Urgent Help?!?!

[kelsyleyendecker]

Some of y'all have seen that we had a very large hermit crab accidentally come home from the beach with us and in order to hopefully have him survive we cycled a tank with him in it. It's a 10 gallon tank and we wanted to add a fish now that everything has been consistent for a few weeks. We intended to take home a clown but got talked into a Blenny who for the last 24 hours has been pestered by the crab. We had to bring it back or it would've become fish food. We need more of a swimmer.

They don't have any Damsels and since I couldn't find my receipt I have to exchange or surrender. My choices are, Snowflake Clown or Ocellaris Clown. Or nothing. Just surrender the Blenny back and call it a day. Kinda wanted to add a fish but not sure what to do now. Advice quick please? They close in 20 minutes. Only a 10 gal tank and have a large marine hermit crab.

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[rostervandross]

Hey, that is really cool what you did for that crab! Cool looking crab too. What does he eat?

I guess it is just a matter of whichever clown you like better. They are actually in the same family as a damselfish.

You paid for the blenny, and if you must exchange, I'd go for it and see what happens

 

[kelsyleyendecker]

Ok thanks

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[kelsyleyendecker]

Clownfish by themselves or in pairs. It's only a 10 so I feel like 1 is better size wise but if socially they need 2, I'll grab both.

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[rostervandross]

10 gallons is not a whole lot of room for two fish to stake their respective claims but it looks like you have plenty of live rock. I would try a single fish first.. if the fish are forced to have a territory too close to the ground/ not able to move around, the crab might be able to bother one or the other.

Maybe two fish would be ideal, but maybe not with a crab to worry about, you know?


My first fish were a clown and a yellow tailed blue damselfish in a 20 gallon long. There was room for another fish but after that there was no more territory available.

 

[kelsyleyendecker]

Thanks we got the black and white clownfish and have started the drip acclimation right now. Fingers crossed this goes better!

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[cracker]

If the hermit is trying for the fish he may not be getting enough to eat. Just a thought
Also I wish I had a beast like that guarding my castle! All I have is a dog that works You for treats!

 

[kelsyleyendecker]

The crab was going for the fish even with plenty of food in there. He's wild caught unfortunately and so I'm sure he was used to catching live prey. We ended up with the black and white clown fish. This crab is massive. About 4 inches or so of shell. Not sure how much bigger he can get! But the alternative to keeping him in a tank was letting him die so we managed to cycle the tank with him in it and keep him alive. We were just wanting to find a fish to add some color and excitement. But I'm a little concerned with how obsessive the crab is. I will say, he has chilled out a bit with the clownfish. he was initially crawling after it but when he realized it wasn't resting on the rocks like the Blenny was I think he gave up. Hes camped out now and inactive. I swear he crawled all day trying to catch that poor Blenny which is now safe back at the pet store. We shall see what tomorrow holds. We did drip acclimation for 2 hours with this guy and hoping he does ok in this tank. Not sure what the normal swimming patterns or behavior for clowns are. So I won't know if something is wrong. The kids chose the black and white one. Looks pretty cool in there. But I liked the snowflake clown because it was different looking. Wish I could add another but I think space wise, just one is the smarter way to go.

 

[Stephane Cote]

Do you have a local aquarium you could donate the crab too? Or even post on craigs list maybe someone with a bigget tank will accept him. but if you have a local aquarium, i'm sure they would gladly give it a home on one of their massive aquarium.