Boxing Crab

[Samw]

It amazes me to always be finding new things after 2 years of reefkeeping. Thanks to Christy who pointed these out to me after we bumped into each other today.

What's intriguing (which some of you might know, but its new to me) is that these crabs use anemones as their defense mechanism. They hold onto these tiny anemones with their claws all day long.

http://www.hyperdream.com/~samw/reef/Critters/BoxingCrab/156-5656_img_crop_std.jpg

Lookies, eggs in the belly of 1 of them

http://www.hyperdream.com/~samw/reef/Critters/BoxingCrab/156-5670_img_crop_std.jpg

[butters88]

I got one from King Eds too, theyre amazing!
Were there anymore left or did you take them all? :lol:

[butters88]

Nice pics btw :razz:

[Samw]

I got the last 3. :lol:

[ltay]

Should this be a crab and not a shrimp ?

[butters88]

Good Job :lol:
I wanted to get more though
I haven't seen mine around since I put him in :cry:

[Van down by the river]

Hey Sam,
This is the Boxer Crab or Pom-pom Crab Lybia tesselata

It is a favourite of mine an is certainly not new to the hobby. As it has a small size it is often overlooked in tanks. Plus so many reefers unfortunately group all crabs into the "bad for reef" category.

I like to keep them in 10 gallon or smaller mini reefs. I find anything larger and you rarely see them.
There are 3 species that I know of, the most common is the one you have.
2nd is the Hawaiian endemic Lybia edmondsoni which instead of a polygon pattern has a maze like pattern on the carapace. The 3rd which I've only seen in pictures is Lybia caestifera from the Red Sea to Japan area. All of which are shallow water reef crabs.

They all remain small growing to 1.5cm across. They carry a non-fish commensal anemone Triactis producta. It is a fairly aggressive anemone with a strong sting.
I find the behaviour quite fascinating as they drag the anemone along the bottom collecting detritus on the tentacle mucus, then they run it across their mouthparts to remove the food particles like they are licking an ice cream cone. During moulting they set aside the anemones unfortunately losing them sometimes.

I personally found that they didn't tend to adopt other replacement species anemones when one was lost.

When they are threatened or my peering eyes got to close they would raise both anemones and sway them in either circular or side to side motion to ward me off. Most of the time they were fairly cryptic remaining shy even after a few years of feeding. They never bothered any of my coral or fish.

Anyways, a wonderful addition.[/i]

[Samw]

Should this be a crab and not a shrimp ?

Yup. Fixed. Thanks. :)

Oh, thanks for the info Van.

[StirCrazy]

thoes are to cool, lets hope they don't start pushing thoes anemones against your corals :eek: . see we never get cool stuff like that :mrgreen:

Steve

[kuatto]

Very nice colored crabs...oh oh..yup,there it is..the galloping gimmees!
now I'm going to have to call around untill I find one :frown: :mrgreen:


Jim

[sumpfinfishe]

Yeah they are wonderful crabs to watch, especially during feeding time:cool:

I have been keeping Boxers since I first got into the hobby, over six years ago with great success. However I haven't seen them for over a year in the LFS's. A few years back a purchased a pair and just over a month ago I lost one, so now I'm left with a single female-I know because she's carrying an egg sac. I have never had a problem with these crabs, my pair always got along with all the fish and vice versa. My single female often comes out of the rockwork right in front of both my yellow watchmens to dangle her pom poms in order to catch a passsing meal.

If anyone see's them forsale again could they please drop me a line as I would like to get another to complete the pair.

First Christy bought them all up right behind my back :exclaim: :razz:

Now I have to deal with you too Sam :mrgreen:

[EmilyB]

First Christy bought them all up right behind my back :exclaim: :razz:



She does this a lot... :rolleyes: :razz:

I want some of those crabs.....they rock !

[TNTCanada]

Those are real cool I want some too.

