Arrow crab?

[littlehermit0]

I found one at the LFS, immediately got interested but I've never thought of having one, so are they reef safe? Can they live in a pretty small tank? What do they eat or do in my tank? Are they the same as hermit crabs, like hardy or something?

 

[JNalley]

what is a "Pretty small tank"?

I love my arrow, he recently died though, not sure if it was starvation or just old age. They eat bristle worms, which is why I got him, they also eat other meaty bits (which I feed frozen regularly but was gone for a week with auto-feeder on pellets).

 

[littlehermit0]

what is a "Pretty small tank"?

I love my arrow, he recently died though, not sure if it was starvation or just old age. They eat bristle worms, which is why I got him, they also eat other meaty bits (which I feed frozen regularly but was gone for a week with auto-feeder on pellets).

Bristle worms wow, I have a lot of them, I have Artemia and pellets, and I have a 6 gallon tank that will soon transfer into a 12 gallon, the LFS keeps him in a 6 gallon too, will they tolerate high nitrates and low pH? It's the only problem right now

 

[JNalley]

Bristle worms wow, I have a lot of them, I have Artemia and pellets, and I have a 6 gallon tank that will soon transfer into a 12 gallon, the LFS keeps him in a 6 gallon too

I mean, never go by what the LFS keeps them in, they keep fish/critters in small tanks because they expect to sell them to a forever home. I don't think I'd keep one in a 6 or 12 gallon personally, but that's more out of my own abundance of caution. Mine stayed pretty local to one set of rocks in 48 gallon tank though, so who knows.

 

[littlehermit0]

I mean, never go by what the LFS keeps them in, they keep fish/critters in small tanks because they expect to sell them to a forever home. I don't think I'd keep one in a 6 or 12 gallon personally, but that's more out of my own abundance of caution. Mine stayed pretty local to one set of rocks in 48 gallon tank though, so who knows.

You're right, but will they tolerate high nitrates and low pH? Are they as hardy as hermit crabs?

 

[JNalley]

You're right, but will they tolerate high nitrates and low pH? Are they as hardy as hermit crabs?

Mine was in a tank where nitrates are around 20-25 and Phosphates are hovering around 0.1-0.2, had it for 2-3 years running that way.

 

[littlehermit0]

Mine was in a tank where nitrates are around 20-25 and Phosphates are hovering around 0.1-0.2, had it for 2-3 years running that way.

Oh so I'm not the only one, my nitrates are weird, I put Waste away, do big water changes, literally try everything and it got from 25 to 50...

 

[JNalley]

Oh so I'm not the only one, my nitrates are weird, I put Waste away, do big water changes, literally try everything and it got from 25 to 50...

To me that indicates you're feeding too much and don't have enough filtration to get it out. Small tanks like that are hard to maintain nitrates in because any uneaten food adds to the problem. For instance, if I feed 3-4 extra pellets that don't get eaten, it might raise my nitrates by lets say 4ppm, but my tank is 10 times bigger than yours, so it would raise yours by 40ppm. Small tanks are just harder to keep...

 

[littlehermit0]

To me that indicates you're feeding too much and don't have enough filtration to get it out. Small tanks like that are hard to maintain nitrates in because any uneaten food adds to the problem. For instance, if I feed 3-4 extra pellets that don't get eaten, it might raise my nitrates by lets say 4ppm, but my tank is 10 times bigger than yours, so it would raise yours by 40ppm. Small tanks are just harder to keep...

I thought they were easier, and my filtration is not that good, you know these goldfish internal filters? I have 2 of them, one with sponge and ceramic, second one with sponge and activated carbon, also a big pump with sponge, so 3 filters, it's because I don't have a sump yet, I have one but it's freshwater only :(

 

[JNalley]

I thought they were easier, and my filtration is not that good, you know these goldfish internal filters? I have 2 of them, one with sponge and ceramic, second one with sponge and activated carbon, also a big pump with sponge, so 3 filters

Definitely not easier... you get much larger swings in them because there's not enough water volume to disperse any "accidents" through.

 

[littlehermit0]

Definitely not easier... you get much larger swings in them because there's not enough water volume to disperse any "accidents" through.

Ohh yeah... I understand so much now, small tank volume, so logic

 

[krollins]

I have a Frilly arrow crab in my 75 gallon. Frilly arrow crabs are less of a risk to fish because of how slow they move, but more of a risk with corals. To keep arrow crabs with fish, I would recommend a 40 gallon+ tank so the fish can escape if the arrow crab decides to attack.

 

[littlefoxx]

I found one at the LFS, immediately got interested but I've never thought of having one, so are they reef safe? Can they live in a pretty small tank? What do they eat or do in my tank? Are they the same as hermit crabs, like hardy or something?

They get really big, eat bristleworms, can kill/eat smaller fish