Do crabs regenerate their claws?

[shin00bi]

Just recently discorvered that a large scarlet hermit has been attackin my anenome crab. He was ok earlier, but the hermit was in front of it. When I checked a few hours later , both the anenome crab and scarlet had lost limbs. It lost a big arm so now he only has one claw . I took out the big scarlet hermits in my tank out.. now I'm really starting to regret putting hermits in : . Anyways on the to question though u probably know what it is . Will my crab regenerate his claw???

[CAT]

They can, but I believe it can take a couple of molts to do it. Also, it's tough on them. At least it has one claw to feed itself. I would target feed it and maintain good calcium so it can regenerate.

Good luck

[yardboy]

When you catch stone crabs in the Keys you take one claw and let the crab go, so they must replace them yearly?

[salt creepette]

uh oh, i just added an anemone (porcelain) crab to my tank, which has mostly small hermits in it...but one hermit is about his size. I havent seen China (thats the porcelain crab's name) since I put him in the tank on thursday. hope he's just hiding....

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by salt creepette
uh oh, i just added an anemone (porcelain) crab to my tank, which has mostly small hermits in it...but one hermit is about his size. I havent seen China (thats the porcelain crab's name) since I put him in the tank on thursday. hope he's just hiding....

not to worry, if it survived the initial intro into the tank, it will not compete with the hermits for territory nor food, as it is a filter feeder. Now if the porcelean crab molted from the shipping stress, you may not have one left at this point.

Interesting thing about these little commensurate crabs, I bought one last year from a MO vendor to add back into the tank for the BTA in the lagoonal tank (replacement for the freeze losses). Acclimatized it, removed it from the acclimization chamber, placed it in the water just above the anemone, it swam into the anemone, and the anemone promptly ate it... ... expensive anemone feed.

It may be that these little crabs have some means of introducing themselves to new hosts so that they will recognize the crab as a commensurate creature rather than a meal, who knows... Hopefully this is what is happening with your crab.

HTH

[shin00bi]

My crab was walking freely in the long tentacle anenome for a while. I dunno it seems that they get along. who knows maybe the anenome took off the scarlets and the crabs limbs? now he just rests around or under it. I dont think there crabs need claws to feed. they have these phallanges with fans on them to catch stuff in the current i think.