decorator crab

[zeal]

hey guys
i was woundering about decorator crabs are they reef safe and how big of a tank do they need ect if any one has one and is willing to post a pic it would be awsome

 

[Bruno]

http://www.divegallery.com/decorator.htm

Reef Safe: With Caution

 

[molsen187]

i've heard that if you have soft coral they may take a chunk of it for part of their camo.

 

[kevinpratt823]

I bought this cool little red crab that came in with a shipment at an LFS, about the size of your average strawberry. The next day I noticed my white spaghetti leather had fallen to the sandbed. I reached in to pick it up, and the leather ran away into the rocks. The little jerk chopped it down at the base and stuck it to his back!(Immediate eviction for him).

 

[zeal]

ya im setting up a 60 gallon cube and not planing on corals or polyps. think im going to do fish and hardy invert tank. would this crab be good for this tank.

 

[willray]

Most decorator crabs are aggressive little critters.

 

[molsen187]

i think if you just had fish and other inverts it would be fine. i don't have to much experience with them personally but i would think they would be better without corals. they just use whatever is in the tank for camo so if you have a lot of coral they will use them. if no corals they'll use something else to make them camo with your tank.

 

[ohsweetmadness]

i had a decorator crab in my 75g reef. he was a cool creature but he absolutely helped himself to frags of every type- zoas, anthelia, macro algae. he didn't really do "damage" to anything, but he definitely was like a walking frag generator.

 

[Jocko]

I had one as a hitchhiker on some Florida live rock. He was hilarious and slow like a sloth. He never bothered anyone but if somebody got to close to him he'd punch them. But I assume this is a different species than what is usually sold, so maybe other types are not as laid back as he was.

 

[Haypoo]

hes the blob of zoas in my tank

spider decorator crab i saw at SP