Collecting Food

[corw314]

I am happy to say I just returned from a "mucking" excursion with my daughtor! We went to a river beach and collected tons of hermitcrabs, some local shrimp and a purplish crab that Hermin used to go bananas over! There were mating horseshoe crabs swimming all over the place!

Anyway, Ink is sitting in the front of the tank with about 7 hermitcrabs under him. He keeps flinching and flashing colors like their pinching him! He's never had the local crabs before, so should be interesting to see if he's figured out how to pull them out!

My tank is really warm after this heatwave we've had here on the Jersey Shore. It's up to 82. So I've cracked the air up. Quess I should leave it on more.

Carol

 

[cthulhu77]

Nothing more fun that getting your feet wet and seeing wildlife too!!! next time, take some pics...always interesting to see different parts of the world, ie: I have never seen wild horshoe crabs...must have been really neat! with envy!
Greg

 

[corw314]

Hi Greg!

You asked and you shall get!!! Next mucking will I have pictures!!!

Anyway, here's the crab which reminds me of a Sally Lightfoot cause they are always on bulkheads, near cracks they can run into. He's Ink's next meal!!!

Carol

 

[cthulhu77]

Oh great. Now my other half is upset because it is such a cute crab...oh well...
Nice Pic!
I am off to mexico again in ten days...I will have more fodder for the forum then in regards to pics...hopefully of an O. digueti!!!
Or 2?
Greg

 

[corw314]

Just got back from collecting food for Ink but high tide is not the time to go. Jess met some kids and one of the boys found this baby horseshoe crab! I'm afraid Ink is out of luck with this little guy! Don't think I want to find out if horseshoe crab is on his diet!!! When it's low tide you can walk to the end of the white cement on the left of the picture and it's creatures galore!!! No tiny octopi though . But seahorses, garfish, lots of baby fish, come August/September and some tropical that come up with the Gulf stream!

Carol

 

[Nancy]

It would be so nice to be able to live so near the ocean that I could collect food! Thanks for the pics. How far away from this location are you, Carol?

It looks like an interesting place to go, even if you didn't have Ink.

Did you keep the baby horseshe crab or put it back? I've seen some like it for sale at the LFS here in Dallas.

Nancy

 

[dbbga]

Wow 8) cool I have a horseshoe crab just about that size too, but in a seperate tank. It has already molted once and grew three times it size in one day,,, was way cool 8) 8)

 

[Colin]

They are something that I have always wanted to keep too... quite often read about people on reef sites that have them as detritovores in a tank though i can imagine them being a bit of a bulldozer at times LOL

 

[corw314]

Hi all!

I live about 10 minutes from this location, but I can walk down my street to a saltmarsh/ or as people call it the swamp! Low tide you can really smell the mud! The ocean is about a 1/2 mile from my home and on the way are bridges over what they call the Manasquan River which goes from saltwater to brackish.

Yes I kept the baby horseshoe crab! He is now living with Mr. Jawfish. I took out a large hermitcrab, with turquoise spots on his legs who's now living in the feeder tank. Was afraid he'd pick on the horseshoe crab. So he and Mr. Jawfish are now cohabitating!

Carol

 

[corw314]

Just came back from the Marina again and here's a picture of lowtide as it was getting dark! Ink is chasing the grass shrimp we caught all over his tank. We put in about 10 of them and he's deffinately in his hunting mode, even though he just had a nice size crab today! We have been freezing the crabs to get a stock up for when I won't be able to catch them any more. He eats anything, dead or alive!!!

Carol

 

[Nancy]

Hi Carol,

Ollie is envious and wishes we lived near the sea, so that I could catch shrimp and crabs for him!

Nice pic of the Marina, must be fun to go there and poke around.

Nancy

 

[Colin]

Hi carol

they look very similar to the shrimp i use sometimes over here, might be the same genus... mine are Palemon serratus... they are just as much fun to catch as keeping an octo LOLOL

 

[Armstrong]

Nothing more fun that getting your feet wet and seeing wildlife too!!! next time, take some pics...always interesting to see different parts of the world, ie: I have never seen wild horshoe crabs...must have been really neat! with envy!
Greg

Iv picked Horshou crabs up on the beach. There neat animals that have been around for a long time.
There harmless too. I think there too big and armored for octopuses to eat. Mainly regular crabs are better.