shrimps and crabs

[Bluebeard]

wah i like this section!

actually my tank is more of a shrimp tank than a fish tank!

anyone here also keep a lot of shrimps and crabs?

[hongqixian]

I tried to, but my nitrates killed most of them off... What species do you have at the moment?

Qixian

[Achilles Tang]

I have a mated pair of CBS and cleaner shrimp that give birth to shrimp fry every fortnight!

I have some pictures to post up!

As for crabs! I kill them when I see them! They are known to be killers especially of featherduster worms, helpful bristleworms and even small fishes when they sleep!

Only one or two species of crabs are reefsafe (ie. only eats algae).

[Bluebeard]

right now i have 3 boxer shrimps, 2 normal crabs, 2 hermit crabs, 1 lobster (i think, it looks like a lobster, orange with bit of purple, but the ah pek at the LFS told me it's not lobster)

i plan to buy some cleaner shrimps soon and maybe other typle of hermit crabs, they look so cute carrying their home around.....ehehehe

[hongqixian]

I have a mated pair of CBS and cleaner shrimp that give birth to shrimp fry every fortnight!

I have some pictures to post up!

As for crabs! I kill them when I see them! They are known to be killers especially of featherduster worms, helpful bristleworms and even small fishes when they sleep!

Only one or two species of crabs are reefsafe (ie. only eats algae).

Where did you get the mated pair? Trial and error matching? I don't like CBS in a small tank. I had one last time in a 2ft tank who killed a baby amsel and injured my dwarf angels (overstocking was a mistake made when I was more ignorant). Why don't you try rearing the cleaner shrimp fry in a suspended breeding net? It might work.

I kill the brown tiny crabs when I find them.

Have you tried the Hawaiian Zebra Hermits? I want to get one or two but I have to deal with my dratted 80mg/l nitrates first.

[hongqixian]

right now i have 3 boxer shrimps, 2 normal crabs, 2 hermit crabs, 1 lobster (i think, it looks like a lobster, orange with bit of purple, but the ah pek at the LFS told me it's not lobster)

i plan to buy some cleaner shrimps soon and maybe other typle of hermit crabs, they look so cute carrying their home around.....ehehehe

Don't the boxer shrimps fight? What do you mean by normal crabs? Your lobster should be a reef lobster. And I don't think you can keep snails then with the hermits....

[Bluebeard]

you guys know a lot about hermit crabs? my hermit crab cost $3 each, they have blue and black strip legs. but those selling at Hong Leong is $8 each or 3 for $20 but their legs are orange and black. how come the price difference is so big? they seems the same to me except for the colour.

ya lor the boxer shrimps do fight, i just got home and see one lost all her 2 big pincer, and one lost his one pincer. i shouldn't have got 3 of them in the same thing or maybe i should feed them more. the 3 of them are ok in my tank for the past few days until today.

normal crabs as in red crabs with eyes sticking up! hehehe.. i don't really know their name, they just seems 'normal' to me.. eheheh

the lobster is very nice but it don't come out much, it just dig a big home under one of the live stone and stay in there most of the time.

ya lor, i very scare the hermit crab will attack the snail for the shell. but the snails are very good for cleaning the tank leh. i think i should go get more shells for the hermit crabs.

i went to hong leong today, lots of new stocks of very nice corals, cleaner shrimps and candy shrimps!!!!

[hongqixian]

you guys know a lot about hermit crabs? my hermit crab cost $3 each, they have blue and black strip legs. but those selling at Hong Leong is $8 each or 3 for $20 but their legs are orange and black. how come the price difference is so big? they seems the same to me except for the colour.

ya lor the boxer shrimps do fight, i just got home and see one lost all her 2 big pincer, and one lost his one pincer. i shouldn't have got 3 of them in the same thing or maybe i should feed them more. the 3 of them are ok in my tank for the past few days until today.

normal crabs as in red crabs with eyes sticking up! hehehe.. i don't really know their name, they just seems 'normal' to me.. eheheh

the lobster is very nice but it don't come out much, it just dig a big home under one of the live stone and stay in there most of the time.

ya lor, i very scare the hermit crab will attack the snail for the shell. but the snails are very good for cleaning the tank leh. i think i should go get more shells for the hermit crabs.

i went to hong leong today, lots of new stocks of very nice corals, cleaner shrimps and candy shrimps!!!!

Was the blue-and-black from Halus? Some hermits are more ex. because they have less tendency to eat snails and eat nuisance algae, helping to clean up. The lousy ones clumsily walk over and eat and damage practically everything they find.

Boxers fight if they are not a mated pair or same ######. They just beat each other up and are supposed to be kept alone. They also wreak havoc in tiny tanks, hurting the fish etc.

The lobsters look interesting but I'm worried it'll cause an earthquake in my 2ft tank.

What are candy shrimp? P.S the last time I was at Hong Leong I noticed the blue actinic sale coral tank at the side of the back had lots of tiny baby shrimp swimming about. They avoided the overflow. I asked the worker if I could catch some and bring home and he said okay, but the holes in the available nets were simply too big.

