reef compatable?

[clowninround]

I just bought a new tank with lr and ls...it was a used tank. Here's the situation. I have 3 crabs in there, one dark greenish-blue, one orange, one red...I have coral that I am going to put in the tank. Do these new tankmates have to go or should they be okay? How can identify what type of crabs they are?

 

[Mermaid]

it is my understanding that most crabs are not reef safe.
good luck,
Mermaid

 

[clowninround]

thats what I thought...man this is going to be difficult...its a 150...and we spend half a day arranging the rocks...wish me luck. Anyone out there got a good tip on catching the little guys???

 

[ClamKnuckle]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=24799

Try the jar trick that reefrunner suggested

 

[clowninround]

thanks guys!

 

[clowninround]

I caught one...for the meantime, can I put him in my qt tank? It's been thourally cleaned out after I used copper but may have some traces and then I am treating with formalin right now with 2 fish???

 

[clowninround]

nevermind, got a better idea for em!

 

[ClamKnuckle]

Whats the idea? ?

 

[clowninround]

lol, naw...my husband took over the 55, it's all set up, no fish yet. So when he calls tonight I'll see if he wants me to put em in his tank...I got all but one so far

 

[ohio reefer]

i have crabs all over my reef tank (porcelain, sally light foot, decorator and a couple others i don't know the names of) and they are doing fine. i have colt coral, xenia, feather dusters and a clam. i would watch them for a while before you get rid of them. take a pic of them send it to the guy at live rocks.com (sorry i forgot the name) he explained to me that most of the crabs i got from there rocks are reef safe.

hth

mark

 

[reefrunner69]

he explained to me that most of the crabs i got from there rocks are reef safe.

With maybe oe exception, this is not accurate. All crabs are scavengers, if their prefferred food is not available they WILL eat something rather than starve. This means that your algae graxing crabs very will may snack on your corals if the algae dries up. Fortunately this is not a problem for most reef tanks, but I have a no crab policy in my tanks.

 

[BlueDolphin]

I have 3 red-leg hermits, and just purchased an electric blue hermit - to my understanding these two types of crabs are very reef safe.

 

[reefrunner69]

LOL, tell that to your snails (well when you get some more anyway). Keep them supplied with plenty of shells of varying sizes and it's not too bad, but it can be a blood bath.

 

[BlueDolphin]

Yeah, I thought of that. Fortunately I just got some empty shells today - one crab already tried one of the new shells out! I didn't get as many bigger ones as I would have liked though - and one wasn't even empty, it had a hermit in it!!

 

[MT79]

I recently evicted all creatures w/ claws from my tank including a coral banded shrimp, claws mean trouble in a reef. There are few exceptions.

 

[clowninround]

Got em all caught. I was going to put them in my husbands tank, but he doesn't want them either lol. So I'll see if the lfs wants them tommorrow.