Horseshoe crabs: Do they have a place in the home aquarium?

[ethans_aquatics]

What are your opinions?

 

[Stomatopods17]

There's limited to no success stories of horseshoe crabs in the hobby.

In public aquariums they rotate them out a lot for medical research (their blood is special). In home aquariums they shift the sand, starve, and die.

Unfortunately there's not much in terms of food you can give them, they're like sand sifting starfish where they eat worms and microbes in the sandbed itself and replenishing it is borderline impossible.

Size is only the beginning part of why they can't really be kept. National aquarium has a post somewhere specifying the conditions they keep theirs at and its usually much lower salinity and temperature than your average aquarium is going to be, let alone in a large enough setup.

 

[littlefoxx]

So I have a horseshoe crab. My guy is an inch. Very active little guy, constantly sifting sand and running around. I always feed the tank extra for him and give him a snack when I see him. He already has molted once. He survived my tank crash too. Thought the poor guy was dead but out of the sand he popped like nothing happened! Not sure if mine is an anomaly but he is a very healthy crab.

 

[ethans_aquatics]

So I have a horseshoe crab. My guy is an inch. Very active little guy, constantly sifting sand and running around. I always feed the tank extra for him and give him a snack when I see him. He already has molted once. He survived my tank crash too. Thought the poor guy was dead but out of the sand he popped like nothing happened! Not sure if mine is an anomaly but he is a very healthy crab.

How long have you had him?

 

[littlefoxx]

How long have you had him?

Almost a year I think

 

[Kmarshall168]

Almost a year I think

Pictures?

 

[littlefoxx]

Almost a year I think

Only thing he does is bulldoze my chalice corals

 

[littlefoxx]

Pictures?

Hard to get a good one of him he is so dang fast. These are ones of him from Saturday

 

[Kmarshall168]

Hard to get a good one of him he is so dang fast. These are ones of him from Saturday

Speedy boy

 

[littlefoxx]

Speedy boy

Yeah he is. Kinda convinced he is indestructible to be honest! thinking he might have munched on my baby eel too

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Bad idea, unless you have a 400 gallon coldwater system with no rock and 6" of sand. Best suited for public aquariums, IMO. I see lots of people with little baby crabs, but essentially nobody who has kept one past 3". They all die eventually in a reef tank. As far as I can tell, it's inevitable.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive seen these guys attain an easy 6-8" or more and feeding and space requirements increase with size