# Thai micro crab (pic)



## Ecooper (Jul 3, 2012)

I recently bought a couple of Thai micro crabs (Limnopilos naiyanetri) to photograph and add to my aquarium. These critters were really tiny and my aquarium is chock full of wood and plants. I knew that once I added the crabs I would be lucky to ever see them again; so I took the time to take photos first. 

This is one of a series I posted on my blog (Portrait of a Thai micro crab | macrocritters). 

Olympus OM-D E-M5, Zuiko 35mm macro, manual exposure (F11-22 @ 1/200 sec), Olympus RF-11 ring flash (1/4 power), ISO: 200
P8030207 thai micro crab copyright ernie cooper by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

I also tried shooting a little video. I didn’t have very much light and had to shoot with the lens wide open, so the depth of field is really shallow. Only later did I realize that I should have increased the ISO so that I could have used a smaller aperture (and gained depth of field) (smacks head). Oh well, next time...

Cheers,
EC
macrocritters | What's a nice bug like you doing in a place like this…?

Thai micro crab (Limnopilos naiyanetri) - YouTube


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

Beautiful! ... and kind of creepy lol


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Where did you get these guys from? How quickly do they breed?


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> Where did you get these guys from? How quickly do they breed?


i have seen them on aquabid quite often.

breeding them is a bit of a challenge. its one of the critters i want to try my hand at, eventually. apparently, they will spawn easily enough, but keeping the young alive is next to impossible.


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## dirtydutch4x (Jun 16, 2009)

I think i read somewhere that the longest anyone has had the young live was like 9 days. Thats insane to think they are that tough to breed with all of the people in this hobby that are sooooooo stupid smart when it comes to this. I have four in with some cherries and Badis.


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## dirtydutch4x (Jun 16, 2009)

by the way if you think that pic is not so good then mine really suck! lol


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

dirtydutch4x said:


> I think i read somewhere that the longest anyone has had the young live was like 9 days. Thats insane to think they are that tough to breed with all of the people in this hobby that are sooooooo stupid smart when it comes to this. I have four in with some cherries and Badis.


yeah, everything seems to go that way. its always an impossible task until somebody figures it out.

after that, its "they need such and such to survive, EVERYONE knows that!"

lol, i just want to be the guy to figure one of these crazy critters out. then ill give everyone my secrets and move on to the next oddity.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

And the secret is...LOL...I'll bet who ever has tried to breed/grow them has done so in a sterile laboratory looking tank in order to
facilitate their being able to see the results they were getting. And one other possibility...the blue crab, a salt water crab, goes into
freshwater to breed. The young are brought out to the salt water during some stage of their growth. Be it intentional or not I have no 
clue(about them getting into the salt water) but it did occur to me that a possibility could be a reverse of this for these crabs.
As I'm lease locked to ten gallon tank(s) I have gotten a few things "tiny" or "micro" as they suit my tank size.
I am presently working on a ten/w a refugium (2.5 G) just for what ever/who knows and have already decided to get a few of
these to try after it is ready. But the idea for the breeding and successful raising of the young is just to place them in a
mature tank. So after this tank matures for 6 months and gets a decent growth of algae/daphnia/scuds/plants...that is when I'll
go for these. Also thinking I'll wait till I see some live tubiflex worms in there. Have a source for them if I can't "collect" some.
Sterile laboratory tanks...bah humbug...give me some good ol' algae and daphnia...LOL...but that's me.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I love your photography.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Thia crabs are on aquabids now.$4 each.Seller is located in CA.Almost last listing on first page of inverts.


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