Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
Yep! Neat little crab
Ron Reefman's Rock Flower experience
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Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
The picture is kind of dark, but it does look like a mini maxi carpet.
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
Rock flower anemones don’t split, so that helps answer the ID. I suppose that depends on the fish and how smart they are. I’m sure it would eat one if it caught it. I have read of it happening before.
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Ron Reefman
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Yes, I do believe that is a porcelain crab. They have what look like 'flattened' claws. They also don't get very big and are mostly CUC or are considered filter feeders. This is just my experience, but I find them to be a lot like serpent stars. They are cool as heck, but you only rarely get to see them in the tank as they are small and tend to hide for self preservation! I also think that's probably a mini maxi anemone. At full size they are smaller than RFA's. I have 3 in my tank along with 4 small fish and they have never been an issue.
In the winter I get to collect these when we do beach walks out on Sanibel Island after a cold front goes through SW Florida. We only get a handful of cold fronts and only in the dry season... winter to any northern readers. That's when we get a strong west or northwest wind for more than just a few hours. That washes shells, sponges, gorgonians, live mollusks, sand dollars, sea stars, sea cucumbers, anemones and sometimes even 200+ pound crab traps up onto the beach! This photo is from a few years ago and many crab traps washed up. They have concrete in the bottom so they sink well and are fairly stable on the bottom. On the rare occasion that they do wash up, locals will stack them together and the crabbers will come out and collect them. BTW, notice the nice sunny day, with long shadows of early morning, oh, and the wetsuit and light winter jacket for a beach walk! Although the same morning there were lots of 'shell collectors' from up north, on vacation, and out in the sun in shorts and even bathing suits. Hey, it's way warmer down here after a cold front than it is in North Dakota on a really warm winter day!
I take a 5g bucket with a battery powered bubbler to the beach and start looking for soft orange sponges. BTW, almost all sponges that are removed from the water are already destined to die. Air gets into the incurrent pores and even when put back in the water, they can't clear the air and they kind of 'vapor lock'. They can't intake water, so they can't feed and eventually they deteriorate and die. It can happen in a few days or it can take a month or two. Anyway, we (several members in our local aquarium club do this) find these small soft sponges on the beach and tear them open. Inside we find lots of porcelain crabs. From incredibly small youngsters to almost adults. We also find some pistol shrimp, an occasional peppermint shrimp (very occasional) and quite a fet tiny young serpent and brittle stars.
The crabs survive quite well in barely damp sponges on the beach. Shrimp do almost as well in my experience. Unfortunately stars don't tolerate being out of the water nearly as well, even in a wet sponge. I've collected a lot and I'd guess 98% of the porcelain crabs survive, about 65% of the shrimp and only 20% of the stars, maybe even less. But if left in the sponge on the beach they would be left in the sun and wind (remember, this is after a cold front passes) until the next high tide or even longer. That means most of these critters were going to dry out completely and die to become food for the shore birds.
One time my wife and I came home with the legal limit of 20 porcelain crabs each. As I was putting them into our 180g tank at home, she asked if the local stores sold porcelain crabs. I told her I'd never seen them for sale anywhere local but some online sellers had them. So she went to Drs Foster & Smith and they were listed at $18/each. At that price, our beach walk (in the 40 degree, early morning, near low tide) netted us $700 in porcelain crabs. Unfortunately, in our tank, they all disappeared into the massive rockscape to almost never be seen again. Well, except on the rare occasion that I would pull out a coral or a rock with a coral attached to it and there would be a porcelain crab hanging on!
In the winter I get to collect these when we do beach walks out on Sanibel Island after a cold front goes through SW Florida. We only get a handful of cold fronts and only in the dry season... winter to any northern readers. That's when we get a strong west or northwest wind for more than just a few hours. That washes shells, sponges, gorgonians, live mollusks, sand dollars, sea stars, sea cucumbers, anemones and sometimes even 200+ pound crab traps up onto the beach! This photo is from a few years ago and many crab traps washed up. They have concrete in the bottom so they sink well and are fairly stable on the bottom. On the rare occasion that they do wash up, locals will stack them together and the crabbers will come out and collect them. BTW, notice the nice sunny day, with long shadows of early morning, oh, and the wetsuit and light winter jacket for a beach walk! Although the same morning there were lots of 'shell collectors' from up north, on vacation, and out in the sun in shorts and even bathing suits. Hey, it's way warmer down here after a cold front than it is in North Dakota on a really warm winter day!
