Meet Aqua, one of my Aussies

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:01 am

A quick story before the picture, I have 2 Aussies. I came home a few hours ago to witness Aqua and Mocha, my two Aussies, filling up their salt water dish with so much sand that it absorbed all of the water.

So after scolding them and scooping the sand out, and refilling the water, I leave them alone for a few hours. Now, last night, Aqua decided to dig a tunnel next to the spirulina and worm castings dish, filling that with sand. So I cleaned that out, moved the dish, and refilled it. A few minutes ago, I look back at the tank and see this:

No spirulina and worm castings dish is safe from Mr. Destructo, it seems. If I had known he'd be like this, I wouldn't have named him Aqua. Even with the dish on the other side of the tank, he still hunted it down and destroyed it.

aquav · Post by **aquav** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:24 am

You could get a bigger and heavier dish, maybe that way he will leave it alone...
He is beautiful!!!

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:45 am

I could, but that'd be no fun for either one of us.

Thanks! I tell myself that he's so lucky he's pretty. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be that color though. Most Aussies I've seen are a shade of brown, but he has a blue tint to him.

sugarselections · Post by **sugarselections** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:10 pm

Can you post some detailed pictures of him? It's hard to tell from this shot, but this crab looks more like a Ecuadorian than an Aussie to me. Did you get him from ELHC?

tigermoon89 · Post by **tigermoon89** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:44 pm

I had one or two crabs that would purposely hunt down the rooibos dish and attempt to bury it

They spoiled it for the others that I knew like the rooibos.

JangoCatt · Post by **JangoCatt** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:21 pm

When we had crabbies before, the E's were definitely tank trashers. No matter what we did, they always seemed to make a mess every night. We tried the heavier dish idea too. They just tunneled under it and made it collapse into the abandoned tunnels. Funny little critters....

Post by **wodesorel** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:26 pm

sugarselections wrote:Can you post some detailed pictures of him? It's hard to tell from this shot, but this crab looks more like a Ecuadorian than an Aussie to me. Did you get him from ELHC?

My thought as well. He does look very E-ish, but I've also heard some of the Aussie owners say their crabs can be green/blue so I was hoping someone else would come along and ask the same question.

She said she got him from That Pet Place in another post, and they pulled out a little card to tell her the species. (I was taking note because I was hoping the store was a bit closer to me!)

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:49 pm

I thought he was an E at first, too. But he's very monotone. I'm thinking it's just a nutrient deficiency that's made him the wrong color. I'll try to get more detailed pictures of him but unfortunately my photo taking skills are very lacking. I guess we'll just have to wait for a molt to see.

sugarselections · Post by **sugarselections** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:16 pm

Actually, if you just get some pictures of his eyes it should be pretty easy to tell whether he's actually an Aussie. The problem is that other people have been told by pet stores in the US that they're buying Aussie crabs when in reality they're selling them Ecuadorians. To my knowledge, there is only one US importer of Aussie crabs and that's ELHC.

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:38 pm

And here's my other one.

The second one, Mocha, was harder to get because of her awkward position in the tank. I'm gonna assume her and Aqua are the same species, but Mocha has the Aussie marks on her claws and legs. Aqua does not.

tnt4eva · Post by **tnt4eva** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 12:36 am

I'm not very good at distinguishing between species, but Aqua looks very much like many Aussies I've seen for sale here and like mine at certain times. And we only have Aussie for sale here.

sugarselections · Post by **sugarselections** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:01 pm

It's very hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm still leaning toward these crabs being Ecuadorians. The eyes seem to have more of that "candy corn" shape typical of Ecuadorians.

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:05 pm

Yeah, it's possible. But they seem awfully big, for Es. Though I know ELHC has Jumbo Es, I've never seen any Es bigger than a small in other places.

Another reason I'm almost certain that they're Aussies, is that they both have the 'shield' on their backs that Es do not have.

I bought them when looking for Es, so if they're Es, I got what I wanted. If they're Aussies, I got exotics. I'm happy either way.

When I picked Aqua up a few minutes ago, he came flying out of his shell with his pinchers ready. I guess he doesn't want his picture taken anymore.

Post by **wodesorel** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:58 pm

At first I only ever found tiny Es, and then I found one that was bordering on Jumbo. She's about the size of the palm of my hand and is only a bit smaller than my largest PPs. I can't get her to hold still long enough to snap a photo of her with something for size comparison, but here she is next to one of the smaller Es.

They can also be very pale:

I don't want you to think we're picking on your crabs, but if you're looking for species buddies it would be good to know exactly what they need to be!

Marina · Post by **Marina** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:01 pm

Oh, I know.

I just wish Es didn't look so much like Aussies. But if ELHC is the only vendor in the US for Aussies, then my guys are probably both Es.

Ok, after looking at Aqua's gills, I think he's an E. From pictures, it seems that Aussies don't really have colorful gills. They tend to be the same color as the rest of them. But E's gills stand out more, they're more colorful. I tried to compare eyes and pinchers because I know they're more reliable for species IDing, but he just wouldn't cooperate. He's too big for his shell and refuses to change(E attitude shining through). Mocha has changed, but she's currently digging and I'm going to leave her alone. If she's an Aussie and he's an E... Well, I'll have a lot of trouble finding her a species buddy.