• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Pom Pom Crab

Aqua360

Member
Joined
15 Feb 2016
Messages
2,176
Location
UK
Not sure if bending the rules on what type of inverts can be shared, but snapped a pic of my pom pom crab and figured I'd share!

Fascinating little guys, she was berried heavily when I first got her.

PXL_20210917_162013185.jpg
 
Our Pom Pom got banished to my shelf Nano after mugging a Tailspot Blenny and melting his Cirri, caught him sauntering past the blennys’ home and stuffing both anemone covered fists into the face of the hiding Blenny. Got named Peeves after that!

Peeves occasionally will carry hundreds of eggs and I’m pretty sure she uses them to keep the anemones fed and in good health, usually happens after feeding her a few mussels over a couple of weeks.

B2CA2863-0B1A-4231-A407-79EAA4DA9006.jpeg


Above is the tank she’s in, the one on the left with a Sulphur Goby partnered with a very large pistol shrimp that’s doing a good job so far of chasing Peeves out the way when she sneaks up to potentially mug the Sulphur Goby.

C4EF0730-5B29-4A26-AED9-16367DA4D903.jpeg


She’s somewhere in there, hopefully Mamma the pistol hasn’t sealed her up in one of the tubes!

:)
 
Our Pom Pom got banished to my shelf Nano after mugging a Tailspot Blenny and melting his Cirri, caught him sauntering past the blennys’ home and stuffing both anemone covered fists into the face of the hiding Blenny. Got named Peeves after that!

Peeves occasionally will carry hundreds of eggs and I’m pretty sure she uses them to keep the anemones fed and in good health, usually happens after feeding her a few mussels over a couple of weeks.

View attachment 174424

Above is the tank she’s in, the one on the left with a Sulphur Goby partnered with a very large pistol shrimp that’s doing a good job so far of chasing Peeves out the way when she sneaks up to potentially mug the Sulphur Goby.

View attachment 174423

She’s somewhere in there, hopefully Mamma the pistol hasn’t sealed her up in one of the tubes!

:)
"both anemone covered fists into the face"

Made me lol, they really don't hesitate to use them 😂
 
Space, investment, learning curve. In that order. 😅
If it helps, my nano I got the tank and light from gumtree on the cheap, and I use the stock pump with heater.

Sand, a small amount of rock. That's it, instant reef.

Yes you can add corals etc, but it's really easy and doesn't have to be expensive to create the living conditions for inverts like pom pom crabs.

Only way you'll know is to take the plunge ;)

I'm not an expert on marine (or fresh for that matter 😂) but if you want to know more just ask!
 
I’ll get there in the end… I’ve been thinking of what to do with my nanos when I eventually go up a tank size and using one as a sump and the other as a displays just ticks the right boxes as an excuse to take the plunge. All those Japanese reefs out there are lust worthy.
 
I’ll get there in the end… I’ve been thinking of what to do with my nanos when I eventually go up a tank size and using one as a sump and the other as a displays just ticks the right boxes as an excuse to take the plunge. All those Japanese reefs out there are lust worthy.
I think saltwater can be daunting, but it only really gets difficult when you start keeping corals like SPS, everything else is pretty standard tbf.
 
These little crabs are a fun breeding project and for something marine, are surprisingly easy tbh. The only problem is you end up with lots of crabs that don't have their pom poms but funnily enough they are very inventive and will use other things instead (I had one walking around with a nudibranch clamped in its claws, several with green star polyps or similar corals and they also seem to love aiptasia).
 
These little crabs are a fun breeding project and for something marine, are surprisingly easy tbh. The only problem is you end up with lots of crabs that don't have their pom poms but funnily enough they are very inventive and will use other things instead (I had one walking around with a nudibranch clamped in its claws, several with green star polyps or similar corals and they also seem to love aiptasia).
I did get a 2nd crab, but the poor guy never made it, not sure why.

The tank is approximately 20 litres, so I'm not sure if territorial disputes played into it or not.
 
I never had any problems mixing them provided there was enough hidey holes for them to get away from each other. The only real time you need to worry about conspecifics is when they are shedding but as they are happy on their own you can happily keep it on its lonesome.

Sexy shrimp are fun tankmates that won't cause any issues and i have a person love of bumblebee shrimp.
 
I never had any problems mixing them provided there was enough hidey holes for them to get away from each other. The only real time you need to worry about conspecifics is when they are shedding but as they are happy on their own you can happily keep it on its lonesome.

