Porcelain berry?

[jocelyndale]

Ampelopsis brevipedunculata
Most folks assume it's poisonous, but it's actually edible for humans. It doesn't taste all that great to a human, but it's not gonna hurt you.

It's invasive and I was pulling it today and I thought, "hrm, wonder if the crabs would eat it?"

Anyone try it?

[Crabinski]

I had no idea that these were edible! Crabs enjoy grapes and porcelain berries are members of the grape family so they may be OK. Hopefully someone else has experience with this berry and will chime in.

[Crabber85]

Yes its true that they are not toxic to humans but due to the presence of high levels of oxalic acid which is a primary part of the tannin in the fruit they are not safe for a wide range of animals.

The FDA/USDA actually prompted regulation to removed acorns from cattle diets because acorns contain the same acid base due to the tannin's present in the nut and it was found that the cows and horses eating large quantities of acorns were suffering from muscle disorders and loss of muscle tissue because the acid base in the acorns was attacking the muscle fibers these berries do the same thing to deer and other wildlife making them unsafe in my book.

Feeding these berries to your hermitcrabs even in tiny quantities could result in significant damage to the underlying muscle tissue of the crabs.

Google Acorn Disease and tons of USDA linked articles come up.

Essentially they way it works is the tannin's are ingested and broken down the oxalic acid then immediately targets the Amino acids in the muscle tissues causing lesions, atrophy and other kinds of damage to the muscle structure.

Amino acids are the building blocks for healthy muscle tissue and without them there to support the tissue nasty things begin to happen and hermitcrabs are effected by this quicker than larger animals because of their reduced body size.

[Crabinski]

As always, great info, Crabber85!

[jocelyndale]

Thanks! I was curious about the oxalic acid, which is why I didn't feed them any of the berries or leave without confirmation.

Wait--do oxalates affect crabs the same way they'd affect mammals? I'm curious about that.

[Crabber85]

@jocelyndale, there's no current or past information that suggests that crustaceans are effected by oxalic acid consumption and the reason that it has been suggested to avoid feeding foods with extremely high oxalic acid concentrations like acorns, the recommendation for feeding acorns to hermitcrabs has been to soak the nuts in dechlorinated fresh water for at least twenty-four hours to diminish the concentration of the oxalic acid and this recommendation has been given since 2002 or so because we just simply don't know what consuming a high level of oxalic acids will do to hermit crabs though we do know that over consumption can lead to oxalic poisoning in mammals.

It's been suggested that hermitcrabs actually need some tannins or oxalic acid in their diet because they can utilize these pigment enhancers to help with their coloration just as they do with beta carotene.

Without having an actual study done on the subject we will have to rely on anecdotal evidence sourced from other crabbers.