decorator crab help
- Thread starter steel
- Start date
dockery07
Active Member
A decorator crab will take just about anything, mushrooms, polyps, xenia and so on. He just clips it off and moves on. They normally do not kill what they take since it is pretty percise. I am not sure about anything else with them, I only had one and never really saw it much.
scotts
Active Member
I had a decorator crab (SOB fish killed it). He tooks some zoonathids and put them on him. The only problem that I was thinkg of is that the zoos were growing and how was I going to cut the zoos off it if they got too big. Unfotunately I never had that problem. BTW got rid of that damn fish.
Scott
Scott
robchuck
Active Member
Decorator crabs take whatever is available to them to camoflage themselves. They don't care if they have to chop up your prized coral, they just don't want to be seen. These crabs typically look for something soft to place on their backs, and it doesn't necesarily have to be a coral, though in a reef you will usually see them mounting mushrooms, zoas, polyps, xenia, etc. on their backs.
I've had two decorator crabs over the years. The first one was about 15 years ago and was sold as a Sponge Crab. The LFS I bought it from also sold brightly colored non-toxic sponges that could be placed in the tank for the crab to decorate itself with. That was a fun experience until the crab just up and disappeared one day.
I decided to try another one about a year and a half ago in a FOWLR. Within two hours of placing the crab in the tank, it had taken apart two feather dusters and placed the pieces all over its back. This crab also mysteriously disappeared after a few months.
I've had two decorator crabs over the years. The first one was about 15 years ago and was sold as a Sponge Crab. The LFS I bought it from also sold brightly colored non-toxic sponges that could be placed in the tank for the crab to decorate itself with. That was a fun experience until the crab just up and disappeared one day.
I decided to try another one about a year and a half ago in a FOWLR. Within two hours of placing the crab in the tank, it had taken apart two feather dusters and placed the pieces all over its back. This crab also mysteriously disappeared after a few months.
shels
Member
I had a decorator crab for about 2 years, then I had to take it back to the Fish store. She was living in display tank, and older man bought the whole set up. My LFS still sees her because they service this mans tank.
It was the funniest crab, don't get me wrong if made me mad several times. But I do miss her. She stole all the feathers off the feather dusters and had them on her head. My husband thought it was great, said she looked like an indian sitting on top of the LR. She clipped all the mushrooms off and had them placed all around her in a perfect circle. She even had them on her knees. She stole the anemone from the clowns and wore that for a few days. The best was when she molted, she was sitting on top of the LR taking all her stuff of the molt she just came out of.
She started taking out some fish, I was afraid she would kill more so I took her back to LFS. That is where I found out she was a girl, they said she was looking to mate with another crab and the fish had something she craved. She killed 3 blue spotted jawfish. She was sitting once agian as proud as can be up on the LR eating the jawfish.
She was huge, when I bought her she was about the size of a 50 cent piece. When I got rid of her she had a leg span of about 5 1/2 ". She kinda looked like a alaska snow crab.
I have not seen one like her since. My husband would kill me if I brought another one home.
It was the funniest crab, don't get me wrong if made me mad several times. But I do miss her. She stole all the feathers off the feather dusters and had them on her head. My husband thought it was great, said she looked like an indian sitting on top of the LR. She clipped all the mushrooms off and had them placed all around her in a perfect circle. She even had them on her knees. She stole the anemone from the clowns and wore that for a few days. The best was when she molted, she was sitting on top of the LR taking all her stuff of the molt she just came out of.
She started taking out some fish, I was afraid she would kill more so I took her back to LFS. That is where I found out she was a girl, they said she was looking to mate with another crab and the fish had something she craved. She killed 3 blue spotted jawfish. She was sitting once agian as proud as can be up on the LR eating the jawfish.
She was huge, when I bought her she was about the size of a 50 cent piece. When I got rid of her she had a leg span of about 5 1/2 ". She kinda looked like a alaska snow crab.
I have not seen one like her since. My husband would kill me if I brought another one home.