View Full Version : puffer/crab relationship
in my tank i have one green spotted puffer and a mated pair of fiddler crabs. my quesiton is has anybody ever noticed puffers interacting with crabs? my puffer won't leave the female crab alone. he's never attacked her, but i think he's annoying her. any time she moves, he'll follow her. she sometimes has to crawl over him to get where she wants to go. any ideas on this? it's really mind boggling for me.
rjl420
02-25-2003, 5:24 AM
my puffers interact with crabs, they eat them.
puffers naturally eat crustaceans, they need to to keep their teeth in check. if you value your fiddlers, I would seperate them immediately.
stik6shift98
02-25-2003, 8:26 AM
Originally posted by rjl420
my puffers interact with crabs, they eat them.
lmao:D :D
Pufferpunk
02-25-2003, 10:22 AM
I HUGELY agree! Your crabs will no doubt be dinner soon. I would move them as aoon as possible. My puffers make mincemeat of the crab legs & crayfish I feed them. Imagine being those poor crabs, just waiting to be eaten! :(
tyler
02-25-2003, 10:50 AM
it's completely non-agressive. they have been together for 6 months now without a single known incident of aggression. this bizzare interaction has just started when i moved everybody into a 20 gallon (from a 10). i'll take a picture so you can see just how odd this is.
Pufferpunk
02-25-2003, 11:05 AM
It wont last. As you're puffers grow, so will their appetite. You do what you want, but one day you will no doubt wake up to some very fat puffers & pieces of shell parts in the gravel.
Dangerdoll
02-25-2003, 11:21 AM
I'm siding with Puffer on this one....... this crab and puffer "interaction" could just be the puffer's way to sizing this fella up. He could very well be determining when the right time would be for his attack which he will be able to handle as he gets bigger.....kind of like hunter and prey. The continuing fascination a puffer has with shelled animals could only mean plans for a big dinner in the future.
i'm not doubting you, i just thought it was odd. he lays on top of her and such, but i guess when the day comes, the day comes. i'm not too attatched to the crabs anyhow.
cdawson
04-14-2003, 11:05 AM
my puffer harasses the crabs, he just nips the legs but my fiddlers are too large (4 inches across) for my puffer right now to do any damage.
isaac newton
04-15-2003, 2:02 AM
I have Red clawed crab with my dwarf puffers.. In you honest opinion, do you believe that once my dwarfs hit max size they will bother my red rock crabs? I also have guppies and neons with them as well, do u believe they will bother them as well? Right now my dwarfs are quite small and really not causing much trouble. No fin nippage yet :D (but im afraid a day will come when it becomes a problem:( )
Pufferpunk
04-15-2003, 9:01 AM
I have an apple snail the size of my fist, that my dwarfs take bite out of. The snail doesn't seem to mind though.
I had Ghost shrimp with my green spotted puffer for about 4 months, when I first started up my tank. Then one day the green spotted puffer bit one, then it was all over! The puffer went around and took a chunk out of all the ghost shrimp and killed them all, then later went back and finished them off.
cdawson
04-15-2003, 11:21 AM
Originally posted by olaf
I had Ghost shrimp with my green spotted puffer for about 4 months, when I first started up my tank. Then one day the green spotted puffer bit one, then it was all over! The puffer went around and took a chunk out of all the ghost shrimp and killed them all, then later went back and finished them off.
haha same here, I bought ten ghost shrimp for him to eat and for like 2 months he didn't touch them, then one day. BAM! they were gone, nothing but shards of shell lying around.
cdawson
04-15-2003, 9:17 PM
I've got three fiddler crabs and my green spotted just made the largest one blind (he picks on the largest one). The fiddler also no longer looks like he's doing very well.