Decorator Crab

[fishfarmer]

I picked up a few freebies this week, this decorator crab, sponge, couple sea rods, and about 20 mini brittle stars. I'm keeping an eye on this crab, she made her new hat out of the sponge and I watched her try to bend off some of the purple sea rod, note the top of the second left strand. She couldn't break it, but did have it bent over a bit. She snipped off a small colt coral and attached that to her left side. I also think she is tending some eggs on her underside.

[christmasclowns]

been thinking about getting one for a while really cool crab thanks for sharing

[The Saltwater Kid]

Cool critters but not really reef-safe.

[Erik]

Ahahaha! Awesome

[fishfarmer]

I now have a colt coral frag with crab attached .

For the first week or two, the crab stayed on one side of the tank, completely ignoring the nepthia it was hiding in. It did take a small frag of colt and stick it on it's side. So I kept daily watch.

One day last week the crab decides to check out the other side of the tank, where it completely tears apart a 3" colt frag and attach most of it to it's back. Then went over to one of two brown button polyps I've had for about ten years and snips one of those off.

So off to crab jail you go...of course since it has a good portion of colt on it's back I couldn't toss it in a dark sump and my refuge tank has seagrasses it could destroy as well.

So I found a deal on a 2.5 gallon eclipse tank, which is where the crab and it's colt coat now reside.

[joel1234567]

Nice. Poor guy, sitting in crab jail
You have any new pics?

[fishfarmer]

This pic is a couple weeks old, but the crab is still doing well in the 2.5 gal eclipse.

And the stray colt frags that were rolling around in the main tank are doing fine, as well as the bulletproof button polyps that got snipped. Perhaps this crab would work well as an all natural approach to fragging!