RO water etc and then the introduction of 2 clowns towards the end of the 3 weeks (which was probably a little early but they seem as happy as a pig in mud!). The rock was relatively quickly "Colonized" by a brownish algae and the rocks have stayed that way throughout. Our brown Tang and lemonpeel Angel tend to graze on this most of the day. The sand grew a covering of algae but we manually turned it over and over time so have the hermits and the sand looks ok now and we one had a growth on part of the bow glass front. That has cleared now.

We tend to aim for a 25% RO water change each week, and all readings in PH, salinity, Ammonia Nitrates, nitrites are within parameters. Food tends to be gobbled up within minutes of introduction to the tank (generally live brineshrimp / frozen brineshrimp).

 

[FroggyFox]

you definitely want to be feeding a lot more than brine shrimp. Although your fish LOVE them...they have pretty much 0 nutritional value. I learned this the hard way my first time around with saltwater fish.

 

[TRe]

well as you will learn your tank is guna through differant algae blooms and snails are a big part of keeping it under control...when i started my first saltwater tank a few years ago i didnt want to hear anything anyone had to say about stocking and ended up with a tank that had no cleanup crew ... now i wont buy it unless its reef/invert safe and not only is my tank much cleaner its also more interesting to have snails ,shrimps,ect..
btw try feeding mysis

 

[ReeceandClaire]

Thanks again for the info guys - Its helpful to have this kind of advice for a 1st timer!

Right, so, need to add a bit more variety to the diet - (Currently just brineshrimp of the frozen or live variety + flake food, + Algae for the tang & angelfish). Mysis shrimp as recommended TRe is on the list for the next trip to the store.

And also get some snails / cleaner / candy shrimps in there too. Looks like Colin the Crab may be taking a trip back to the store - if they will take him back that is - otherwise it looks like it will be crabsticks for dinner for the next week *BOUNCINGS If they don't take him back, i may try mixing the snails with the crab and see how quickly he gets through them or whether the snails are clever enough to stay on the glass and rocks (which I doubt!)

 

[Lorna]

good luck and I hope if you decide to keep shame face he doesn't eat everything as it could become expensive.....and if you decide not to keep him....you will be able to catch him. Oh at welcome to mft......we are generally a friendly bunch....

 

[Lotus]

A book I have says those shamefaced crabs get up to 12" I think that's some serious real estate in your tank.