Horseshoe crabs

[emkolar]

I have a question about horshshoe crabs. I live out side of Corpus Christi TX and a new marine aquerium store just opened. This store has horseshoe crabs, I hear they are excelent sand sifters but get very large. I want to know a little more about them, if any one has any experance with them please let me know. My tank is a 55gal. with 60-70lbs. of live rock softies and stonies and a 260 watt aqua lunar compact floresent fixture. I don't have many fish though, sence I just had a battle with green hair alge that I am getting over. I have a pair or clowns a green cromis and a cardinal. I hope this info. may help with the info. yall can provide me on the crabs and if they will work in my tank.

Thank you,

Eric

[dustint21]

First welcome to MAAST!! Lots of nice and informative people here!

I dont think this will be a good idea for your 55 gallon with that much live rock! That is not enough room for him to move around freely! I pulled this off of www.liveaquaria.com (http://www.liveaquaria.com) This is a pretty decent site to get info on fish and inverts. They do say these that alot of stuff is reef safe "with caution" so watch what you buy!!! Hope this helps!

The Horseshoe Crab is greenish brown to light tan in color. The dorsal part of the body is rounded, and it has a long spike for a tail. The Horseshoe Crab is really not a crab, but more closely related to spiders and mites, belonging to a group of animals called chelicerates. Horseshoe Crabs can grow quite large. The female horseshoe crabs usually grow larger than the males, with their body reaching a maximum size of 12 inches in diameter. When small, they are very efficient scavengers and are great for aerating and maintaining sand beds.
The Horseshoe Crabs dig through sand and gravel in search of worms and any organic debris. It will move the substrate around almost nonstop in its search for food. They are reef safe, but when they attain a large size, can be harmful to fish and invertebrates, especially worms and clams.
Although it may find some food scavenging, its diet should be supplemented with meaty items such as pieces of squid and shrimp.

[emkolar]

Thanks for the help. I recently found out about this site. The site I was using was out of Califorina it was called cvreefers.org and they provide a lot of good info but it is nice being able to talk to some one closer to home. Thanks for the welcome and for the help with the Horseshoe crab issue.

[jc]

I've read that once they eat everything in the sand they slowly starve to death.

[aquasport24]

Yeah, it's kind of ironic sometimes that you can't always have what you want in this hobby. I've always wanted a imperator angel, but i like my LPS so much at the same time.

[glennr1978]

I saw one of those guys at Aquarium Masters too. Really cool little animal, but probably wouldn't fair well in my tank.

[emkolar]

glennr1978 are you from corpus? and what kind of tank do you have? It is nice to see some competition in town and a few different fish I have never seen. what do you think about the store?

[DrMark]

glennr1978 are you from corpus? and what kind of tank do you have? It is nice to see some competition in town and a few different fish I have never seen. what do you think about the store?

welcome!
there are a few of us in Corpus that are active on this site. I have got to know Erik from Aquarium Masters and like him. He will give charter members of MAAST a discount (need the membership card).
mark

[captexas]

I've heard that horseshoe craps also tend to be very clumbsy and will knock over rock and corals.

[emkolar]

welcome!
there are a few of us in Corpus that are active on this site. I have got to know Erik from Aquarium Masters and like him. He will give charter members of MAAST a discount (need the membership card).
mark
I also like the store and have met Eric and his wife. The store is starting to come together. I was in there today and it looks like there will be more display tanks that are currently being set up. Eric's wife also told me that if there is any thing that you want special ordered that they would gladly do that. Tropical Fish Haven would always tell me that that was to hard to do and that they weren't guaranteed to get any thing, so that is a nice touch for Aquarium Masters to have. Thanks for the reply all of yall's info really does help.

Thanks,
Eric

[klondike4001]

I've had one for about a year and a half now, first in the fuge in my 29 gallon, now in the fuge on my 90 gallon system, he's a great sand sifter, doesn't medssw/ anything in the fuge, I do feed him a cocktail shrimp per week and he seems heppy with that

[p00num3lli]

yea, most end up just starving unless you feed it. they are good sand sifters(or so ive heard)but they are good at knocking over your rock work also when they get large.

[Kyle46N]

They do an excellent job of sand sifting, but the two I have had died in a couple of months. Maybe they starved to death, I don't know. I didn't spot feed them, so that could be it. They do grow fast though. The ones I had shed every couple of weeks while I had them. And grew quite a bit every time they shed.