I take a 5g bucket with a battery powered bubbler to the beach and start looking for soft orange sponges. BTW, almost all sponges that are removed from the water are already destined to die. Air gets into the incurrent pores and even when put back in the water, they can't clear the air and they kind of 'vapor lock'. They can't intake water, so they can't feed and eventually they deteriorate and die. It can happen in a few days or it can take a month or two. Anyway, we (several members in our local aquarium club do this) find these small soft sponges on the beach and tear them open. Inside we find lots of porcelain crabs. From incredibly small youngsters to almost adults. We also find some pistol shrimp, an occasional peppermint shrimp (very occasional) and quite a fet tiny young serpent and brittle stars.
The crabs survive quite well in barely damp sponges on the beach. Shrimp do almost as well in my experience. Unfortunately stars don't tolerate being out of the water nearly as well, even in a wet sponge. I've collected a lot and I'd guess 98% of the porcelain crabs survive, about 65% of the shrimp and only 20% of the stars, maybe even less. But if left in the sponge on the beach they would be left in the sun and wind (remember, this is after a cold front passes) until the next high tide or even longer. That means most of these critters were going to dry out completely and die to become food for the shore birds.
One time my wife and I came home with the legal limit of 20 porcelain crabs each. As I was putting them into our 180g tank at home, she asked if the local stores sold porcelain crabs. I told her I'd never seen them for sale anywhere local but some online sellers had them. So she went to Drs Foster & Smith and they were listed at $18/each. At that price, our beach walk (in the 40 degree, early morning, near low tide) netted us $700 in porcelain crabs. Unfortunately, in our tank, they all disappeared into the massive rockscape to almost never be seen again. Well, except on the rare occasion that I would pull out a coral or a rock with a coral attached to it and there would be a porcelain crab hanging on!
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maevepotter
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I can't thank you enough for the education! He is out in the open on his nem this morning. My son absolutely loves the pair! I love to hear him saying Good Morning to his tank before he acknowledges the rest of the world.
MrsBugmaster
2500 Club Member
I just purchased my first 3 from Salt Critters. I like that they provide 2 pictures on the site, one with blue lights and one without. So you get to see what they look like under both. Will post pictures when I get them.
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
I won’t say they can’t, but it’s unlikely to happen to a healthy fish.Great thread.
As a newbie to RFAs, just to clarify - they won’t eat small fish - is that right?
Thanks for your help.
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
You have a nice collectionMy porcelain anenome crab got bored and moved to my rfa garden. One of my big rfas decide to move and pushed another one out of its spot as well...lol.
Thanks to @Ron Reefman for directing me to this thread!
I have 5 RFA's in my tank that have been spawning regularly (about 4 times in the last year). I was wondering about sexing them. 4 of the 5 I'm sure are males because I've seen them emitting semen. The 5th I have not ever caught emitting semen until last night. I'm wondering if what I was seeing was it taking in semen? Sorry I didn't get a picture.
This 5th RFA is much smaller than the other 4. In this picture it is the second one from the left. Interestingly I bought it at the same time as the one on the far right and they were the same size when I got them. The orange with green tentacles has grown a lot. The yellow one hardly at all. Someone on another thread suggested that females are smaller than males. Any thoughts on that?
My other one is a loner.
I have 5 RFA's in my tank that have been spawning regularly (about 4 times in the last year). I was wondering about sexing them. 4 of the 5 I'm sure are males because I've seen them emitting semen. The 5th I have not ever caught emitting semen until last night. I'm wondering if what I was seeing was it taking in semen? Sorry I didn't get a picture.
This 5th RFA is much smaller than the other 4. In this picture it is the second one from the left. Interestingly I bought it at the same time as the one on the far right and they were the same size when I got them. The orange with green tentacles has grown a lot. The yellow one hardly at all. Someone on another thread suggested that females are smaller than males. Any thoughts on that?
My other one is a loner.
And a little video of the spawning event in March.
And the one in May. This is the one my Trochus snails joined in on.
And the one in May. This is the one my Trochus snails joined in on.
MrsBugmaster
2500 Club Member
That is so cool!
salty joe
Well-Known Member
Do these spiders attack other types of anemones?
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