Stomatopods17
Well-Known Member
Had this crab for a few days now so I can share!
Calappa Flammea, aka Flame Box Crab / Flame Shame-faced Crab / Flame Fountain Crab
The individual I have right now is around 4", full grown, and came from saltybottomreefcompany!
Due to the rarity of this crab I'll provide as much info as possible in my 7 years of research and experience with the individuals I have had, and figuring out the reef safe part is pretty easy considering I put it in my 125 gallon aquarium lol.
Info: Calappidae, or Shameface/box crabs, spend a lot of time buried in the sand with only their eyes emerged. I found in both cases I've had them that they tend to run around actively more than staying in the sand, they are super interactive and fun to watch, I wouldn't recommend one in anything smaller than a 20 long by itself, as they do use up a lot of the room and make aqua scaping tricky. They need at least a 2 inch deep sandbed, just enough for the crab to bury with only its eyes sticking out.
They primarily feed on bivalves and snails, in fact if you take a close look at the image's left claw you'll notice something off about it:
This hook is present on only one claw, its designed specifically to crush open shells of clams and snails kinda like a walnut cracker, the actual claw is hidden behind this hook while the other claw is more long and sharp for ripping out the meat. They are not exclusive to this diet, as they easily take what meaty items you give them such as krill, silversides, and what I'm feeding them: frozen PanaPesca Hardshelled steamed clams from my local grocery store. I'm observing it very careful to see if it eats worms as I have a large, possibly nightmare fueling amount of them in this 125g and I do see it actively pulling stuff out of the sand and eating it.
I do not know whether or not it will eat anemones or corals and it's a risk I'm taking under the belief those are not primary prey items and I have an invasive amount of GSP and hairy mushrooms to spare for testing. My Leather toadstool is about a foot wide with a high stalk so I'm confident it won't attempt to pick at it. Fish I do not have anything that stays at the bottom, but I believe the rule of thumb is if it can catch it, it will eat it. However the odds of it catching a fish are very slim as it cannot go in rockwork easily at all and it stays on the flat bottom, never climbing even on low rocks. Think of them like horseshoe crabs in their mobility, but unlike horseshoe crabs they aren't nearly as difficult to keep and come out as a good show piece! They do get along with each other if you have enough space, infact the females will carry around the males in-between their front claws which is funny to see, making them pairable. Males stay a little smaller so they can be carried.
The 'fountain crab' name comes from a comical ability to just spit water straight up in the air when you move them up to the surface, I got to observe this when taking it out of acclimation but I do not know the stress implications of forcing this behavior so you'd have to google it.
They are very unique crabs and I highly, HIGHLY, recommend giving them a try if you get lucky enough to see one available, easily one of my top 3 favorite animals in the hobby but sadly, are difficult to get my hands on for a few reasons, 1; demand I imagine, 2; there is another animal in the hobby labeled as 'shame-faced crab', which we more commonly refer to as 'calico crabs' today, they are completely unrelated but have similar burying behavior, and I find them less active in general, definitely not as cool as calappidae but most wholesalers probably order them automatically on request for 'shame face' crabs.
Story:
Calappa Flammea, aka Flame Box Crab / Flame Shame-faced Crab / Flame Fountain Crab
The individual I have right now is around 4", full grown, and came from saltybottomreefcompany!
Due to the rarity of this crab I'll provide as much info as possible in my 7 years of research and experience with the individuals I have had, and figuring out the reef safe part is pretty easy considering I put it in my 125 gallon aquarium lol.
Info: Calappidae, or Shameface/box crabs, spend a lot of time buried in the sand with only their eyes emerged. I found in both cases I've had them that they tend to run around actively more than staying in the sand, they are super interactive and fun to watch, I wouldn't recommend one in anything smaller than a 20 long by itself, as they do use up a lot of the room and make aqua scaping tricky. They need at least a 2 inch deep sandbed, just enough for the crab to bury with only its eyes sticking out.
They primarily feed on bivalves and snails, in fact if you take a close look at the image's left claw you'll notice something off about it:
This hook is present on only one claw, its designed specifically to crush open shells of clams and snails kinda like a walnut cracker, the actual claw is hidden behind this hook while the other claw is more long and sharp for ripping out the meat. They are not exclusive to this diet, as they easily take what meaty items you give them such as krill, silversides, and what I'm feeding them: frozen PanaPesca Hardshelled steamed clams from my local grocery store. I'm observing it very careful to see if it eats worms as I have a large, possibly nightmare fueling amount of them in this 125g and I do see it actively pulling stuff out of the sand and eating it.
I do not know whether or not it will eat anemones or corals and it's a risk I'm taking under the belief those are not primary prey items and I have an invasive amount of GSP and hairy mushrooms to spare for testing. My Leather toadstool is about a foot wide with a high stalk so I'm confident it won't attempt to pick at it. Fish I do not have anything that stays at the bottom, but I believe the rule of thumb is if it can catch it, it will eat it. However the odds of it catching a fish are very slim as it cannot go in rockwork easily at all and it stays on the flat bottom, never climbing even on low rocks. Think of them like horseshoe crabs in their mobility, but unlike horseshoe crabs they aren't nearly as difficult to keep and come out as a good show piece! They do get along with each other if you have enough space, infact the females will carry around the males in-between their front claws which is funny to see, making them pairable. Males stay a little smaller so they can be carried.
The 'fountain crab' name comes from a comical ability to just spit water straight up in the air when you move them up to the surface, I got to observe this when taking it out of acclimation but I do not know the stress implications of forcing this behavior so you'd have to google it.
They are very unique crabs and I highly, HIGHLY, recommend giving them a try if you get lucky enough to see one available, easily one of my top 3 favorite animals in the hobby but sadly, are difficult to get my hands on for a few reasons, 1; demand I imagine, 2; there is another animal in the hobby labeled as 'shame-faced crab', which we more commonly refer to as 'calico crabs' today, they are completely unrelated but have similar burying behavior, and I find them less active in general, definitely not as cool as calappidae but most wholesalers probably order them automatically on request for 'shame face' crabs.
Story:
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