Pom Pom Crab missing Pom Pom

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Hey Jeff,

Well I have no hands on experience with these guys, I can try to help some.

The "pom poms" these crabs have are actually anemones (small ones). I believe in the wild they don't use the same ones for ever and actually switch them out.

Now it is possible that during a molt the anemone got away and he hasn't found it yet and may eventually get it back. You might want to search around the tank to see if you can find a small anemone somewhere hiding (probably like finding a needle in a hay stack, LOL).

It is also possible that the one anemone was dying (or is dead) so the crab let it go.

I assume we are talking about one of these guys:

HTH,

________________________________________________

Keith

"Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer

Author	Message
Johnston	Posted 2/15/2008 11:15:08 AM
Group: Administrators Last Active: 10/31/2012 6:49:00 PM Posts: 52, Visits: 569 542	Hey Fellow Reefers, So I've had a Pom Pom Crab in my tank for 9-10 months and recently I noticed that one of his/her "pom poms" was missing. Normally the Pom Pom is pretty coy and cautious about coming out of the rockwork but recently we began feeding the tank a little less to help thwart an issue we were having with flatworms (which, thus far, has been successful), so the Pom Pom has been coming out into the open more ... which is how we noticed the missing pom pom. I was just curious: is this normal, or was the Pom Pom perhaps injured somehow? Our cleaner and coral banded shrimps molt so I wasn't really sure if this little crab goes through similar changes. We don't have any predators in thank except for, perhaps, the coral banded. We have your usual mix of snails, hermits and fish (clown, midas & scooter blennys and a blue assessor). The tank is 24-gallons. If I need to provide more info please let me know. Thanks!
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argi	Posted 2/15/2008 12:35:58 PM
Group: Administrators Last Active: Yesterday @ 8:24:32 PM Posts: 7,157, Visits: 14,114 42,065	Hey Jeff, Well I have no hands on experience with these guys, I can try to help some. The "pom poms" these crabs have are actually anemones (small ones). I believe in the wild they don't use the same ones for ever and actually switch them out. Now it is possible that during a molt the anemone got away and he hasn't found it yet and may eventually get it back. You might want to search around the tank to see if you can find a small anemone somewhere hiding (probably like finding a needle in a hay stack, LOL). It is also possible that the one anemone was dying (or is dead) so the crab let it go. I assume we are talking about one of these guys: HTH, ________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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Johnston	Posted 2/15/2008 12:43:41 PM
Group: Administrators Last Active: 10/31/2012 6:49:00 PM Posts: 52, Visits: 569 542	Yeah, that's my little buddy! So should I be concerned, Keith? The rockwork is epoxied together so while I will certainly keep an eye out for the missing anemone, I'm not going to form a search party to find it. How much of a disadvantage is it for "Claire" to only have one of these anemones? Attachments Pom Pom.jpg (329 views, 14.08 KB)
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argi	Posted 2/15/2008 12:49:26 PM
Group: Administrators Last Active: Yesterday @ 8:24:32 PM Posts: 7,157, Visits: 14,114 42,065	I wouldn't be too concerned. In the wild I am sure there are times when they only have one and still survive. Put them in our tanks where there are no true predators and food is readily available to them and they probably don't even need them. ________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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*FMarini*	Posted 2/16/2008 10:59:46 AM
Group: Moderators Last Active: 12/26/2011 8:29:37 AM Posts: 622, Visits: 2,913 5,210	I've had a number of these guys over the yrs, cool little crabs. As Keith mentions those pom-poms are little anemones, usually of the bundeopsis family(beaded anemones)and they are treated very roughly by the crab; they drag them over the substrate, push em around, and don't feed em, so in the wild they discard them and get new ones. However, in our tanks they aren't really required and the crab will live a long healthy life w/o the anemones, but if your really into getting new anemomes, this species is considered a pest species in the san diego bay (even thou they are not endemic to san diego) Frank ----------- "We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities disguised as insolvable problems."- John Gardner
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Johnston	Posted 2/18/2008 8:47:00 AM
Group: Administrators Last Active: 10/31/2012 6:49:00 PM Posts: 52, Visits: 569 542	I guess I'm not looking to replace his little anemones, just for peace of mind that he/she would be OK w/o out them. Actually, it still has one ... I'm looking at it right now in the cave with the sun coral and it looks fine. Thanks for the great info, guys ... I sincerely appreciate your time and effort to answer my questions.
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Johnston	Posted 3/11/2008 11:32:47 AM
Group: Administrators Last Active: 10/31/2012 6:49:00 PM Posts: 52, Visits: 569 542	So it's been about a month since we noticed our Pom Pom Crab's missing anemone and ... wouldn't ya know it? Claire found her missing anemone and scuttled out of the rockwork this morning to show us. I just thought I'd update you guys!
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argi	Posted 3/11/2008 3:50:19 PM
Group: Administrators Last Active: Yesterday @ 8:24:32 PM Posts: 7,157, Visits: 14,114 42,065	waiting for the new picture.... Glad to hear Claire found the anemone. ________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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Johnston	Posted 3/11/2008 3:51:55 PM
Group: Administrators Last Active: 10/31/2012 6:49:00 PM Posts: 52, Visits: 569 542	I tried snapping one with my Motorola Q but you couldn't even tell it was a crab. Maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck!
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