Porcelain/Anemone Crab (Video)

[kaybee]

Here is some footage of my blue porcelain crab filter feeding on cyclopeeze in the water. The crab is perched adjacent to an encrusting SPS coral, hydnophora exesa:

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Its maxillipeds are modified for filter feeding, screening the water with them and consuming captured fine particulates and micro-fauna.

It can, however, eat larger food items when the opportunity presents itself (using the larger pincher claws to grab and shred the item, e.g. mysis shrimp, into smaller portions). I've had it for about 20 months now.

[kaybee]

Rare glimpse of the same porecelain crab near the front of the glass:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater2009/pcrab.jpg

[Evildude]

OMG he is awesome how much did he cost and how old was it when you got it?

[jay2487]

that is an awesome crab, those filter feeder arms are wicked

[VoidParadigm]

Oh wow. o_o
That crab is simply stunning.

[Amazon]

Oh I love them. We cant catch porcelain crabs under rocks here on the Gulf coast. Theyre really neat.

[kaybee]

OMG he is awesome how much did he cost and how old was it when you got it?

I can't recall how much the crab cost but it was under $10, about $6 or $7 something like that. I'm not sure how old it was when I got it. It's grown some since I've had it (about 2yrs now).


that is an awesome crab, those filter feeder arms are wicked

It's very interesting to watch it feed. In addition to being capable of filtering particulates directly from the water it can use its other limbs to agitate the the sand bed then filter out microparticles with its It's very interesting to watch it feed.

The larger claws are quite powerful. I'll offer it a mysis shrimp (using tweezers) and it grab the mysis shrimp, pinching the tweezers with unexpectedly great force. It'll also use them in self-defense when my serpent starfish attemps to steal food from it, or offensively when it attempts the reverse and tries to steal food from the serpent star.