well found a crab hiding in a piece of live rock. have demoted him to the sump tank as think its a gorilla crab and not reef safe, any confirmation or knowledge as to type of crab

tried some cat kibble but found that floats, so it is now munching on some ham. thinking if I leave it in the sump tank it will eat any detritus that gets down there

Wouldn't be putting ham ( or bacon for that matter) any where near a tank it's cured with sodium nitrite . It's toxic to fish and inverts

but it tastes nice

oopps, thanks for the heads up, no idea what to feed him now? Still in the early stages of setting up tank so hopefully any damage the small piece of ham has done will be sorted before any fish go in.

This is the tank atm

It will give your tank something to cycle with :dnc1: perhaps a small pinch of fish food scope times a week to feed him or cut up a mussel finely again not too much at a time (you can freeze the rest of it and just hack a little bit off

It may also eat algae in your tank

It may eat peas(with no skin)

at the moment having your tank bare like it is for the cycle process i'd probably have the crab in the main tank... this way you have "some" life in there and you feel less inclined to populate the tank early. this also gives you time to work out what he is and decide if you want to keep him or pass him on.

Primo looking tank by the way, I can see good things coming there

my crab likes to steal earthworms off my fish ,give them a tug like your milking a cow to get rid of the dirt inside them first :thup:

I'm not 100% but think they like munching on leather corals yum...

have some brittle cone star fish and some brine shrimp in the tank,off the live rock, I don't want him to eat so for the moment really do want to keep him in the sump. Shall get some mussels for him - good excuse to buy some for me!

it looks like a Grumpy Crab to me :slfg:

This is why marine tanks are so interesting to me, all sorts of weird and wonderful creepy crawlies come out of the woodwork! (Or should that be rockwork?)

I bought two large pieces of live rock on the weekend and after inspecting it all prior to putting in, I found one of these hiding in it too. Quite amazing how it managed to squeeze into the crevace it was in!! Didn't want it in the tank trying to take a nip out of a seahorse so managed to pry it out with some tweezers. Body was about 30mm across. Some big pincers on it!

Put some pics of the seahorses please :bggrn:

Put some pics of the seahorses please :bggrn:

Forget the seahorses, they're overrated, pics of the crab, please!

Forget the crab, they're overrated, pics of the seahorses, please!

Forget reptilez, he is overrated, pics of the crab please!

Would someone just give Ira the crabs to shut him up? :gigl:

I'll try take a pic of the 'horse tonight. Didn't take a pic of the crab sadly!

Sorry didn't mean to go off topic!!!

I'll try take a pic of the 'horse tonight. Didn't take a pic of the crab sadly!

Sorry didn't mean to go off topic!!!

awesome :dnc1:

There you go

:love: So cute!

what's the chainlink thingie on the right?

i believe its a hitching post for them to wrap their tail around to keep em curly ?

Yup, just plastic chain weighted down - makes a great hitching post. Since they are still very small, they can easily hold on to the coral rock, candy cane, and finger leather too. There are plenty of caves to hide in as well to keep out of the current as they can get tired! The outlet nozzle from the pump is angled horizontally and the wavemaker intensity is also turn down so the current in the tank is quite mild so they don't get blown around!