Horseshoe Crabs

Ok, I was in my favorite LFS today getting more LR and a polyp frag, and as usual for me I was parusing the SW tanks. They have in one of them 2 little horseshoe crabs!!! I know that in the wild, those suckers get pretty good sized, but MAN I want to put one in my 55g...they're about the size of a nickel or maybe a quarter (not including the tail)...

But OMG! HORSESHOE CRABS!!! How freaking cool is that?!

When I was a kid we use to play with them at the beach. They get HUGE! Id love to setup a SW just to have one! Someone on CL here local selling one for $10

Wow! I would have loved to do that when I was a kid...or even now for that matter!! I would love to have a huge, monster tank some day to keep sharks and the like. That's never going to happen, but it's fun to dream. I wish I had a tank big enough for one of those horseshoe crabs, tho! They're freaky neat!

They would be neat to have in a tank but they do get big for sure. I can tell you if I had the funds to do so... I'd have one of those basement tanks. Something like 10k gallons lol.

strikingthematch wrote:

They would be neat to have in a tank but they do get big for sure. I can tell you if I had the funds to do so... I'd have one of those basement tanks. Something like 10k gallons lol.

I think there cool also.I would love to have one too.Maybe when I get my own house I will turn my 140g into a SW tank and put one in there or buy a 240g SW tank.

They grow pretty slow. The ones I have started out at about 1" or less and a few of them are about 3" in a year.

Sooooo...... I could potentially get a little guy and start him in my 55, then in a year or so sweet talk hubby into maybe getting a BIGGER (muahahaha!) tank to switch him to?? Hmmmmmm....

They sell them here in california like water... I have had some before... always seemed to die after about a year. but the biggest one i have EVER seen in a tank, was only about the size of a balled up fist.. (minus the tail). I'm never seen them get "huge".

Must be something to do with aquarium life that keeps them smaller. All I know is that they get big outside of a tank haha. I believe they malt as they age so maybe keeping them in aquariums when they are smaller causes them to not get what they need to produce new shells and they end up dieing.

I have one, jax the guy selling them is bandito974(jimmy) pope and me know him. the get big, and once they get big they will go after fish and inverts.. when small they are good and cleaning the bottom and stiring up the sand bed..

Good to know! Definitely don't want to lose any livestock to them... How big do they usually get before they start hunting the fish/inverts?

6 inches

including the tail?