Brackish hermit crabs

[Pufferpunk]

I had a giant, hairy, red-legged hermit that would shake his claw from the hightst rock at me, if I approached the tank. I had him a year & he was about 3", when my 6" GSPs finally got him.

[nmonks]

Can't help but wonder about mantis shrimp versus GSP... speed versus strength. Like one of those stupid Animal Planet programmes. What are they called? Where they make a robot kangaroo attack a robot great white shark or whatever.

Nighty night!

Neale

[Fella]

I keep a mantis shrimp, and a "spearer" would definitely kill a GSP no problem at all. I think a "smasher" would also come off better.

Peacock mantis shrimp can kill blue ringed octopuses, considered one of the most dangerous creatures on earth.
http://www.reefcentral.com/vid/bluering ... ntent.html

there is a video of such an incident there, confirming that mantis shrimp are among the most intelligent of the invertebrates (Watch as the mantis pins down the octo, turns it's mouth away from it, whilst repeatedly clubbing it). The video was filmed by Dr Roy Caldwell who studies these creatures, and the video was shot to help his research into why mantis shrimp can consume creatures containing TTX and not die afterward.

[Jason]

I would have to second that the shrimp would make merry on a puffer in no time flat if it got in range.

how ever that would somewhat biased depending on if the shrimp was comfortably relaxed in the tank or just recently dumped in and trying to learn and adust to everything new when the puffer attacks.

if the shrimp is comfy i'd say the puffer wouldnt get close enough to injure the shrimp.

They are some of the most perfect killers around and mantis shrimp have been an interest of mine for awhile.

Jason

[The Fisherman]

Brought home another oddball hermit today. He is light blue, with red bands on his legs, and black eyestalks with blue dots.

I'll see if I can get a pic...


Going to try aclimating a C. tricolor to a lower SG soon.

[The Fisherman]

I have sucessfully acclimated a C. tricolor (presumably) to an SG of roughly 1.010.

I can't say that it was for sure a succes yet, he has been doing fine for more then 24 hours though. The puffer is very friendly and completely ignores him.

The only thing I notice, is that the hermit seems to walk around less. That could also be the individual hermit. I'm watching closely.

[The Fisherman]

Well, the hermit is still kicking and behaving like it would normally, in a reef tank.

I think the puffer and crab are buddies, they seem to like to hang out.

[nmonks]

Sounds promising.

When I was at university we did an experiment on shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) involving changes in salinity. Apparently, as salinity dropped, so did the flicking of their antennae, particularly when the salinity go to some critical level where they were stressed. So maybe take a look at their antennae and see how they look.

Cheers, Neale

[The Fisherman]

Thanks Neale.

I'm not sure which are the antennae..Heres a picture, the antennae circled in blue, I see flicking constantly, but the antennae circled in yellow, I don't see move very often, if at all.

Note, that the picture is not a picture of the hermit crab in question, just a picture I happend to use.

The C. tricolor is still alive. Somtimes, I look in the tank and the shell is just sitting there, but he will get up in a few minutes. Frequently he is out of his shell but not moving, just standing there flicking his anntenae. Still other times, he is walking around or eationg algae off of something.



So I am not sure if he is comfortable/happy in that salinity...

[nmonks]

They're both antennae (crustaceans = 2 pairs, insects = 1 pair, arachinids = no antennae). But I meant the short ones by the eyes. The longer ones are more for touch and tasting objects, the shorter ones taste water (or something like that, anyway, it was a long time ago we did this stuff!).

If he's moving about happily, then he's probably fine. If these things are going to die, they'll do so in a few days. The two things I'd watch are that the pH is nice and high, and that there is plenty of hardness to the water. Crustaceans can be a bit sensitive to low pH, and they do need the calcium for their skeletal development.

Cheers,

Neale

[The Fisherman]

It was a succes, the hermit happily live in a salinity of 1.010 for quite some time, almost 2 months. I moved him back to my SW tank though, since i'm taking that tank down. It would take me a while, and do a lot more research before I can confirm it, but i'd say that its safe to keep them in that low of salinities.

[Corvus]

Sounds very interesting and promising.

I wouldn't trust that the puffers won't touch them. But that may depend on the individual.

Clibanarius africanus is a hermit crab, that can live in mid to high end brackish tanks. But they look not like yours.

[daenja]

wassup all, new here....
i've got 2 GSPs. i've had them for 6 months or so. they've been doing fairly well. in doing research it seems that if they just bother with their own reflection zooming up and down the sides of the aquarium that they are bored and need some stimulation. i've been reading on hermit crabs alittle and decided to see what was in the tide pools around where i live (island of maui). I found alot of left handed hermits (Calcinus laevimanus). I picked up about 20 of them and dropped them into my tank. they've been there for over 24 hours now and all seem to be happy. there seems to be no issues with the lower salinity than that of the ocean (i keep my tank at 1.008 as my GSPs are young). the puffers are quite interested in the hermits and their movement which has pretty much cured the boredom issue. i'm pretty sure that one gsp has eaten a crab, cause when i got home from work his stomach looked full and they weren't offered food since the morning. So... i just wanted to contribute so that maybe someone else might be able to find the same hermits.

[crazedpuffer]

They are definitely eating the hermit crabs don't worry! Looks like you have a nice source of free food.
Welcome to the forum!

[Agnate]

Yeah, I'd like to get some aquatic Hermits for my brackish tank... now I just need to find some.