New 8-armed buddy

[Animal Mother]

If "rainbows" are the same as "patriot" crabs I've kept some in a freshwater tank before. About tennis ball size, colored red, white, and blue? I couldn't keep them in the tank. They constantly climbed out and I would find them behind furniture, or just hanging out on top of the tank filter. They seriously intimidated me! Like a large tarantula with pinchers. Very bold attitudes.

 

[NecrochildK]

If "rainbows" are the same as "patriot" crabs I've kept some in a freshwater tank before. About tennis ball size, colored red, white, and blue? I couldn't keep them in the tank. They constantly climbed out and I would find them behind furniture, or just hanging out on top of the tank filter. They seriously intimidated me! Like a large tarantula with pinchers. Very bold attitudes.

Not quite, they're both land crabs and from what I see of the patriot crab in pictures, they're pretty close in looks, so they might be closely related. But rainbow land crab also mooncrab or Halloween crab is black with orange spots behind the eyestalks, bright orange legs and underbelly and rich purple claws.

This was my boy, Spooky.

 

[NecrochildK]

Ah wait, reading a little on t he patriot crab, seems it's an aquatic species? They're probably not that close then. Rainbow land crabs spend the vast majority of their lives on land, wetting their gills in puddles and such and only go to the water to mate.

Edit: And now I'm really confusing myself. Some pages say it's the same crab, but the pictures I find don't look that much like the Rainbow land crabs that I've seen and most look submerged in water in the images. They might just be the same damn thing, the breed has a ton of names for it.

lol And if they ARE the same thing, well it's no wonder they kept climbing out! XD They were probably thinking "This person is crazy if they think we're gonna stay in all that water!"

 

[Animal Mother]

No, after looking at that picture they aren't the same. Those look pretty neat though.

The Patriots were about 4 inches wide.

 

[shipposhack]

Patriot crabs are one of my favorites. I've thought about setting up a FW tank just so I could keep one (and then I'm sure I would get very into it, since all the fish are less than $5 XD).

The Canon G9 is a good camera. I look forward to your pictures with it.

 

[Animal Mother]

Looks like the octopus has moved into the yellow watchman gobies home. There are several snail shells piled up just inside the space between two rocks where the yellow watchman goby had been residing. The YW goby now resides underneath the rock where the anemone is, along with the emerald crab.

Another fiddler crab down, found only the large claw and the top of its carapice(sp?). I'm hoping the octopus will become confident and show itself during business hours, but if not, at least I'm seeing obvious signs of activity and appetite. I promise pictures of at least the tank before the end of the day.

 

[Animal Mother]

Full tank shot

Left half

Right half - the octos den is underneath the rhodactis mushrooms, bottom right side.

Left side view

Right side view

Yellow Watchman Goby

 

[dreadhead]

nice tank.

 

[Animal Mother]

It's okay. Since the tops are taped down I was lazy and put the topoff water in the refugium and it stirred up a bunch of junk. It's usually not hazy like that.

 

[simple]

i got my octopus from live aquaria and it turned out to be nocturnal, so this might be the case with yours.