My Marine Tank MHC Citizens

[suebee]

awww that is a darling! is that your baby Sebby?

[SebbyCrab]

Not that particular one. But we have about 30 like him running around in our reef tank. That particular one belongs to another Utah reefer. Those tiny lil guys are so much fun to watch, I'll have to attempt to get video of them someday, they run up to each other, stand there for a few seconds and then jump apart. All of their feet, pinchers everything leaves the ground. They're so active on the sand bed that my finace has started calling them hermits on speed.

[suebee]

Sebby, i would like to get them and wondered can you have Sea horses with them..I want a sea horse tank and you cant have sea horses with fish, i thought of getting them and some ground things to make it a little less boring..If i could put marine hermits in with them i would be in heaven..Ive been hording some coral bones for a base for a few years. Id need to get some live coral. Ive been trying to buy the things that can can store for a while little by little hoping someday to do a marine tank.. Without buying what may become out dated..
i found this site that says they would be ok http://www.seahorse.com/Aquarium_Life/A ... g_Started/

but we all know that not all sites are right.. they after all sell seahorses

[SebbyCrab]

Depends on the seahorse really. If you go with dwarf seahorses they say no. If you go with the larger seahorses [realize some get 14 inches or more from tail to top of head] then yes. However we have our marine tank set up with fish. We were going to do a dwarf seahorse tank, but decided with both of us in school and working there just wasn't enough time to see to the proper care.

[Mokulele_Hawai'i]

Aniculus ursus - my new hairy babies ; they look like cute teddy bears.

[Mokulele_Hawai'i]

Dardanus gemmatus - an aggressive anemone collector

[Kathy Freer]

Someone in Ontario is selling what they call halloween crabs.They look very interesting but I wonder if anyone knows the real name for them and where I could find out the proper requirement for housing ,feeding etc.
Thank you Kathy

[Mokulele_Hawai'i]

Someone in Ontario is selling what they call halloween crabs.They look very interesting but I wonder if anyone knows the real name for them and where I could find out the proper requirement for housing ,feeding etc.
Thank you Kathy

It could be the Ciliopagurus strigatus. A shallow water inhabitant. I had one but died.

[DustAndEchoes]

Spectacular photos! Thanks so much for sharing

[MudCrabDude]

Someone in Ontario is selling what they call halloween crabs.They look very interesting but I wonder if anyone knows the real name for them and where I could find out the proper requirement for housing ,feeding etc.
Thank you Kathy

Are you talking about marine hermit crabs called Halloween crabs, or land crabs that are also called Halloween crabs?

If you mean the marine hermit crab, the aforementioned Ciliopagurus strigatus could be the ID.

However, if you mean the land crab, you might be referring to Gecarcinus quadratus - they have somewhat similar requirements to land hermit crabs.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... oween+crab

I've only had a couple of years experience with a similar species, Gecarcinus lateralis - I wouldn't really know what to say, except that I would recommend only one to a tank, they have higher humidity requirements than land hermit crabs, that they are able to molt successfully in setups similar to land hermit crabs but with higher humidity, they would need saltwater and freshwater sources, and that they seem to be a bit more fragile than land hermit crabs. They also tend to need more leaf litter in their diet and I would like to reiterate that they do tend to cannibalize more readily in captivity, in my case at least, and I would recommend keeping only one to a tank.

Another crab that might be called a "Halloween crab" is the Cardisoma armatum -

http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=na ... 916d13710f

This one might generally needs much more different requirments, even though they are (mistakenly) kept like land hermit crabs in petshops. They need much more exposure to water and are generally better kept in 50/50 setups - that is, half land and half filtered brackish water. Much, much more defensive than the aforementioned Gecarcinus crabs and will pinch readily (and hard, I might add.) Keeping one to a tank is a must for beginners, unless each crab in a tank is constantly monitored 24/7....

[Kathy Freer]

Thanks Mud crab dude The first google search you posted are the crabs I saw advertised.They look very interesting but do you think one alone would be OK?I live in the country and have maple and oak trees on my property in a wooded area.Is that what you mean that they need?Humidity wouldn't be a problem.
Kathy

[MudCrabDude]

Thanks Mud crab dude The first google search you posted are the crabs I saw advertised.They look very interesting but do you think one alone would be OK?I live in the country and have maple and oak trees on my property in a wooded area.Is that what you mean that they need?Humidity wouldn't be a problem.
Kathy

I used to keep a pair or more in a tank at a time; as soon as molting time comes and passes, one would disappear (and I am pretty sure it was not an escape attempt). I would definitely only keep one if I was a beginner. In the future, you can attempt something like 2 in a 50+ gallon tank setup or something with some dedicated pools and really deep substrate.


As for leaf litter, yeah it's something like that; oak leaves might work, but I generally fed mine some of the more "tropical" type leaves that I am able to find in the grocery or elsewhere that might match the ones they can find in their native habitats -- or some approximate substitutes, I guess..... Halloween crabs are usually found in the south of Mexico, parts of the Caribbean Islands, and around coastal forests in countries such as Costa Rica or Panama.

[Arouda]

These guys are different from the land hermit crabs, I find myself attracted to them...They look
amazing. Where have you been getting these guys from?

[SoulLonely]

wow, they are so cute! I've never seen the hairy ones before! awesome

[wodesorel]

These guys are different from the land hermit crabs, I find myself attracted to them...They look amazing. Where have you been getting these guys from?

The really special species like that have to be special ordered online or can sometimes be found at specialty marine fish shops. (Which are pretty rare these days.) Most places that sell salt-water fish will have some sort of species of marine hermit crab, I think the most common being blue-legged.