collecting crabs

[Paul B]

Since there is no crab forum I decided to put this here. Here are local New York crabs that I keep in an experimental half mud half water tank. I have always kept one of these tanks and find it more interesting than my reef. These are fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, and Japanese shore crabs. There are also blue crabs snails and grass shrimp. The Japanese shore crabs escaped from a freighter in NY harbor about 20 years ago, now they took over all water in NY and have replaced the green crabs that were under every rock. The Japanese shore crabs look somewhat like sally lightfoot crabs and have similar habits. I don't collect hermit crabs because these do not do too well in a warm tank. The horseshoe crabs I will return to the sea..
Paul
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Copy_of_crabs_002.jpg

[mgchan]

That's a neat collection. It's amazing what we have here locally in NY.

Last summer I picked up a few long-clawed hermit crabs & periwinkle snails out in Aquebogue, LI (my sister-in-law has a summer home out there) and added them in my tank. They may not be as fancy as the other hermit crabs and snails in the tank but they do the same job. If anything, they're perfect for use in a refugium.

Most recently I picked up 3 little horseshoe crabs, from 3/4" - 1 1/4" in width. When they get too large, I'll return them to the ocean but for now they're scuttling back and forth... eating the detrius and keeping the sand clean.

[Paul B]

I have kept fiddlers for over a year but in a tank with the Japanese crabs you need mud areas and water areas or he fiddler crabs don't stand a chance. Also the blue crabs (the eating kind) are real interesting. Mine grew 5" in one year, then I let it go where I collected it. I am working on makine a larger salt marsh tank.
Paul

[Dinnin]

my first Saltwater tank was a blue crab............let her go just a couple of weeks ago

[Paul B]

Yesterday I was out in my boat and before I left the dock I noticed thousands of baby crabs on the lines of the boat and on the fenders. They were about 1/8th inch long and they swim pretty fast. At first I thought they were amphipods and I started to collect them but they are definately crabs in the last planktonic stage where they are starting to stop swimming and starting to settle down on the bottom. I collected a few dozen to put in my crab tank to see if I could raise them. Under the microscope they seem to be Japanese shore crabs, like we don't have enough of these already.
Paul B

[SaltwaterSensei]

wow Paul Thats very neat idea, I've always wanted to keep fiddlers, I love how the males with the big claw wave it at the females....

At certain pet stores I've seen these very pretty red, purple and black fiddlers that just amazingly beautiful.... Maybe I'll set up a small 20L for some...but thats way in the future :) :) :) :) :)

[DLreefer]

Can someone give me a description of Japanese Shore crab. I think that might be the mystery crab in my tank.

[Paul B]

It's the crab in the bottom right of the picture. Also the bottom left. They are kind of flat almost like a sally lightfoot crab but not quite as flat. They can also climb out of the tank. The can run fast too. Paul

[Noon Taken Ova]

Thats really cool..
I live pretty close to the beach (close as in.. 15 minutes) in NJ and I have gone collecting for crabs a few times. I havent found anything that cool, but when I went up to North NJ I found tons of cool crabs that looked like emerald crabs. I was suprised that we dont have them down by me.

[Mike O'Brien]

I live on the coast of MA, and I have several local hermits that have been alive for over two years in my tank. I also use the nassarius obsoletus snails that completely cover the shallows. I did try the japanese shore crab too, but they began eating my fish, and my wife used to overfeed the tank while I was at work to watch the crabs fight over food.

[PupChow]

Really cool! Any picture of your crab tank?

[Paul B]

I never took any pictures of my crab tank but I have always had one. Even before I had a reef. I live near the sea and I always found them interesting. The tank is a ten gallon and I made a concrete partition about 6" high and half way across the bottom. Half the tank is water with the rest sand. The crabs easily climb up the concrete. There is a small powerhead which pumps the water to the sand side where it flows down under the cement back to the water side. When I change water in my reef I use the discarded water to change the crab tank. There is only a few gallons of water in it. I would like to build a larger salt marsh as soon as I get time. Crabs I can get by the thousands but there are some unusual kinds that I don't have this year but the season is not over yet.
Paul

[PupChow]

That sounds really cool! I had thoughts about making a magrove reef in the past, but gave that up... Are there tidepools around the NY area? I have always wanted to visit a tidepool but I don't think there's any around my location (Maryland).

[Paul B]

PupChow, there are plenty of tide pools in New York. The tide goes up about 8' and we have a lot of wet lands that are protected from building anything and most of them you need a boat to get to so people do not get there much. The sandy ocean south shore of Long Island has entirely different animals than the rocky north shore. We also get a good share of tropical fish like puffers, triggers, files, needlefish and butterflies.
Seahorses are fairly common on the sand flats of the south shore.
There is a bay in the Bronx a few miles across which is totally uninhabited surrounded by forest and islands right in the NY city limits. If you are anchored in there you would swear you were in Alaska.
Paul
Paul

[PupChow]

That is awesome! I will have to talk to some friends and see about making a trip to NY. ;)

[Paul B]

I'm sure there are tidepools in Maryland.
Paul

[ChaosReefer]

anyone have a map of some of these areas etc. I never heard of most of these places you talk of and ive lived there for 15 years(albeit the first 15 years) i now live in NJ but go to visit family in NY alot

[Paul B]

Chaos, all of the areas I am speaking of are between New Rochelle and Port Washington in the Western LI Sound. The Southern tip of Manhasset bay is a great tide pool as is Cow bay which is private but you can walk to it from a boat if they don't chase you. Huchleberry Island 1/4 mile just south east of Glen Island is good collecting.
Paul

[donald altman]

I have a crab tank too it is Very fun... mine is 20 gallons...
I have black fingered mud crabs.. long armed fiddler crabs
bay crabs, zebra hermits and some porcelin crabs....

ther eis alot of movement in the tank... fun to watch them bulldoze the oyster rocks and dig holes and rummage...

[Paul B]

I find the rock crabs most interesting. I don't have any right now because they got too large and I returned them to the sea. They grow fast. I can only get them on the south shore of Long Island. They kind of look like Alaskan king crabs but of course much smaller and you can't eat these. I can collect fiddlers by the thousands if I wanted to and they sell them by the pint or quart for bait.
Paul