Finally a Pom Pom Crab!!!
 

so yesterday i finally tracked down a pom pom crab! i called up the LRS and asked them, and low and behold they had one! even better was one of the guys i know works there, and put it aside for me before it went and hid again. ive been after one of these for a while, but had never seen them up here. but now i have one!!

it has taken over the little cave on the top piece of my rock. i couldnt find him this morning, but they are mostly nocturnal, so im not concerned yet.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w.../pompom010.jpg
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w.../pompom018.jpg
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w.../pompom007.jpg

in his new home under the pipe organ coral
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w.../pompom040.jpg

Awesome. I love these oddball inverts.

Cool! He even still has one pom pom! Nice! Where did you get him from? I know Ocean Aquatics had them a couple weeks back.

Awesome, I want one bad. Ive never seen them in a Calgary LFS
( hint to any vendors who read this ) :biggrin:

Whats happens if they do loose their anemone's? Do they break out the shears and cut a new frag for themselves? lol

I am sure i've seen them at golds off and on.

Nice find, I found one as a hitch hiker on some of my live rock a few months back. Finally a hitch hiker that didn't eat or kill something in my tank.

if they have one anenome then they grow that one out and split it. ive read that some people's pompom crabs will pick up a small zoa or ricordea to use as a replacement. pretty cool!

Heck yea thats sweet.
#1 on my to get list.

nice pom pom man, what is the retail valve on that one might have to get acouple of them for the new tank.....

Yeah, he is a cute little guy.....dont be surprised if he goes MIA for a month at a time....we have a 135g and are lucky if we see ours every month! But, its always exciting when we do. Great new addition!

Actually, I think you'd find them at almost all of the calgary stores - they make regular appearances at all the ones I frequent... But do ask - because they do hide so you probably wont SEE them.

Mine lost it's anemone's during last years moves - still see it semi-regularly doing just fine without, i've heard stories of them picking up pest anemones though :)

Nice crab good to see you finally found it!

cool! i love those guys, i have one, still has both its pom poms :)

Mine goes missing for a monthe at a time in my 34 gallon. lost a pom pom at some point im hoping will grow back. mine produces eggs all the time aswell.

I thought it was dead for the longest time then one day im walking by at night and there she is. then didnt see again for another 3 weeks. she been around for 6 monthes now.

They are a wicked addition thou congrats.

Ive seen them for anywhere between 20 and 40 bucks.

his pom pom wont 'grow back' unfortunatly, they are actually small anenomies that the crab hangs on to, but the crab dosent treat them very well (dragges them around and never feeds them) so in the wild they switch them out for new ones occasionaly. he may have just dropped it or it may have died, and i dont think that you can buy new ones, although in a tank with no predators they will be fine without them.

I've had one for at least 2 years. I only see him maybe once every couple months though. I wouldn't keep one in more than a little nano in the future if you ever want to see them.

they actually split the single anenome if they lose one of them. they are also known to pic up small rics and zoas as temporary replacements while they wait for their anenome to grow large enough to split.

they dont mistreat them. they drag them along the substrate to gather food. the anenome gets some, and the crab gets some. the type of anenome they carry doesnt require a lot of light, but the little crabs are mostly nocturnal, so the anenome sometimes gets plenty of light, and other times doesnt get enough, in which case it dies.

i paid $9.95 for mine at J&L Aquatics.

We have one in our 230g he has both his pom-poms and I catch a glance of him about every 2-3 weeks

Our "boxer" crab Chuck(named after Liddel) is a master at hiding. Its been two months since he was last spotted in our 72. Cool critters, next time into a smaller tank for sure.

i actually saw him the other night! upside down on the top rock in the aquascape. he saw me, the ran like hell for cover. i never realized how fast they were!

yaaaa i got one today too from Ocean.
Cute little gaffer

Could the anemone survive on its own? this morning i saw a little anem thought it was aptasia but it really didnt look like it, Had to run out the door to work so i couldnt get a pic. the pompom lost its anem about 6 weeks ago.

No, the pom pom anemone is completely dependent on the crab and it will die without the crab. The crab can live fine without the nem though. You might consider getting another pom pom crab though. If one crab loses both anemones, the other sometimes donates one if it has two.

here's a good thread from nano-reef.com on these guys.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...l+pom+pom+crab

BEAUTIFUL colours! I saw 2 today at the LFS and passed them up but now I'm really regretting it!!

how hard is it to breed these i have 1, obviously a female as it gets and egg sac about every 2-3 monthes. if i were to add another what are the chances the eggs would get fertilized. not that it realy matters as my sally would eat the eggs before i saw them.

so i found him again two nights ago. he has a new...errr..."pom pom". seems to be a very small zoa polyp.lmfao

my pompom is finally coming out during the day! i rescaped a bit and i suppose it took to the new cave created! i also found out that "it" is a she! she now has a big batch of eggs...but even better her other pompom!! i cant believe how fast the anenome grew and split!

sorry for the bad pic. but she retreated into her cave when she saw the camera!
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...lreef107-1.jpg

she is also quite hilarious. to celebrate her showing herself during the day i tried to get her some food to watch her eat. i loaded it into the pipette and lowered it towards her. she SCREAMED out of the cave and started beating the crap out of the pipette. i was howling with laughter. she is so feisty. i think i might name her after my gf (but dont tell my gf that!)

We have one and really enjoy it. Yes, it took about 2 weeks to see it again the first time but now we see it a bit more regularly. We saw it out during feeding a couple of mornings ago and it was very quick but kept coming back out again.

Ours has molted twice in 7 weeks and still has both anems. I paid only $20 for ours and consider it well worth it. We have a 70 gallon tank and tons of rocks and little caves for it to hide in.