pom pom crabs
 

For those of you that have(or had) these neat little critters :cool: , just wondering what they prefer to eat and their life expectany is. I have couple put away, but before I buy them I'd like to make sure that can support them.
cheers,

They are filter feeders, mine will catch/eat bbs, flake, cyclopeeze, and misc deterius. Its fun to watch mine feed, she'll drag her anemones through the sand, then pick them clean, or with live bbs feeding - she'll wave them frantically to catch a few, then pick them clean.

Andy

Cool
 

I would like to get one of them.... How big of a tank would you need?

These are AKA anemone crabs right? I've only seen them once in a LFS & they're pretty cool :biggrin:

Anemone Crabs, Boxer Crabs - Lybia tessellata there's a few other names floating around.

Golds and wais both have stock right now.

Size of tank - now this is one of those animals that should probably be kept in a species tank. Something with an established sand bed - size wise, very little, these guys wont get much over an inch.

I was reading that many fish look at these guys as food - so you'd probably be best to keep them alone. even in my 5g reef, I have to search for her. She'll probably move to my 6" cube just so I can keep her in sight more regularly.

Andy

I think you will get the wrong crab if you buy an anemone crab. It seems that name is usually given a type of crab that hosts in an anemone, not the type that carries anemones around with it. Anemone crabs have two fans that they use to strain plankton from the water column. It is also a great crab - they don't require an anemone to do well and don't bother anything. They are also pretty brave and not too expensive.
Here's a nice picture:
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/img/faq_anemonecrab.jpg

This is a boxer or pompom crab:
http://www.vibrantsea.net/images/boxer17_anilao18.jpg
Definitely a cool animal! Nice choice Andy, that would be awesome in your cube.



- Chad

There is also a hermit crab that uses anemones as camouflage on its shell.

Dardanus pedunculatus. aka anemone hermit crab.

There is a store in town that has one of these. Kind of cool looking. :cool:

I wonder if a pom pom crab would do well in a fuge tank?

Well I bought the little guys. Just love these things. I put them in my little 5 gallon nano for now. They both still have their anemones so hopefully they will feed.

When you get a chance, could you post some pics?