Mine Are Here! Micro Crabs, Lots Of Pics

[keenonfish]

Pippoodle was kind enough to send me a link to an eBay auction, but there's none up there at the moment .

Ta mate

 

[iSnail]

Really jealous of you three-fingers and people who can keep them Please keep us updated on how they get on and any breeding

Great pics of the teeny spiders

 

[~T~]

How are your crabs getting on? I should have mine nest week

 

[three-fingers]

I think they are doing fine .

I saw one yesterday picking stuff of the filter intake lol, and I saw 3 together on Friday while doing some maintenance. I've only seen them a few other times . Seem to have grown a bit already though .

Macrobrachium are really going to town on my cherry shrimp, so I'm going to move them when I get a free tank soon (anyone want them? ), and then hopefully get more micro crabs depending on funds. So I should see them more.

 

[pippoodle]

the crabs do grow quite quickly dont they
i've been seeing mine lately at feeding times they wander off of a moss ball or out from under the wood or drop off the frogbit and come and munch a pellet micro catfish pellet when it's soft
my CRB shrimplets seem to be drawn to them and i keep seeing them sat on the crabs back
trying to take a pic cos it makes the shrimp and the crab look quite big lmao

 

[saltynay]

What sub-species of macrobrachium are they?

 

[three-fingers]

the crabs do grow quite quickly dont they
i've been seeing mine lately at feeding times they wander off of a moss ball or out from under the wood or drop off the frogbit and come and munch a pellet micro catfish pellet when it's soft
my CRB shrimplets seem to be drawn to them and i keep seeing them sat on the crabs back
trying to take a pic cos it makes the shrimp and the crab look quite big lmao

Yep . Which is good because the bigger they are the more likely I am to see them! Mine still don't eat the shrimp food .

What sub-species of macrobrachium are they?

I believe the species is Macrobrachium lanchesteri, cant be 100% sure however. They are full size atm thoug.

Here's one:

Here's a female with eggs:

And here's one enjoying dinner :

 

[saltynay]

Well If your being serious about getting rid of them I wouldn't mind them although the info on them is a bit scarce but M.lanchsteri are vegetarians with very little carnivourous tendencies. To me they look like american glass shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus) or amazonian some other Palaemonetes species.

 

[three-fingers]

I should be OK, I will have spare tanks for them to go in soon anyway. If not, I'll make a classified advert here and send you a PM .

They one of them came in accidentally with wild caught Malaysian rainbow shrimp, the other one was from the same supplier as "Freshwater Prawn". They look exactly the same as M.lanchesteri, and M.lanchesteri is known as the "Malayan riceland prawn" so that's how I ID'd it. Though I don't know how many similar shrimp you can get in Malaysia.

The German info I read said they are just general scavengers and they they may occasionally eat young dwarf shrimp.

 

[saltynay]

I was reading a research journal of using them as an alternative for mass production then M. roserbergii (probably spelt wrong the giant fresh water shrimp which are farmed for food) as they have very low cannibal nature and are not very carnivorous. There are probably 50+ malaysian shrimp species problem is most of them are in research journals which don't favour pictures.

 

[BigTom]

There's a paper I want to get on these guys, but its costs $34.00 lol (which isnt that bad), so for now I cant justify buying that on top of the crabs .

Cool little things. Check your hotmail, there's a wee present there for you

 

[Decschief]

Hi first time poster and hello to all
yea i got me some micro crabs off ebay and unfortuanately i kept me bettas with cherries and gjhosts and never a problem
no soon as i introduced some macrobrachiums and crabs he gota ataste for them .
he needlessly to say gota new tankandnow its strictly shrimp and crabville with the ember tetras
hwoever here is my prob the guy i cought from on ebay had an accident it seems withhis breeding crabs so has no more , i was wondering (as i read in the thread earlier) if you knew anywhere what did them for delivery (im in the midlands if tehre is a lfs there or if tehre is onenear bristol alike that stock thes eguys as i only have oneleft and he is lonely bless)
anyway good stuff and thanks all , peace.

 

[lordofthesea]

does anyone know anyone or anywhere that's selling these? i want some!!!

 

[three-fingers]

I've missed replies to this, sorry!

Just to say a big thanks to Big Tom! Cant believe I missed that post for so long, thanks a lot mate and sorry!
Should make a very interesting read tonight .


Here's a pic I took about an hour ago of a female with eggs:

And here's pics from a couple of days ago (they are a little bigger now and a lot bulkier):