Got Crabs? - Sand Sifting Crabs ;)

[DevonM]

Hello Gang,

I wanted to ask if anyone has put these crabs in their tank before?



I put 20 of them in my tank in the past and I think my Zebra eel ate most of them so I would like to purchase some more. I was thinking that I would put them in my fuge but I have reservations on whether they will hurt the denitrifying effects of my 6-7" DSB. The crabs only seem to burrow down about 1.5" into the substrate though. So I do think they will really hurt anything.

Thoughts?

These crabs seem to be very vulnerable when they molt and have a hard time digging down into rocky substrate so I think my fuge would be the way to go so that I could pick them out here and there for feeding.

[charlie]

Never seen them before!!!! What type are they? I don't know if I would let them go that far into the substrate Devon, I have heard only the first 1/2" before.
Did you get my e-mail from Monday about my skimmer???

[DevonM]

The crabs don't get very big and just like to cover themselves up. They are on Saltwater Fish and Supplies at Saltwaterfish.com.

No I didn't get an email about your skimmer.

[charlie]

Are you going to come up Friday nite for the meeting? If not, give me a call after 6 PM nightly on my home phone.

[Sarmo]

i've seen them on the beach in oregon before, they seemed to dig deep but that was above the water level. do you know if they are they warm or cold water species?
i have a screen in my sand bed about 2 inches down so that nothing disturbs the deeper layers. (standard plenum thing) if they only go an inch then i think that would be okay. do you like the creature? if not then why not just get a cucumber or two?????

[DevonM]

I think they are kind of cool. I also think my Zebra eel likes to hunt for them. I'm not sure if they are a cold water species or not.

[tehfeer]

The big problem with these crabs is they are cold water crabs and most of the time die off in reef tanks due to the high water temps. They are pretty awesome though. I use to play around with them when I was a kid at the beach.

[DevonM]

Do you know their temp ranges?

[tehfeer]

Well the water temps where I am from are about 58-68. Looks like the water temps in Oregon are low 40s to high 60s. It would be cool if we could find some of these that could tolerate the higher water temps as they would be awesome sand movers!