24G aquapod blue crab species tank?

gagaliya

GNOME POWER!
Nov 20, 2005
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www.happyreward.com
Hello there, as a new pet project i plan to buy a blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) from china town seafood market and keep it in a aquapod 24G nano tank. This will be a species tank with a single blue crab as the sole occupant due to its extreme aggressive nature.

I have experience with freshwater planted tanks but never kept a saltwater tank. My plan is to have a VERY SIMPLE setup, please tell me what i need or can have. Here's my current shopping list

1) current aquapod 24G all in one tank
2) seachem aragonite substrate (Meridian Oolitic )
3) instant ocean salt
4) coralife hydrometer for salinity measurement
5) 1 blue crab (callinectes sapidus) :clap:

Is there anything ESSENTIAL i am missing?

Have read the blue crab will basically turn your aquarium into a war zone so any kind of decor etc will not work. My question is will liverock be ok? my salinity will probably be lower than normal reef measurements, will the live rock still be ok? will the crabs mess up the live rock?

thanks!
 
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There's nothing essential your missing. I highly doubt the crab will be able to mess up rock, but I have never really researched "blue crabs" so I could be wrong, although A LOT of fishes commonly available in the trade will eat some form of life or another off of the rocks.
 
blue crab is the saltwater piranha. basically anything (except very large) you put in the tank with an adult sized blue crab will be dead the next day.

I am not sure what exactly is the "living" portion of live rock, is it some shrimp/snails that come with the rock, or bacteria? because if it's visible creatures i am sure the blue crab will find a way to kill it so no point paying all that money for live rock, if it's bacteria then should be fine in the tank with the blue crab.
 
The "living" portion of the rock that creates most of it's benifit is mostly tiny micro invertebrates that aren't much bigger than a few milimeters, both nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria as well as algaes. There is some larger invertebrate life that he could eat, but some of those are considered pests and most don't give you a significant benifit compared to the micro - inverts, bacteria and algaes living in and on the rocks.
 
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