local beach crabs in a reef tank

[babnika]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

... I don't get it.

off j&l website Emerald Crab Mithrax sculptus Valonia $10.95 3/6/8 •Quantity discount amounts are as follows. (A/B/C): A: 20% B: 25% C: 30%
so if you buy 30 your only looking at $7.67 not bad when you figure where they came from.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by babnika

off j&l website Emerald Crab Mithrax sculptus Valonia $10.95 3/6/8 •Quantity discount amounts are as follows. (A/B/C): A: 20% B: 25% C: 30%
so if you buy 30 your only looking at $7.67 not bad when you figure where they came from.

Oh, you were being literal, haha. I thought I was missing some sorta inside joke.

Yah, too expensive. I'm poor yo.

[GoFish]

2 months ago I collected a dozen of the little crabs from a tide pool by my house. the water temp was well above what my tank at home runs at so these little buggers are definitely capable of of handling 79 degrees. Looong term not totally sure. But after 2 months I have 9 out of 12 crabs remaining, one was killed in a fight with another the first day, another had only one claw so he was kinda doomed (but survived 3 weeks) and another one died last week, he was the only be I tried putting into a nano tank which I barely feed, sorry buddy ...

Some of them are more scrappy than the others. There are many different species with different coloring.

I doubt they're as good at clearing algae than a hungry emerald crab (some of them do graze) but my last emerald slept all day hanging upside down and didn't appear to do anything anyway.

Happy to report all have been reef safe, haven't bothered any corals, fought or killed any of the tropical species of snails or hermits or fish, they just go after each other during feeding time especially the a Red one.
They get fed 1/4 of a silverside every couple weeks and extra NLS pellets that fall to the floor daily.

Do so at your own risk obviously, but I have no problems to report. Collecting them during summer from a warm tide pool made sense so there was less stress acclimating them but not sure how much of a difference there will be. Theyre probably gonna start wondering when summer will end?!

[langley reefer]

I have a story to share. Probably about 15 years ago a friend of mine put a tiny.little crab he found at white rock in his ninety gallon reef. The crab promptly hid and was never seen again. Fast forward about a year and my friend was ver excited about adding a beautiful yellow and purple baby ribbon eel. All was fine on the first night but when he woke up the next morning and looked in his tank and found that crab about 20 times larger with the body of the eel in one claw and the head in the other. Most of the crabs on.local beaches are rock or mud crabs, which are predators.

[mohammadali]

I have 2 emerald crab in my nano tank I had a lil bit bubble algae on LR but the emerlad crabs didn't clean the . I fed my fish lil by lil so the food don't sink still bubble algae is double now

[Nicole.]

Didn't you buy a rhizo?..pretty sure those are expensive

But in all seriousness, why take the risk of endangering a crab or your tank?

Just shell out the $10.

[Samw]

Most of the little crabs on our local beaches that you find under rocks etc are commonly refered to as shore crabs.

The ones larger than a twoonie are not shore crabs and are probably one of the protected ones that require a license to harvest the adults such as Rock or Dungenous crab.

http://www.birdsonthebay.ca/pdf%20fi...ter-FoSBs2.pdf

"
Every kid loves to turn over rocks and chase shore crabs. It’s instinctual with prey of that size and speed and
harmlessness- like a game of cat and mouse. Johnny has a great day at the beach and on the bus home compares how
many crabs he caught with Melvin. Without realizing it, while enjoying the day on the beach, their visit harmed or killed
many crabs and other beach creatures.
The problem is that crabs die in buckets without plenty of water. They
have gills- they breathe water. Between March and June crabs are also
molting and breeding making them very vulnerable. Every year they are
innocently decimated over only 5 weeks when thousands of kids visit the
Beecher Place section of Crescent Beach.

"

"No bigger than a Twoonie
• Crabs that are larger than the size of a Twoonie are not shore or hermit crabs.
• They are most often juvenile Dungeness or Red rock crabs which are legally protected.
• It is against wildlife regulations to remove protected crabs from the ocean for more than the few minutes it takes to ID, size and sex them."
"

[The Guy]

Katie at J&L gave me a tiny white crab about the size of a pencil eraser, I put him in my nano, I've seen him once in 2 months. I'm changing up to a 33 gallon nano soon so I'll have watch for him.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

you're subjecting the poor little crabs to an environment that they are not genetically predisposed to survive in

um, that's kind of what we do in this hobby.

You could argue that due to the extreme difference in temp, it's worse, but really, we are still all doing exactly this.

No need for a high horse.

[noisetherapy]

I looked into this kind of stuff when I went on vacation to Hawaii. Was going to bring back some dead rock to put in my tank.

The laws are nearly identical for Canadian livestock/rock.

Legal reasons: Don't do it, it's illegal.

Ethical reasons: Don't do it, it's biological torture.

There is no one physically stopping you and watching your sneaky endeavours, and you think you're saving yourself money with free livestock. Still not a good idea.