Thai micro crab (pic)

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 (http://wp.me/p2wM8r-uB).

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
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

[video=youtube;91MHjCL0ND4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91MHjCL0ND4[/video]

So cool! Exactly how small are they?

yes I was hoping there would have been a guinness bottlecap in there for size reference 8p

Again, wonderful pics. Could you give a bit of a backgrounder on these critters?

I love this thread already! I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to try breeding them. Can you imagine trying to find the babies? :biggrin:

Thanks all! This little critter was only about 3 mm across the carapace. The whole crab could have sat on my little fingernail without touching the edges with its feet. When full grown the carapace will be 6-7mm across. I don't really know too much about them. Apparently they have been found only in 1 river in Thailand, where they lurk amongst submerged vegetation. They are entirely freshwater and seem very hardy. They use the thread-like setae on their chelipeds (pinchers) to filter food particles from the water. There is another pic on my blog that more clearly shows the setaeon the chelipeds.

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com