Stupid anemone crab (good awareness for future reference)

[fishoholic]

I just wanted to let people that sometimes an anemone crab can be a bad thing. About 2 weeks ago I bought an anemone crab. My RBTA has been a PITA since we got it. First it hated the light and wanted to hide under the rock. Then it expanded at night and shrunk during the day. Finally the last 2 months it was starting to do well. I felt bad that it didn't have anything to host in it (my perc.'s never showed any interest) and since it was still small I thought if it had a host maybe it would help the RBTA to grow and do better.

We ended up getting an anemone crab and I was so happy that the crab hosted right away. However as time went on it seemed like the crab was annoying the RBTA, the rbta started to move around. It stayed on the same rock (until today) but somedays it looked pretty bad and other days it looked ok. I figured the crab and the anemone were just working things out.

However I got home today and found the RBTA on the bottom of a different rock near the bottom of the tank in a dark spot. The rbta looks nearly dead and the anemone crab is MIA Part of me wants to try to move the rbta back to the spot it was at so it can get some light and hopefully do better, but right now it looks to fragile to try to move it. So for now I'm going to leave it where it is. Here's hoping somehow it makes a miraculous come back.

Moral of the lesson: Do not buy a big anemone crab to host in a little anemone.

[Carmen]

Mine did the same thing. Pestered the bubble tip til it moved all over the place and then looked like it would die. REMOVE it if it reappears and I would look under that rock near the anemone cuz it's probably still there! My anemone has since recovered so there is hope if you get rid of the crab. Even moving the crab to another area of the tank did not work. I tink they are best hosting in large carpet anemones.

Good luck!

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Carmen

Mine did the same thing. Pestered the bubble tip til it moved all over the place and then looked like it would die. REMOVE it if it reappears and I would look under that rock near the anemone cuz it's probably still there! My anemone has since recovered so there is hope if you get rid of the crab. Even moving the crab to another area of the tank did not work. I tink they are best hosting in large carpet anemones.

Good luck!

*sigh* Let me add this to my list of "Things I wished I had of known before hand"

The rock it is on is a supporting base rock that is holding up several other rocks, which also happens to be one rocks my dwarf golden moray eel likes to live in. So unfortunately I would have to move a heck of a lot of rock, and potentially take away a home (heaven knows I'd never get it back in the same spot) to get at the rbta. Which honestly I'm not going to do. Really wishing I removed the crab when they were on the loose rock at the top of the tank It's hard to tell but right now I don't see the crab, but he definitely could still be there as I can't really see the bottom and part of the one side of the RBTA. If I see the crab I'll try to remove/rehome him.

Thanks for the info. hopefully we can save someone else from making this mistake.

[ponokareefer]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with your anemone crab. I have had 2 and both of the anemones were very happy. Both times though, the crab came with the anemone from the store. The salesman both times said that the crab came with the anemone when they got it, so I'm assuming that is how they got it out of the ocean. One anemone was a LTA, and the other, the one I have now, is a sebae. The LTA was quite large, but the sebae was only about 3 inches when I got it, so quite small. The crabs never seemed to bother the anemones they were in, and the anemones both did very well. I wonder if the BTA does not naturally host that type of crab, and so is uncomfortable with it in it?

[aquajeep]

lol when i got my bta the crab came with too.my maroon kicked him out and he eould sneak back in once in a while.when clowny got bigger the crab took up station at the base of the bta.i felt bad for the crab so i traded him away.they are entertaining though.

[fishoholic]

My crab is cool looking I just don't like that it's killing my rose bubble tip anemone. It's quite possible that BTA's don't naturally host crabs or it could just be that since my RBTA is pretty small, it's not ready to be a proper host for a crab. Either way I wish I had of known before hand.