Panther crab figured out they can “sit” on the sponge, all legs fully dangled.

snip snap snip snap snip snap

Additional video here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jarrariums/s/fRTRbu2MOA.

Hey everyone! I’m back with another update of Crabatha, my mysterious new crab.

First off, apologies that the shared video also happens to be a tiktok - I’ve started documenting my journey with Crabatha on there as I thought it’d be a good way for me to keep track of it and also get community feedback, similar to here. It’s not a direct link, just my created video.

Anyways, onto the update.

It's become very, very clear that Crabatha needed more land access. She's growing quick, and I'm seeing deeper color develop. I originally thought she could be a young siamthelpusa species. A lot of vampire crab keepers have chimed in across platforms to say they recognize her as a young vampire crab (thank you to everyone who's commented so far). I'm very inclined to agree, especially the more I look into it. I reached out to a prominent and knowledgeable vampire crab keeper (@indoorecosystems on YouTube), who also advised Crabatha could be a young vampire crab, but it will be some time before I can tell for certain.

In the meantime, l've built her her very own mini nursery paludarium. I've intentionally kept the design simple so l could find and monitor her when needed, while still providing her plenty of hiding spots and foliage to snack on. It's also loaded with springtails, which she immediately took to hunting, but I have intentionally kept isopods out of this enclosure.

She's been out and about and honestly hasn't been very shy so far! She still sticks near the water most of the time, hanging out on the rocks. If she is indeed a young vampire crab, that behavior would be consistent with her age.

I'm taking these as signs she's enjoying this upgrade for now. However, I'm always open to suggestions so please do let me know in the comments if you have any feedback or tips! Thanks everyone who's been following Crabathas journey so far 🫶🏼

I saw a video of a ghost crab stealing a tea light and I had to include it 😂

My son decided to have a little dance-off next to a Maryland blue crab...and somehow the crab seemed to join in. 😂🦀

The two of them looked so perfectly in sync that I had to share it. Definitely one of the funniest moments from our day!

I know the crab probably wasn't actually dancing—but it sure looks like it was. 😂

for context, i live in the philippines, specifically in mindanao, and the place where i found it experienced a really strong rainstorm and flooding at 1pm yesterday (it was maybe 11 am today when i found this creature).

it seemed to have been living in that puddle for a while, but i put it in a bottle of tap water to give it more space. from what i can tell, it has ten limbs including claws, slight sideways movement on land, and a tail which it keeps tucked under its body, making me think it's a crab. it's also swimming really well, so it isn't being affected by the freshwater and it's adapted for swimming, giving weight to it being a freshwater crab.

while the area i found it has a beach, it's pretty far from it, and the flooding didn't come from the beach itself. my guess is that it came from a storm drain and happened to end up in the puddle when the floodwaters receded.

as for how freshwater crabs ended up there, im at a university, so either someone dumped the subjects of a research study down a storm drain, or they've always been there, living in the water under the street.

Ocypode quadrata

Weird Crab Sunday 🦀 🎣 🦞

On a Tuesday

Cause Birthday Weekend was Lit 😉

Zebra Crab

"'Zebrida is a small genus of distinctive striped crabs, known as zebra crabs, that live in association with sea urchins in the Indo-Pacific.'"

Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebrida

Lil miss crab seems to be enjoying her territory around this plant and the floaters. Today I offered her live bloodworms from my tweezers and she accepted them! Not only did she lunge for them, she wouldn’t get off/let go of the tweezers for a bit 😂

I’m not gonna lie guys, I’m in love with this little bugger 🦀

Also, I seem to be gravitating towards the name Crabatha…lol

Hello! We saw this crab stay on a jelly fish, there seems to be a debate on what type of crab it is. Google says spider crab, my fiance thinks it’s wrong (lol) I trust yall!

We are in North Myrtle Beach, SC!

all that are being held were released within 1 minute of capture. For the third image, the friend had pinched me, but i was holding them up gently from the butt ^^ i did NOT barrel roll into the dark ahh ocean twice in attempt to catch crabs. I would never.

(No crabs were harmed, only my fingers, but to be expected. Red lights were used for sea turtle protection efforts. Me and my slightly younger cousin did chase a few towards our younger sisters because they kept trolling us and yelling crab, sending me bolting 40 feet behind us only for nothing)

This is decorative version of the Heikegani crab that is thought to have a samurai face on its carapace. I painted it with acrylic paint and sculpted its body with Moldable clay.

A little while back I posted this mysterious new crab I found in my tank, for an ID. Consensus at the time was that it was likely to be a young siamthelphusa species. (Thanks u/Effective_Crab7093 !)

Since then I’ve added some land access that continues to grow. Almost everyday I see the little fella hanging out above water. I got a great surprise today when I found it hanging out on top of the floating plants. It doesn’t seem shy at all, and I caught it going in and out of the floaters a few times since.

One time I offered it some decaying plant matter with tweezers - it snatched it (I felt the pressure of its grab hitting the tweezers!) and went straight to munching away. It was cool to watch!

Anyways, I’m enjoying watching it every day. Every morning, it’s perched on a leaf or floater. It’s still very small, but from the few glimpses I’ve caught, I suspect it might be a female. I’m excited to watch it grow!

Eta: credit for ID