Anyone have a sump crab they love?

Niteowl · Mar 10, 2020

I’ve had this sump crab for about2 years. Recently he ( or she) stoped eating. Every other day I give him a shrimp or a silverside. For 4 days he wouldn’t take it. Right away I was thinking “what’s wrong”. Water test , good. Other crabs are eating what the heck. Woke up yesterday to see his molt. If he wasn’t sitting right next to it I would have thought he was dead. So happy he’s alive and eating. I know “its just a crab” buts he’s rad.

Mastiffsrule · Mar 12, 2020

That is a big guy.

i was going to put an urchin and a gorilla crab in my sump but it not set up as a refuge so i decided against it.

Paulie069 · Mar 12, 2020

Niteowl said:
I’ve had this sump crab for about2 years. Recently he ( or she) stoped eating. Every other day I give him a shrimp or a silverside. For 4 days he wouldn’t take it. Right away I was thinking “what’s wrong”. Water test , good. Other crabs are eating what the heck. Woke up yesterday to see his molt. If he wasn’t sitting right next to it I would have thought he was dead. So happy he’s alive and eating. I know “its just a crab” buts he’s rad.

Hmm sump crabs?? Tell me more, there’s even more to feed my addiction

Niteowl · Mar 12, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
That is a big guy.

i was going to put an urchin and a gorilla crab in my sump but it not set up as a refuge so i decided against it.

I use to have different macro algae in this part of the sump. It measures 17x12x14. After he ate the macro I just put exter rock in for him. There are 3 large crabs in there but he’s the biggest

Brad Waddell Wrath's Reef · Mar 12, 2020

Every unruly Hermit crab I have gets sent to the prison (sump) lol. When they start killing each other or snails, they do time! Yes, I have empty shells for them and still kill each other lol. Little jerks!

Paulie069 · Mar 12, 2020

Wrath said:
Every unruly Hermit crab I have gets sent to the prison (sump) lol. When they start killing each other or snails, they do time! Yes, I have empty shells for them and still kill each other lol. Little ********!

Ok so what kind of crab would you folks recommend to start with,, do you have to have pairs , least certain size, and do I need to add anything special to sump for their habitat This is how I’m setup
Intake chamber with sock and motor pump for UV light, protein skimmer chamber with return hose from UV light to help flow for next chamber which houses the cheato ( refugium) then two baffles inch apart with one inch height difference water flows under second baffle into return pump chamber. Well that’s my sump, so what kind of crab to get ??
Ps I get all kinds of different crabs in my fishing nets

robbyg · Mar 12, 2020

I use to think that Hermit Crabs would just look for a shell that was bigger than theirs and deal with the extra weight etc until they grew enough to manage it properly. Little did I know just how picky they are in finding the right sized shell. So you ask yourself how can this be? I mean what are the odds of a crab finding a shell that is the right size, it seems impossible? Maybe Not!

My guess is that sometimes when crab cannot find a shell that suit them, they basically diet so they do not get squeezed to death. It's also possible that they will kill each other as a last resort to get a new shell. Without it they are doomed to die.

Paulie069 · Mar 12, 2020

robbyg said:
I use to think that Hermit Crabs would just look for a shell that was bigger than theirs and deal with the extra weight etc until they grew enough to manage it properly. Little did I know just how picky they are in finding the right sized shell. So you ask yourself how can this be? I mean what are the odds of a crab finding a shell that is the right size, it seems impossible? Maybe Not!

My guess is that sometimes when crab cannot find a shell that suit them, they basically diet so they do not get squeezed to death. It's also possible that they will kill each other as a last resort to get a new shell. Without it they are doomed to die.

That is so funny you posted that, I was just looking at my tank with infeblue flashlight and couldn’t believe how big on of my blue legged hermits got. When I pithiness in tank all we’re size of popcorn kernel,, now I see one in good size snail shell ( I put bunch empty shells of all sizes of shells) that I get from boat. So cool my little world in a box

WSM · Mar 16, 2020

That video was so interesting. Thanks for the share

Mgex · Apr 4, 2020

Paulie069 said:
Hmm sump crabs?? Tell me more, there’s even more to feed my addiction

The crab that he is calling a sump crab is actually what looks to be a thin striped hermit crab from the carribean their minimum tank size is 10 gallon and they can grow to 5 inches (i only know what they were because we used to catch them all the time in my marine science class last year ) however do not put them in the display i had some and they ate a fish and corals

Niteowl · Apr 4, 2020

Mgex said:
The crab that he is calling a sump crab is actually what looks to be a thin striped hermit crab from the carribean their minimum tank size is 10 gallon and they can grow to 5 inches (i only know what they were because we used to catch them all the time in my marine science class last year ) however do not put them in the display i had some and they ate a fish and corals

This is true. They were brought home from island camping here on the Gulf coast of Fl. My kids would walk the island for shells. Later found hermit crabs inside some and made a area for them in the sump.

Mgex · Apr 4, 2020

Niteowl said:
This is true. They were brought home from island camping here on the Gulf coast of Fl. My kids would walk the island for shells. Later found hermit crabs inside some and made a area for them in the sump.

I had some in my tank they destroy algae but they had to go when they found corals appealing