Horseshoe Crab

[hawkeye]

What can you tell me about these? I know they can get huge in the ocean, but what about tanks? What is their growth rate? Are they aggresive? Basically just want some info.
Thanks

 

[blueberryboomer]

Hi Hawkeye, They burrow down in the sand for the most part, and munch on all the little critters in your sand bed. Basicly they are sand siffters. They are not aggrissive at all, pretty cool looking critters. We had on in our reef tank, I don't recommend that, they knock crap off all the time. I'm not really sure how big they can get in a aquarium though. Hope this helps some...Lisa

 

[set-man]

They are really difficult to keep in an aquarium. They need a lot of surface area because they mostly stay on the bottom of the tank. They are clumsy and I agree that they knock stuff over. In short they are not a good aquarium addition.

 

[goofieones]

You can do like I did, when I changed over to sand, I put the decorations in first, and then the sand. This way if the horeshoe bumps into a rock, he can't knock it over. If the rocks are on top of the sand they keep diging under causing the rock to fall. I think they are cool, and as long as they have food to eat, go for it, they will kill all the critters in a live sand bed. I haven't seen mine now for a month!!

 

[blueberryboomer]

We now have one in our 200, he does stay barried most of the time, I think I've seen him out twice since we got him about 1 1/2months ago, as long as you have enough space for him to get down in the sand and move around he should be ok. Lisa

 

[hawkeye]

Then how would you siphon your gravel each month when you don't know where they are at? Wouldn't you just suck them up into the siphon?

 

[blueberryboomer]

Hawkeye, we don't siphon our sand. We've never done it, we have a goby and other critters that take care of that for us..Lisa

 

[coop21]

I can't say anything bad about the horseshoe crab. (at least the ones I have). True, they do feed on your live sand bed, but if you feed them some krill regularly, they'll eat less critters in your sand bed. Clumsy? Yes. Knocking down rocks? Not mine. Get a smaller one and you'll be fine. Growth rate in the aquarium? Not real fast. I still have the same one I rescued from my LFS, and he's not much bigger than before. He eats like a pig, though. Reef safe? Sure, as long as you give them plenty of surface space to run around. If you order one from this site, make sure you specify "small". Good luck. COOP.

 

[johnnysalt]

Coop is right....specify SMALL horseshoe crab. I got one last week from here and his body was just over 2"! (not including the tail) I took the horseshoe to my lfs and he gave me $4.50 for him....so I guess I made 50 cents then!
I had one in our old 40g tank and he never knocked anything over....his body was only an inch wide though.
[ September 28, 2001: Message edited by: JohnnySalt ]