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View Full Version : Trapezia guttata (bird's nest coral crab)


pulpol
02/23/2010, 11:44 PM
do these guys need sps to survive or can it live without a sps/bird's nest coral? i would like to get one for my tank but i am not sure if i should. tia

FelipeRB
02/24/2010, 10:25 PM
any SPS´s at least, it eat mucus of the acros, and the particules that the mucus acro traps from the water. and finally it take refuge in the acros for the depredators. is a simbiosis.

regards!

PistolShrimp
02/25/2010, 10:09 AM
I ordered threeTrapezia Pocillopora/Acropora Crabs. From LiveAquaria.com. The two that I have been able to keep track of are ignoring the Pocillopora coral, happily filtering the water with their maxillipeds in the recesses of the aquarium. I suspect that they are porcelain crabs. LiveAquaria asked me to monitor them and take a picture if possible (not possible at the moment.) How does one tell the difference between these two kinds of crabs?

LeslieH
02/25/2010, 10:16 AM
If they have big sweeping maxillipeds & big flattened chelae they're porcellanids which are relatives of hermit crabs. Acro crabs are true crabs and have inconspicuous maxillipeds.

arioch
02/25/2010, 10:17 AM
Acro crabs look like a regular crab, one of the common ones has a kind of a bandit look with a black band across the eye area on the shell.

Porcelain crabs have 2 large fans that they use to filter feed, and host in anemone.

LeslieH
02/25/2010, 10:19 AM
Not just anemones. There are a lot of different kinds of porcellanids. Many are free living or have other specific hosts like sea pens.

Airwolf75
02/25/2010, 09:18 PM
Hi, I have a Tapezid Birdsnest crab, see exibit A. What you need for this crab is either a Birdsnest (Seriotopa) Coral, or a Porcillopora Coral. These are not the same as the acro crabs. They are larger first of all and considerably more agressive at defending their host coral. So if you grab the coral, expect a pinch. It's capable of driving off Butterflyfish and even Crown Of Thorns Starfish.

Mine came of a birdsnest coral the store owner thought it was a pest. Mine then switched to a Porcillopora coral, then back to the birdsnest coral. Never to an acro coral. All the research I have read when I got the crab says they are only found on these two kinds of coral.

They do not filter feed, I can't figure out entirely what it eats because it hides often. Some reports suggest it gets most/part of nutrition from the coral like the acro crabs. It does come grab food I put in the coral and drags it into the depths of the branches, so who knows eating or cleaning the coral. Hope this helps.

Picture shows the crab during acclimation, the porcillopora frag I put in because it looked nervous without a coral.
http://greatauksociety.com/aquarium/trapezid.jpg

PistolShrimp
02/25/2010, 09:43 PM
Thanks for the replies. I knew they were porcelain crabs, I just needed a little support! I was just looking at the the pictures of your aquariums: I have tank envy!

The odd thing is, I was not all that in to corals, but symbiotic relationships fascinate me. I saw the pictures of the coral crabs; I got the corals; I like porcelain crabs, but I wanted the those coral crabs!

Pistol Shrimp

MaxxedMan
07/29/2012, 09:44 PM
I just found one of these as a hitchiker. I was scared.