[christyf5]

Just check at King Ed often. They seem to be getting them in more. Probly cuz I clean them out every time I see them :mrgreen:

[AI Man]

Hey kuatto,
I've had them in 3-4 times in the last 6 months. People tend to scan over the invert tanks and miss tons of goodies.
I've had Sexy Shrimp: Thor amboinensis, and
Bumblebee Shrimps: Gnathophyllum americanum
For a few weeks now.

I also had a pair of Periclemenes brevicarpalis Sold now :sad:
and regularly have 2-3 varieties of Pistol Shrimp Alpheus sp.
I'd encourage many of you to look a little longer in your LFS invert tanks you might find some surprises. :biggrin:

[christyf5]

First Christy bought them all up right behind my back :exclaim: :razz:



She does this a lot... :rolleyes: :razz:

I want some of those crabs.....they rock !

Hey you snooze, you lose! :razz:

[christyf5]

Oh and not to be outdone in the pics department :wink:

My boxers:
http://www3.telus.net/seamonkey68/boxersa.jpg

And some other cool crabs I picked up as well, these were called black porcelain crabs, some of them weren't black tho. He started feeding right after I put him in the tank :biggrin:
http://www3.telus.net/seamonkey68/blackporcelaina.jpg

Christy :)

[sumpfinfishe]

It's kinda hard to snooze when someone's keeping you up with with boxer crab nightmares :razz: :razz:

Why's that water pink?

[Aquattro]

Oh and not to be outdone in the pics department :wink:

My boxers:


For a minute I thought.....never mind :rolleyes:

[christyf5]

get yer mind outta the gutter there Brad. :razz:


The water isn't pink. That would be the fabulous white balance on my camera :wink: Guess I should have fixed that before I took the picture. :rolleyes:

[titus]

Hello,

OMG those are the coolest creatures around. They are like cheerleaders.

And if you want to buy them, I suppose you can leave your contact info with King Ed so they can go order them and call you.

Titus

[christyf5]

Hello,

OMG those are the coolest creatures around. They are like cheerleaders.


Titus

Bwahaha, thats perfect. Cheerleaders!

[StirCrazy]

Oh and not to be outdone in the pics department :wink:

My boxers:


For a minute I thought.....never mind :rolleyes:

:eek: ok no good can come out of this... better close this one :mrgreen:

Steve

[Mak]

And if you want to buy them, I suppose you can leave your contact info with King Ed so they can go order them and call you.

Titus

Nope. For an item like this, you have to keep checking in :rolleyes: :squarewi:.

[Arbee03]

Just came home from King Ed's this morning. Saw at least 10 of them :smile:

[butters88]

A lot of them seemed to be missing their anemones though :frown:

[christyf5]

The ones Sam and I got were anomalys. Normally they lose their anenomes in the collection/shipping process. Before those ones I just bought, I had never seen them at King Eds with their anemones.

Christy :)

[butters88]

Yea, I'm very glad I got one w/ anemones from the last batch too :biggrin:
I guess they're a hard find w/ anemones

[Bodhi]

I have one that doesnt have anenomes sp? anyways it has decided to make its own by niping off the ends of my torch coral and carying around little torch tips instead. =( I think I am goin to have to get rid of mine which is a bummer cause I really like him.

[christyf5]

Why are you getting rid of him?

Christy :)

[Quinn]

Probably because he's trashing his torch coral. :razz:

[christyf5]

Yeh but they don't do it continuously. I can't imagine a tiny crab like that would be able to "trash" a torch that quickly.

Oh well, I'm sure you'll have many takers in this thread :wink:

Christy :)

[EmilyB]

Bring him to me. :mrgreen: He can wear alveopora mitts.. :razz:

[Bodhi]

I will wait and see what hapens. The torch has two heads and he has done some damage to one of them. I will see how the torch holds up and then decide. :biggrin:

[IslandReefer]

Hi
Have any of you Boxer Fans ever seen the little anenome split or grow much. Say he lost only one ,does he ever regain it?
If they do perhaps those with pom poms can help out those without??