Sexy shrimp are fun tankmates that won't cause any issues and i have a person love of bumblebee shrimp.
I have a bumblebee, but I'm paranoid about bioload and have also heard sexies can pick at corals, so it'll just be the one pom! Lol
 
Bumblebees are cool, sneaky scavengers, mine would hang out with a Harlequin Shrimp when it was feeding on a Black Tipped Orange Linkia which somehow managed to kill the harlequin, saw it happen, the harlequin was feeding and he suddenly froze retracted his feeding spears and then staggered backwards behind the rocks, never saw him again, I can only assume the starfish ‘Poisoned the Waterhole’. After that the Bumblebees would follow the Starfish around when not scavenging and snip off an occasional foot to munch on.

AE5C939B-121F-4E57-B3CD-1D343F53E29A.jpeg

6B5C97EA-103A-49F1-A735-D8100F90E5EE.jpeg

78EAEDA2-9E25-4401-B1F7-34F018263CCF.jpeg

6414397C-F6B8-4C05-BCFE-A3FA400F4A91.jpeg

06D6B298-032E-48EA-AE0A-42F52FA63A52.jpeg


As you can see the second last photo was the last pic of the Harlequin before it was taken out and the last pic is one of the Bumblebees pestering the recovering Starfish.

Below is why Peeves had to be moved, he kept mugging the Tailspot Blenny.

B7D3B248-69A0-44E7-906C-62AEC16AC961.jpeg

E2D96982-2EAE-4688-A7C3-733638F24CFD.jpeg


Moving Day, check that she’s stuffed with eggs!

FE1119DA-1C6E-4A94-A19F-53FD9213FB6A.jpeg

166EBCFD-4712-43E9-B875-A58B44169237.jpeg


Yup, I’ve got a very large growing picture library of all sorts of Marine invertebrates! Anemone Crabs, Glass Anemone Shrimp, Peacock Shrimp, Reef Lobsters, Squat Lobsters, Emerald Crabs, Sexy Shrimps, Cleaner Shrimps, Peppermint Shrimp, Harlequin Shrimp, Pom Pom Crabs, Gammarus Shrimp, Red Leg Hermits, Blue Leg Hermits, Halloween Hermits, etc, that’s just my tanks and the stuff with legs that I have kept so far, most more successfully than others. There’s so many others from other tanks also.

My Sexy Shrimp used to love picking at the Zoas until I put a Mini-Maxi Anemone in the tank and they now never leave it, the Anemone is so sticky it hoovers up a significant portion of the meat cloud at dinner times which they quickly rob from then spend the rest of the day chilling out.

627D99BC-584E-4676-A74B-107FB386F682.jpeg
9AFA04B4-6BB7-4DCF-B6AF-7E844163CABA.jpeg

A9D2BF02-7B2E-444A-8C24-A6012C246A56.jpeg

5764C42D-5463-456A-A4A0-CD3862D18342.jpeg


:)
 
Very easily, it’s likely the same mechanic that Clownfish use to be able to host Anemones, familiarisation! I watched my female clown start the process of hosting in the Anemone and it began with brushing past the tentacles, the clown was stung multiple times, she would go away for a while to let the venom subside then go back to brushing herself against the tentacles, this progressed for days until the female clown proceeded to suck the tentacles into her mouth and then spit them out, holding them in her mouth for longer and longer periods until she could host the anemone without fear of being eaten, she can sleep directly in the mouth of the anemone that is more than capable of swallowing her. This is familiarisation, the anemone treats the taste of the clown as itself and doesn’t trigger, this is evidenced by the fact that you will never see an Anemone consume its own tentacles, it is chemically sensing it’s immediate environment as it’s own tissue and the clown has become a part of that. The same will be said of the Pom Pom anemones they will see the crab as part of its own tissue and thus not harm its host, in both instances described a beneficial relationship has been formed.

:)
 
Very easily, it’s likely the same mechanic that Clownfish use to be able to host Anemones, familiarisation! I watched my female clown start the process of hosting in the Anemone and it began with brushing past the tentacles, the clown was stung multiple times, she would go away for a while to let the venom subside then go back to brushing herself against the tentacles, this progressed for days until the female clown proceeded to suck the tentacles into her mouth and then spit them out, holding them in her mouth for longer and longer periods until she could host the anemone without fear of being eaten, she can sleep directly in the mouth of the anemone that is more than capable of swallowing her. This is familiarisation, the anemone treats the taste of the clown as itself and doesn’t trigger, this is evidenced by the fact that you will never see an Anemone consume its own tentacles, it is chemically sensing it’s immediate environment as it’s own tissue and the clown has become a part of that. The same will be said of the Pom Pom anemones they will see the crab as part of its own tissue and thus not harm its host, in both instances described a beneficial relationship has been formed.

:)

Interesting stuff! I did mean more physically/mechanically though, rather than possibly being stung. When I've watched crabs they constantly feed and clean themselves using the pincers much like hands - does it still have working operable pincers to do those task with the anemones in place - it looks like they would block that functionality?
 
Back
Top