My Puddle

[kyle sicard]

You made the right choice bringing him back. I know there's nothing better then adding new inhabitants but sand sifting stars are more so for established tanks. Without an ample food supply they will starve, they are also very prone to fluxuating water parameters. Good call, you will have a sand sifting star in no time =) check out a royal starfish instead. There pretty cool. Just google em.

 

[56jman]

I have to disagree, they eat all the good microfauna in the SB, get big too

 

[Xraymark]

No worries.

I never ever considered a starfish until the LFS put it into my head, the heathens. No room for spontaneity in this game.


On a better note my pyjama cardinal seems to have settled in. Must stick a pic up.

 

[Xraymark]

Okay update time

Stocking so far

Fish: Pair of clowns (ocellaris), Pyjama cardinal

Inverts: 2 money cowries, 1 Turbo snail, 1 Mexican turbo snail, 2 scarlet legged hermits, 1 Cleaner shrimp

Corals: 1 Super coloured green polyp, 1 ricardea(green), 1 ricardea(orange), 1 zoanthid frag, query type.

Hitchikers: mantis shrimp, query type. Crab, query type.

One death. A turbo snail

At the moment looking at lighting and skimmer options. A far as lighting goes at the moment the mazarra razor R420r(120w)is favourite. It seems a nice fit for the tank. If not that the kessil a350w is a firm favourite as well. Thinking about Lighting is much more sexy than protein skimmers.

Here's my cardinal

+ cleaner shrimp

Can anyone identify this crab cast? Still uncertain of this hitchikers ID.

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[Donya]

Any chance you can you pull that skin out of the water and get a pic without the distortion from the glass angle?

EDIT: actually it looks like some claw shape may be showing up in the last pic but it's still hard to tell whether I'm seeing glass distortion. If a clearer pic isn't possible, knowing which of these claw shapes it has may be good enough (and whether both claws are roughly the same):

Exact prong count and shape inside the claw doesn't matter; that even differs between individuals within a species sometimes.

 

[kyle sicard]

Black tipped claws normally indicate a bad sign. It might be a hairy crab, but a juvenile one. I'd remove him asap and either put him in a refuge or off to the LFS he goes.

 

[Xraymark]

How about this

 

[Donya]

Warning...bluntness to follow.

Black tipped claws normally indicate a bad sign. It might be a hairy crab, but a juvenile one.

This is hobby lore that needs to stop being spread. There are plenty of safe crabs with black claws (e.g. Chlorodiella) and there are plenty of hairy crabs that are safe (e.g. Mithracids and several Pilumnus species). "Hairy crab" is not a way to ID a crab - there are many species of different temperments with overlapping common names with the word "hairy" involved. Similarly, the feared name of "gorilla crab" is not an ID either. The idea that you can determine a crab's temperment from color and hair is a myth that has resulted in many hitchhiker crabs suffering undeserved deaths when they probably would have existed peacefully.

This is not to say the crab won't need to be removed if it turns out to be something that grows too large or is known for having a nasty temperment, but people are often overexcited to get rid of crabs because of the hobby-level mythology surrounding them. Many tanks have small crabs living in them that probably haven't been noticed. This has happened in many of my tanks and I didn't even find them for over a year, possibly longer in one of my tanks (all of them hairy with black claws, and all still happily living where they showed up).

 

[Donya]

How about this

Those should do the job! I think I know where this one will land but I'll be back in a bit after some checking.

 

[ainsy]

I am with Donya - Black tips to the claws are not an indicator of a 'nasty'

 

[Xraymark]

Love the suspense.

100 meters Olympics are on people.

 

[kyle sicard]

Well i apologize for spreading mythology of tanks, but nonethelees I'd personally remove him and either put him in a refuge or bring him to the LFS untill you can get a positive id. I'd rather be safe then sorry. That is merely an opinion. But good luck and tank looks great btw. Hopefully he is a hitch hiker that plays nice.

 

[Xraymark]

LOL. I can't catch him anyway.
I've tried the bottle cut and inverted trap and used a glass with some food but no go.

 

[Donya]

Guess #1: let's try Chlorodiella, maybe C. cytherea. Bear in mind that this guess has been made while having not had my evening coffee yet and the only Chlorodiella speices I've actually seen in person is C. nigra (which I don't think this one is). Chlorodiella species have very Mithraculus-like claws that have the tips of the far right claw in that pic I posted, but many I've seen pictures of have the gap in the middle filled in a bit more - so not as much arc as in the classic Mithraculus sculptus. If it is in Chlorodiella, those are behaviorally very similar to Mithraculus crabs (mithrax). Give this a look and see what you think: http://decapoda.free.fr/illustration.php?n=2&sp=161

 

[Xraymark]

It might be Donya.
Although on a previous image of the live crab legs they don't appear to be as hairy as the C. cytherea. But maybe the camera isn't picking up on that. The claws look similiar though. I may need a proper pic for a divinitive ID.

I feel my tank is housing juvenile delinquents(mantis and crab) that when they get older may wreck the place. LOL.