[Bluebeard]

hey hi hi,

the blue-and-black hermit crab are from lor halus. i just asked the owner, his new stock will come on Friday. i'm thinking of buying 2 more orange-and-black hermit crab. actually the reason why i bought them is because i want them to eat the left over and also disturb the fine sand a bit.

lesson learnt, i won't put more boxer shrimps anymore.

my lobster is quite good, hide most of the time! hehehe.. but today i saw it catch a shrimp (fresh water one i use to feed them) into his 'cave'!!! saw some very very nice ones at lor halus today, $8 each, very purple.

i think those all dark red shrimps are called candy shrimp, i just got one today.

hey you got those blue coral? i thinking of buying one, easy to keep? need cold water?

[hongqixian]

hey hi hi,

the blue-and-black hermit crab are from lor halus. i just asked the owner, his new stock will come on Friday. i'm thinking of buying 2 more orange-and-black hermit crab. actually the reason why i bought them is because i want them to eat the left over and also disturb the fine sand a bit.

lesson learnt, i won't put more boxer shrimps anymore.

my lobster is quite good, hide most of the time! hehehe.. but today i saw it catch a shrimp (fresh water one i use to feed them) into his 'cave'!!! saw some very very nice ones at lor halus today, $8 each, very purple.

i think those all dark red shrimps are called candy shrimp, i just got one today.

hey you got those blue coral? i thinking of buying one, easy to keep? need cold water?

I want to setup a 2ft tank for 2 mandarins with a black and blue hermit. They have pretty colour! How do you go to Lor. Halus? I walked once and went a few times by friend's dad's car.

Do you mean blood/fire shrimp? They are cleaner shrimp and like to hide but don't tolerate high nitrates( I learnt the hard way). About $10 bucks each.

Which coral do you mean? (got lots of blues). Most coral won't stand temps above 30 degrees celsius except for mushroom corals. And if you don't have special lighting at least 60 ++ watts then can only keep mushroom corals , otherwise the other corals mostly just "bleach" and die. I think that for beginners or those with unsophisticated lighting (like me) then just stick to mushroom corals and a few kinds of soft corals.

This website www.liveaquaria.com got nice pics and you can use it to learn more about animals you want to keep.

Cheers!

[Bluebeard]

2feet for just 2 mandarins and a hermit crab???

what's mandarins??? are they what i mention as goby??? the one i just got is so colour and cute, i'm going to get one from Paya lebar, it's even more nice. the reason i didn't get it last night when i went there is because it's rather big.

usually i cycle to lor halus, if i cycle fast on my own, i will usually take around 15min, i live in tampines. but today my friend drive me over and my bro drive me back. where you live? you go lor halus often? since i started my marine tank, i start going to lor halus every week again! hehehe..

i think i mean blood/fire shrimp when i say cleaner shrimps. it's getting well in my tank now, eating happily on a dead shrimp!!! i won't get anymore as it's expensive!

actually i also don't know what kind of blue coral i mean.. ehehe.. anyway i don't think i will get coral, i still prefer my tank with just plant and shrimp and fish. ya lor, coral is so hard to keep. my light is just 36watt only.

today i just discover that the shop i go at lor halus actually got lots of hermit crabs! but they are very big and not nice with very very pointy legs.

thanks for the site! but i been busy lately, going to shops! hehee.. will read up more nice time. i still prefer advise from locals than reading from webs especially if they are non-local.

[hongqixian]

2feet for just 2 mandarins and a hermit crab???

what's mandarins??? are they what i mention as goby??? the one i just got is so colour and cute, i'm going to get one from Paya lebar, it's even more nice. the reason i didn't get it last night when i went there is because it's rather big.

usually i cycle to lor halus, if i cycle fast on my own, i will usually take around 15min, i live in tampines. but today my friend drive me over and my bro drive me back. where you live? you go lor halus often? since i started my marine tank, i start going to lor halus every week again! hehehe..

i think i mean blood/fire shrimp when i say cleaner shrimps. it's getting well in my tank now, eating happily on a dead shrimp!!! i won't get anymore as it's expensive!

actually i also don't know what kind of blue coral i mean.. ehehe.. anyway i don't think i will get coral, i still prefer my tank with just plant and shrimp and fish. ya lor, coral is so hard to keep. my light is just 36watt only.

today i just discover that the shop i go at lor halus actually got lots of hermit crabs! but they are very big and not nice with very very pointy legs.

thanks for the site! but i been busy lately, going to shops! hehee.. will read up more nice time. i still prefer advise from locals than reading from webs especially if they are non-local.

Wait, I'm getting a bit confused. Did you post this after you told me you bought a mandarin?

Ya, 2ft for one/two fish but quite a few invertebrates. Otherwise nitrate/ammonia and some other levels can be quite hard to control. 2ft tank = slightly >15 gallons, and the recommended stocking level for reef tanks is about 1 small fish per 5 gallons at most esp. for small tanks. This is excluding the volume occupied by rocks/sand in tank.

