Hello Brackish Forum

jtipton · Mar 7, 2008

This is my very first post at FishForums.net and I wanted to say hello. I took a few years off from fish keeping and recently jumped back in with my first brackish setup. It is a 20 gallon tall setup. It has calcite sand, lava rock, driftwood to the surface, and planted hornwort. I have a Fire Claw Crab (I think?), a Butterfly-Goby Waspfish, 5 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs, and some Ghost Shrimp as feeders/cleaners. I keep the salinity at a sg of 1.010. I would like to add an archer and some bumblebee gobies. That's it for now. Here is a picture of Ahab, the Fire Claw Crab. If you can positively ID him that would be great. I think he is a pseudosesarma bocourti. I tried to take pictures of the other guys, but everything is blurry. How do you take pictures through aquarium glass?

Anyway, hello again. I sure did miss this hobby!

abzorbd · Mar 7, 2008

Hello.

to the forum. I don't have a brackish tank but I just thought I would say hello.

Here is a link that may help you with photo taking
http

/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...Photos-How-To-/

Hope it helps. I also hope to see more pics soon. lol

jennybugs · Mar 7, 2008

What a lovely looking crab! :good:

I'd be interested to know how you get on with your wasp gobies as I had considered them for my first brackish tank a few months ago

I'm no help for identifying your crab, but taking pics through aquarium glass is always tricky. Try doing it with Biorbs...that's even worse :lol:

I end up taking many and keeping a few good pics, experimenting with and without flash at different shutter speeds and appertures. Macro settings are a godsend

I'd love to see a full tank shot

Marine/Freshwater? · Mar 7, 2008

Wow what an awsome looking tank! How do you keep fish with that crab? Crabs always eat my fish?

Fella · Mar 7, 2008

Also, in my experience archers and bumblebee gobies don't work sadly. BBG's are usually ignored by most fish for their bold warning colours, but archers of course are used to flying insects (wasps and hornets?) so the archer ate my BBG. Very frustrating!

jtipton · Mar 7, 2008

Thanks for the photo help. It made a huge difference. Here is a full tank shot, and a picture of my Butterfly-Goby Waspfish. I have only had him for about a week now, but he is very cool. Unlike some of my past exploits, I researched this fish BEFORE buying him. :crazy:

They are ambush predators, so they don't do a lot of swimming. He likes to park it among the Hornwort, like in the picture below, and wait for unsuspecting Ghost Shrimp to swim by. He also ate the platy fry I had in the tank. He is just now getting acclimated, and was chasing the shrimp last night (unsuccessfully). They aren't great swimmers, and kind of hop along the substrate. The crab is very easy to keep. He eats the Hornwort that is in the tank. They are primarily scavengers, and will normally only eat fish that are dead, injured, or sick. You probably already know this, but they are escape artists. My tank is duct taped in the back to keep him in. They need access to air during molting, so I have a piece of driftwood that rises above the surface. He can also "swim" by rapidly moving his legs, and can get onto the filter in the back by jumping from the driftwood. He will cruise up there for filter treats now and again. Thanks again for the camera help.

jennybugs · Mar 8, 2008

That's a smashing looking tank! I really like it

The bit of bogwood is perfect and sets it off a right treat. I'd researched wasp fish too but decided against them as I have an allergy to stings and do stupid things like stop breathing when I get stung :lol:

smudger72 · Mar 8, 2008

Welcome to the forum. Hope you enjoy it here. :thumbs:

Congrats on having waspfish they are awesome fish.

el_vulture619 · Mar 8, 2008

Welcome to the BW world! Nice looking wasp fish! I have a few myself.

Just a few thoughts, watch that crab! :crazy:

it is very big and WILL eat the fish if it catches them. As the waspfish grows large enough it will alos eat the BBG you have in the tank. I bought some for mine and since my waspfish is 3 inches it started chasing it right away. I had to bring the BBGs back to the LFS because of this.

I keep the same SAL maybe a little higher, and I am interested to see how those plants hold up.

jtipton · Mar 9, 2008

I don't have BBGs or the Archer yet. I am still looking into them. The current tank has:

1 Fire Claw Crab
1 Butterfly-Goby Waspfish
5 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs
Feeder Ghost Shrimp

And...

1 Freshwater Flounder in quarantine

The crab was purchased as a Red Claw Crab, but obviously isn't. I identified him by looking through images on Google. They do not appear to be traded anywhere but Germany, so finding info has been tough. They appear to grow quite large in the photos, so I may need to put him in a different tank. He hasn't shown hunting tendencies so far, but does seem territorial when things come near him. So far I've only seen him eat the Hornwort (which isn't holding up to well at this salinity)