Sand Sifting Crabs / Sand Fleas

[tony3199]

So this has been an on going debate for some time now in the hobby. Has anyone kept any sand sifting crabs alive successfully?
Most forums I been too and most friends in the hobby I also talk to have mixed reviews. In some tanks, they flourish and in others they simply just die (even if they die I have heard it doesn't crash your system).

I live here in SoCal and every summer I am just so tempted to go a pick up a cupful and throw them in my tank but like I said, there are so many mixed reviews that I end up just forgetting about it until the next summer arises. I honestly think they would be a good addition to aerate the sand bed.

Anyone else want to throw in their 2 cents on this subject? And lets not flame each other guys. Lets just get some opinions on this =)

 

[BeanMachine]

I'm no crab hugger but our local waters are much colder than what we keep our reef tanks at so seem to me it would be hard on the animals, and they wouldn't thrive or fair well at that high of a temp.

 

[lhernandez101]

those will die in our tanks fish would eat them too i had two last week from fishing and i dumped them in my tank and yellow tank whent after it


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[tony3199]

haha!! see!! this is where the diversity comes in. Because I feel the same way but I've got a buddy in huntington beach who grabs them and throws them in his tanks and said they have lived for long periods. He broke down his tank because he moved and said he found like 20 of them still in his sand bed after he thought they had died. On some sites, they sell them too. Like reefs2go.com and stuff. But the acclimation period on there is ridiculous. it says like 1 hour or something.

You think the ones on the site are probably just bred differently in an environment where they can sustain themselves at higher temps?

 

[sklywag]

I find it hard to believe our tanks could contain enough food for them to survive besides the temp.

 

[lhernandez101]

I find it hard to believe our tanks could contain enough food for them to survive besides the temp.

+1


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