I live in Tamp. too, somewhere near TPJC. Used to go Lor. Halus by friend's car, but not now (circumstances not permitting) so now if I want to go I walk

I'm using PL light 36watt actinic (I think I mentioned it before, right?)

You're welcome abt the site. Happy reading! I store a lot of informative web pages I find on my com and planning to burn/rip/record them on a CD after my Sec 2 exams.

[Achilles Tang]

Ahh... I found the pix of my always pregnant CBS!!!

And here's a pix of a shrimp fry that swarms out when the lights are out!

[Achilles Tang]

I have a reef expert friend from Hong Kong who is in touch with a lot of a other famous reef experts from Germany, USA, UK and he once told me that lobsters are not suitable for aquariums as they tend to produce a lot of ammonia.

Take a lobster out of water and press the body and a lot of yellow liquid (pee) will come out! They have to do that before they cook it for you!

But I think the lobsters we see in LFS are very small... but still... heed advise from the wise!

CBS pairs are hit and go... if you are lucky they will pair up. Bad idea to keep 3 in a tank!

The best way is to buy a big CBS and a small one, as the different sexes tend to come in diff size.

If I am not wrong, the bigger one tends to be female and the smaller one male... or is it the other way around? hahaha!!

[Bluebeard]

ya lor, i got this post after i have already got the mandarin, i just bought some tubifex worms for it to eat but the worms just die once it reach the salt water. the other fishes and shrimps are eating happily though.

i won't be buying any more fish but might buy more shrimps. i will not buy any more fiddle crabs, guess they have to go out of water once in a while.

hey hongqixian, why not you cycle to lor halus???

what's actinic??? blue light? purple light?

hey thanks Achilles,

i won't buy anymore lobster also, scary!

i will not buy anymore CBS too after the big fight! hheheeh

male CBS are smaller, female CBS are much bigger but the male one are still very fierce!

[hongqixian]

Pity about the worms. I dun cycle cos just learnt a while ago, pretty poor at it

Actinic is a light which has actinic phosphors(gas) in it, so the bulb is only blue when turned on. Otherwise blue bulbs are painted or tinted and not true actinic.

Eee, the lobster thing sounds yukky. Thanks for the tip, achilles.

[Achilles Tang]

Bluebeard,

You should ask these questions in the 'New to the Hobby' forum...

Try not to dilute the original topic here ....

And no prob on the tip... I think lobsters not really reef-safe, no matter how beautiful they look.

[Bluebeard]

hahaha.. okok

anyway, who out there also keep lots of crabs and shrimps???

[coelacanth]

Hi,

those blue spiny lobsters are riduculously fierce when they grow up. i gave away mine long ago and now my tank is so peaceful. no more dead bodies.

currently i'm keep a CBS, a cleaner, a pistol shrimp, 3 harlequin shrimps, 1 camel, with 3 clowns and a watchman goby.

[Achilles Tang]

Hi Coelacanth!

Welcome to the Singapore Reef Club!

Do you get a lot of popping sounds in your tank from the pistol shrimp?

Is it in a symbiotic relationship with the watchman goby? It must be real cool to watch them!

[Bluebeard]

hey where u all get all those shrimps???

so far i only see 3 kinds of shrimps at the shops i go

CBS

Cleaner

Fire

[Phang]

I will be interested in a pistol shrimp.

Any body knows where I'm able to get one...

been looking for quite a while...

I do however hear "popping" sounds from my tank... but don't think it's a pistol... more likely mantis shrimps...caught 2 from my tank already... 1 orange and 1 green....

believe there is another .... somewhere in there...seem a number of broken crab shells and claws....

[Achilles Tang]

I finally caught my mantis shrimp after a year... I suspected there was one... but never actually saw it until late one night when I took a torch light and started hunting. Boy... were they fast!!!

I had to dismantle my rockwork! I took the rock out and put it in freshwater and then it took a damn long time to come out... when it did.... I put it in a glass of tank water for a few weeks till it died of starvation... it is a really hardy pest!

It was green in colour and looked like a preying mantis!

[Bluebeard]

hey why you all catch out the mantis shrimp? what you do with it?

if don't want can give away la.. eheheh

[bawater]

coelacanth, ya i end up with the killer-

mind u, it did help thin out unwanted fishes(abt 7 damsels)- & 1 big squirrel(almost 13cm) by my mistake.

but its beauty make up for it.

finally cleared all the predators(squirrel-'which ate my cleaner after being cleaned for 12mths', 2x triggers, 1x huge fat damsel into a holding tnk) from my 4ft & now beg. to restock with shrimp again.

current shrimp: 1x CBS,1x cleaner

Akan datang- 4x candy,another 2x cleaner & abt 10 seahorses gradually.

i feed any crabs or pistol shr i find to the triggers(who also ate 4 chromis & 1 dottyback:"suppose to be reef safe"-which ate all my previous 3 candy shrimp-which ate my 2 purple slugs)?first time i see real life food chain.

still got one cracking pistol every nite-2yrs cannot catch.