Dwarf Hermit Crab Tank (Calcinus laevimanus)

[minishrimps]

I'm really intrigued by these crabs sp. Calcinus laevimanus, also known as Hawaian Left Handed Dwarf crab. I have found very little on the internet about keeping them in captivity and wondering if anyone else here keeps them and or knows anything about them. Any info would be appreciated...

[bcoll197]

That is the crab I originally wanted, but it never seemed to be available. I "settled" for the dwarf hairy leg crab (still can't find a scientific name for them), and I'm glad I did. Mine rarely hide and are quite entertaining. Just the other day I happened to catch one exchanging shells, then deciding he liked his old home better. He had to roll a snail away to reclaim his former shell. Mine tend to set their sites on shells that are much too long for them to haul around, making them quite clumsy and comical at times. The Opae Ula were very curious about all the activity. The pictures show most of the progression from actual transfer, to reclaiming his original home, to wandering off to look for a more suitable home.

[minishrimps]

Nice Pics, I have a few crabs now and a couple seem to be the hairy leg and a couple seem to be the left handed variety... They definitely have different personalities but seem to be friendly with each other so far... I'll post some pics here once it's all up and going. I'll also try and keep this thread about the crabs and what observations I make about them. I haven't been able to find much about this species listed online.

[bcoll197]

Thank you for sharing this; finding anything about them online has been frustrating. The left-handed species is quite beautiful. I would love any information you can glean from these fascinating characters. There are others on the site who seem to have had some luck with them. I'm hoping they will contribute the knowledge they have gained.

[minishrimps]

So, my 5.5 dwarf crab tank finally cycled through and I now have two Hawaiian Left Handed Dwarf Hermits sp. Calcinus laevimanus and one crab which I believe is sp. Calcinus seurati also known as Dwarf Zebra Hermit. I think they are both Calcinus species. It's hard to tell as they are really small, but the biggest difference being the enlarged left claw that's mostly dark except with the white tip. here's a side by side http://biomar.free.fr/calcinus_laevimanus.html

I have two more of the Dwarf Zebras headed for this tank.

So, my plan is to keep these five crabs in this tank with the 5 Pipipi snails I also acquired. They are still small and not quite as quick to remove algae as the Horned Nerites even though pretty equal in size.Here's a pic of the tank before it was covered in algae. sorry its crooked...

I also switched the light on this tank to a fluorescent hood (i did this for both my tanks). The LED was just to bright. This tank also has a small Azoo Mignon 60 filter that pours gently on the rocks as not to agitate the substrate too much. I'm pretty excited about this set-up and will try to get some pics of the crabs up here soon.

I will end up keeping one Left Handed Dwarf in my shrimp tank, he currently has one injured eye but I think it may be on the mend as it looks healthier than it did when he first arrived and it is eating so that's a good sign. He did also drop his big claw which could have been from stress due to the injury. I read sometimes they regenerate during a molt, sometimes they never grow back.We'll see. After this happened he hid from the other crabs until they were removed from the tank he lives in, but is now more active.

If my new shrimp start to reproduce maybe I'll add some in there later.

[bcoll197]

I am really interested in the progress you make with these little guys. I watch this and a thread in the super shrimp area to see others' experience with the dwarf crabs in both filtered and unfiltered tanks. I had bad luck with unfiltered, but my tank size may have been too small to support them properly w/o filtration, or they could have been an unhealthy batch of crabs considering they are wild-caught. There could be any number of reasons for the high mortality rate I experienced, but I will not try them in my unfiltered ones again unless I get a much larger tank.

I just got five more for my 2.5g. Two were doa, sadly they were both pretty left-handed ones. It seems, since they come from the wild it doesn't matter which species is ordered, you could receive a variety. It looks like I got 1 or 2 zebras and possibly a hairy-leg this time. The ones that arrived alive are actively (and clumsily) getting acquainted with their new surroundings. The shrimp seem to enjoy riding on their shells, picking off algae. I can't help but smile any time I sit and watch the interactions between the shrimp and crabs.

[minishrimps]

I am really interested in the progress you make with these little guys. I watch this and a thread in the super shrimp area to see others' experience with the dwarf crabs in both filtered and unfiltered tanks. I had bad luck with unfiltered, but my tank size may have been too small to support them properly w/o filtration, or they could have been an unhealthy batch of crabs considering they are wild-caught. There could be any number of reasons for the high mortality rate I experienced, but I will not try them in my unfiltered ones again unless I get a much larger tank.

I just got five more for my 2.5g. Two were doa, sadly they were both pretty left-handed ones. It seems, since they come from the wild it doesn't matter which species is ordered, you could receive a variety. It looks like I got 1 or 2 zebras and possibly a hairy-leg this time. The ones that arrived alive are actively (and clumsily) getting acquainted with their new surroundings. The shrimp seem to enjoy riding on their shells, picking off algae. I can't help but smile any time I sit and watch the interactions between the shrimp and crabs.

Unfortunately, I lost three of them so far, one on Tuesday, then today I went in to the office and two of the three I had in the crab only tank, which is filtered, were dead. Not sure why. and one of the two i gave to my friend died too. so out of 9 crabs i got, 5 are now dead, maybe a sixth. i couldn't find the last one in my crab tank... the two in my small unfiltered tank are still alive

[minishrimps]

I haven't updated this post in a while...

I ended up acquiring about 8 more crabs, my iintital purchases of crabs all died. I have had these 8 crabs now for about two months and they all seem to be doing fine. The tan they are in is growing all sorts of algae on the rocks and i feed them once a week some sinking Hikari Crab cuisine. Currently, one crab is in molt, quite intriguing to watch and i could have spent the whole day watching but i have to do some work... anyway, pretty sweet experience to watch!

I'm pretty stoked about the set-up i have going, there are also 7 Pipipi Nerites and they have started to disperse eggs. So baby snails and hopefully if all goes well I can get some baby crabs! I'll post again in a few weeks...

[mighty mite]

I'd love to see some baby crabs! Did you get these guys online or what? Never seen them before but I am intrigued.

[minishrimps]

I'd love to see some baby crabs! Did you get these guys online or what? Never seen them before but I am intrigued.

sorry for the late reply... I did get these guys online. 3 have since died and I now have had five living seemingly healthfully in my 5 gallon tank for about 6 months. Almost all of them have molted at least once and they change shells periodically. None of them are actually the Left Hnaded Dwarf Hawaiian crab sepcies, the only ones that survived were the dwarf hairy leg variety.

[Critter Doc]

minishrimps, do you mind my asking where you got your dwarf crabs? If posting a link in the forum isn't kosher, please PM me. Thanks!