Limnopilos Naiyanetri (Thai Micro Crab)

[Urban Aquaria]

Planning to keep with pure shrimp tank.. Worried about them eating my newborn shrimplet.
is this micro crab?

Yeah, those are the thai micro crabs... they wouldn't eat shrimplets, i shifted mine to a shrimp grow-out tank a while back and they have been living with newborn shrimplets for the past few weeks, when i recently did a head count on the juvenile shrimps that have grown up, all of them were still present and accounted for, so the thai micro crabs didn't touch any of them.

[Emperios]

It's cute !

[Urban Aquaria]

Quick update, i've been keeping a small group of the thai micro crabs in one of my planted tanks for the past 2+ months, and during that period i only saw them appear a handful of times.

So i decided to transfer them to another tank with a more suitable layout that allows them to be observed easily, yet still replicating a dense plant environment for them to hide and feel safe.

This is their new "home"...



I converted the 10 Liter nano tank situated inside my tank cabinet into a thai micro crab habitat. Clumps of java moss were added to create a latticework of plant strands for the micro crabs to climb around on and forage for food. They share the tank with a few golden clams and some cherry shrimps.



This setup seems to be working well as i noticed the micro crabs are much more active in this tank, and yet i can still view them very easily.

I even managed to get some nice close-up macro photos and a video of them too:







These thai micro crabs are really unique creatures when you can see them in such close-up detail... due to their incredibly tiny sizes, unless they are viewed through a macro lens or magnifying glass, most aquarists will never get to see and appreciate them to this extent.

Hopefully the macro photos and video here can provide a nice detailed glimpse of these interesting creatures.