Sand crabs from the beach

[Ratpack]

I have seen these for sale on Ebay, so I thought since I was going to the beach this weekend, I could just catch my own. But, are they really safe? These are the little crabs that when you dig into the sand right at the water's edge, you can find them. Then when placed back on sand, they quickly dig back in. Figured they would be good for stirring the sand up a little. Also, what about the little clams you can catch, think they are of any benefit?

[Ninong]

Anything you collect in South Carolina is temperate and not likely to do well at typical reef aquarium temperatures. Clams almost never survive very long in reef tanks because they starve to death. The longest I was able to keep Manila clams alive in my sand bed was nine months.

[Ratpack]

That's kind of what I thought, but I do have a hermit crab in my tank I swiped from the water back in June and he is thriving, so that makes me wonder about these crabs as well. Clams I can see being an issue though.

[Ehof1]

I know what you are talking about and I saw some on an online store just recently.
When we would go on vacation to Florida, and more recently I went to Virginia Beach, my father taught us how to catch these, what we called, sand fleas. You can see them burrow in the sand when the water pulls back, dig your hands in and come up with some that are over an inch big.

Look here!
Sand Sifting Crab - Group of 5