Thai Micro Crab

first of all, i apologize as i don't have a working shift key on my laptop

i stopped by denny's yesterday on the way home from work, and found something i had not heard of in their shrimp section. thai micro crabs! at first i could not even see any in there, so i thought they might be sold out; i had to ask an employee who moved some wood around before i could finally see the little buggers.

this guy's page has some great pics and a short video; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

they are probably the most expensive critter i have bought--by weight--but it was an impulse buy i couldn't pass up. i went home with 3 little tiny crabs, who were clinging to each other in the bag all the way home, and then put them in my 10 gallon with most of my guppies. at this point they are about 1/2inch including their legs; the carapace is probably 3-4mm wide, so pretty tiny. they look big in the pics on that page, but that guy has a camera that is better than most human eyes.

so far i have read that no successful breeding of these guys has taken place. people have had larvae, and some people think a few of their larvae have survived to adulthood, but only in huge colonies with thousands of larvae being produced. no one can say for sure if the larvae need brackish water or can do it in fresh, much less what to feed them. i suppose heavy green water might be a way to raise the young, and i haven't read about anyone trying it.

i don't have any pics because they are too small for my crappy camera. anyone else on this forum have experience with them?

Oh man those are too cute! I would love to have those rather than shrimp! How cool!

Make sure you keep your guppies well fed, otherwise the crabs might become a snack.

they are overpriced imo at denny's, which is why i only bought 3 to see how they would do, but i'm sure you can find them online for a lot cheaper.

the only concern i have about these guys is that since there is no captive breeding going on, i don't want to support unsustainable collection practices which will eventually hurt the wild population or even wipe them out. i hear they live in water hyacinths in the wild, so it's probably the easiest thing in the world to go out and collect massive numbers of them- hopefully they breed easier in the wild and will keep their numbers up. i will have to look into that.

Found a little bit of info. First site I looked at though.
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LuminousAphid wrote:they are overpriced imo at denny's, which is why i only bought 3 to see how they would do, but i'm sure you can find them online for a lot cheaper.

  - odd critter, how much where they?

same as online i guess, so not bad. but for the size of them, 4 dollars is a lot

the only worry i had about them has already come true... i cannot find them without moving rocks and things around   they are probably nocturnal and come out much more at night, but that does me no good because i need light to see them

i would definitely recommend getting 10 or more, so that maybe you will see 1 or 2, once in a while  

LuminousAphid wrote:same as online i guess, so not bad. but for the size of them, 4 dollars is a lot

the only worry i had about them has already come true... i cannot find them without moving rocks and things around   they are probably nocturnal and come out much more at night, but that does me no good because i need light to see them

i would definitely recommend getting 10 or more, so that maybe you will see 1 or 2, once in a while  

  - at that size they are probably naturally skittish . And choose safe spots, rocks and crevices. I planned on going by Denny's Pet World today - gonna check em out. They might be that neat little critter you only see but every once in a while, I like those... plus there is a red plant in the display tank there I am trying to talk these ppl out of clipping me a starter -  

Seen these today @ Denny's Pet World. Interesting crab. Looks like a spider crawling on wood, creepy. This little guy would defiantly get lost in any aquarium but would be neat to have.

Looks like MsJinkzd is getting closer to breeding these guys:

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