# Thai Micro Crabs



## Eileen (May 31, 2009)

I just got (6) of these tiny little guys today. Aquatic Warehouse in San Diego has them for $4.99 ea or 5 or more $3.99. Completely aquatic needs no land and they do well with all dwarf shrimp tanks.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

They are super cute indeed. I love mine, though they've been giving me serious headaches in my attempts to rear their young. They're going to go into hiding on you as soon as you put them in the tank, but over the next month or so you'll probably find that they get a bit less shy and begin coming out during the day more often.


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

Do you know if they have it in LA also? I'm driving to LA next week.


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## Eileen (May 31, 2009)

*More pics of my New Thai Micro Crabs*

you can call some aquarium places in LA. Look on-line and call some. Here's some more pictures I took in my tank now. i got 6 of them. 3 are in a 10 gal. with Tiawan Red Fire shrimps and 3 are in a 6 gal. tank with some snowball shrimps. In one of the pictures it looks like Find Waldo as you have to look everywhere to find it. It's above the rock near the java fern. They seem to like the Cholla wood I have in the tank. They hind inside.


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## sepulvd (Mar 19, 2012)

Very nice. Thats pretty good pricefor aquastic warehouse they have been known to be on the expensive side well atleastfor saltwater stuff. I usally shop at pet kingdom very nice selection


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## Eileen (May 31, 2009)

*Thai Micro Crab*

Checked my tank this morning to make sure the tiny crabs were ok. I spotted a few hiding and found this guy on the cholla wood. Picture came out really good so I had to post it. I will be changing out some of my small QT tanks all to Black sand tomorrow with a mirrored background so the snowball shrimps, red fire shrimps show up better as I have alot of new baby red fire shrimps. Those tanks all have pool filter sand.Do you know if Pet Kingdom carries them also? I will have to post a before and after when I make the change.


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## Dakota7777 (Sep 9, 2012)

Where can you get these?! They are so awesome!


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## cantsay39 (Jun 10, 2011)

curious they really dun attack shrimps?? cuz i mean crabs... crayfish behavior anything come near them... they snap em


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## Shrimpaholic (Jul 7, 2012)

I would imagine they would eat shrimplets if they grab one. They are really cool though. I'm not to far from San Diego and would like to have a few of those but, I wanna make sure they don't eat baby shrimp first. Keep us updated.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy using Tapatalk 2


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

CookieM said:


> Do you know if they have it in LA also? I'm driving to LA next week.


Google A+ Tropical Fish Store in Temple City and CK Fish World in West Covina. Call them first if they have any Thai micro crab still. Last time I visit they have some.


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## nanobettaman (Sep 5, 2007)

They ignore my shrimp of all sizes. They're not very active and hide much of the time the lights are on. They're also pretty slow-moving. You have to remember their body is about the size of a pencil eraser, and their claw is at best the size of a pinhead.


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## Camdin (Oct 2, 2014)

These little guys are not 100% peaceful even with each other. I've had a pair of Thai Micro Crabs in my shrimp tank for a few months now. Usually they stay hidden during the day so its rare for me to see even one of them. Just today I witnessed both of them crawl into the feeding dish during the day and then start fighting one-another. At first I thought that perhaps one was trying to mate with the other so I watched them a while and let them be. I came back a few minutes later and one was on its back unresponsive. I reached in and tried brushing it with my giant tweezers but it was dead and didn't move. By the looks of it the other crab had managed to rip off one of its legs. 

No idea why they fought to the death since there was fresh food pellets all around them but just remember that while tiny, they can be very fierce.


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## Hungry Goldfish (Dec 8, 2014)

These little guys are cute but, I'd be afraid my goldfish would turn them into a snack...


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## MsNemoShrimp (Apr 25, 2011)

Camdin said:


> These little guys are not 100% peaceful even with each other. I've had a pair of Thai Micro Crabs in my shrimp tank for a few months now. Usually they stay hidden during the day so its rare for me to see even one of them. Just today I witnessed both of them crawl into the feeding dish during the day and then start fighting one-another. At first I thought that perhaps one was trying to mate with the other so I watched them a while and let them be. I came back a few minutes later and one was on its back unresponsive. I reached in and tried brushing it with my giant tweezers but it was dead and didn't move. By the looks of it the other crab had managed to rip off one of its legs.
> 
> No idea why they fought to the death since there was fresh food pellets all around them but just remember that while tiny, they can be very fierce.


Correct, which proves my point in another post similar to this. Crabs (how small) CAN NOT live with dwarf shrimps. I dunno why people want to force this for. They'll just end up losing shrimps that they don't know of but oh well, their choice


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## Mr.Betta (Jul 24, 2013)

No one has been able to successfully breed these micro-crabs from the last time I did a lot of research on them. It seems that no one can figure out how to get their larva to survive longer than a few days before they all die. I read somewhere that a guy tried all kinds of micro foods and after several months of losing batch after batch of larva he pretty much gave up. They are still really cool though and I would love to have some in my tank but my fish would turn them into snacks right away lol.


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## Tiffani (Jun 16, 2016)

I have a colony of twenty micro crabs who have been living peacefully with my dwarf shrimp for over a year. Also, just recently a man had success rearing a batch of micros. After several attempts, he used a Java moss mat that was successful. Another point, they don't hatch into larvae. The female carries the eggs till they hatch, which is 21 days. After that the female continues to carry fully formed tiny micro babies in her carapace for a week or two and then releases the fully formed minni micros.


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

@Tiffani,

Do you have a link to this breeding account?


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## Koi Kameon (Apr 25, 2010)

Do they interact in groups a lot or stake out a claim and pretty stay alone in their own territories? Do they grow quickly? I used to see them only in brown or gray, but now see them for sale in an orange brown color. Do you have any of those? Some guy on YouTube claimed they switch colors around, but he had so many, I don't see how he could tell who was what color. And it is the carapace that gets to just under a 1/2 inch, right? Many people don't specify if that is with the legs or the carapace.

Anything you've learned over the year, you'd like to share with someone thinking of getting one or more and keeping them in a nano species tank so I can see them? I would have water lettuce and penny worts for it/them to hang from. And a moss ball as a lot of people online say they seem to really like sitting on them. And a bit of an air flow to move the debris around for them to pick at. I'd keep the light on the softer side as the YouTubers say that once they get acclimated they are active during the day as long as the light is not really bright.

Thanks! 

Jennifer


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## D3monic (Jan 29, 2012)

I used to have some in my 75gal tank. They where pretty neat though I didn't see them very often.


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## BrynnaCC (Jan 5, 2014)

I've had them and they've never bothered my shrimp. They are extremely shy filter feeders and don't display the typical hunting behaviors of crayfish and larger crabs. They don't use their claws in the same way that most crabs do (they have little hairs on the front of their claws and use that to trap microorganisms. Obviously, there may be anecdotal examples of them being more aggressive, but they're not as much scavengers like other crab species. That said, they can be tough to feed properly in the way you feed bamboo shrimp (particles in the water).


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