Quarantined | Decorator Crab

What “Quarantined” means

Every animal sold under this listing goes through YoCamron’s Aquatics full quarantine program — treated preventively for the common pathogens, observed daily, and confirmed eating — before it goes home with you.

Most livestock losses in this hobby aren’t bad luck. They’re pathogens that arrive with a new animal — ich, velvet, gill and body flukes, internal parasites — and stay invisible for the first 1–2 weeks while the animal is stressed from shipping. By the time you can see the problem, it’s in your display tank, and every animal you own is in the fight. Quarantine exists to run out that clock in our tanks instead of yours.

Our process

• Dedicated quarantine systems, separate from our display and sale tanks.
• Preventive treatment for the pathogens that actually kill new arrivals, instead of waiting for symptoms.
• Daily observation — breathing rate, body condition, behavior — so problems get caught while they’re still small.
• Feeding confirmation. Nothing goes home until it’s eating in front of us. An animal that eats is an animal that travels well.

Quarantined to order

Nothing we sell online is pre-quarantined and waiting on a shelf. Every quarantined animal is quarantined to order — your purchase starts the process, and the clock starts the day your animal reaches our facility.

For a saltwater invertebrate like this one, plan on up to 76 days before it goes home.

Add up to two more weeks in front of that. If we do not already have the animal in-house, sourcing it is the first step — and that time sits on top of the window above.

This is not a rush purchase, and it can’t be turned into one — the entire value of quarantine is time. If you need your livestock by a particular date, contact us before you order and we’ll schedule the arrival around it. If you need something this week, the non-quarantined listing is the honest choice. The full process — and how to decide which tier is yours — is explained in Quarantined vs Non-Quarantined.

The guarantees

• Shipped — Early AM Overnight only: 48-hour live arrival guarantee from confirmed delivery. Next Day Air (standard Overnight), 2-Day and USPS Priority carry no live arrival guarantee, on any tier.
• Local pickup or delivery: 28-day live guarantee — bring a water sample from your aquarium so we can test it before your livestock goes home with you.
• Maintenance clients: 60-day live guarantee on any livestock you buy from us, for as long as we service your aquarium on a plan of at least twice a month — weekly, every 10 days, or biweekly. Monthly plans carry 28 days. Nobody else in the trade puts that in writing.
• Sourcing: if the animal is not already in-house, add up to two more weeks in front of the window above — that applies on every tier.
• Claims: video of the sealed, unopened bag, opened on camera, with the animal on a white paper towel, inside the window.

Why quarantined is the right choice

If you have an established display tank, the math is simple: the premium on a quarantined animal is small next to the cost of treating — or losing — everything already in your tank. It also means you can skip running a hospital tank at home, which done properly is its own aquarium, its own months of patience, and its own chance to get something wrong.

The honest caveat: many of these species are also available from us non-quarantined for less. Those carry a 1-hour live arrival window on Early AM Overnight — or 24 hours on local pickup or delivery with a tested water sample — and no refunds, returns, or credits beyond that. There is also a middle rung: the Lightly Medicated listing gets one short prophylactic course and is covered for 24 hours on Early AM Overnight, or 7 days on local pickup or delivery with a tested water sample. Next Day Air (standard Overnight), 2-Day and USPS Priority carry no live arrival guarantee, on any tier. If you already run a proper quarantine setup at home, that’s a fair trade and you should take it. If you don’t, this listing is the right one. (You’ll sometimes see “quarantined” abbreviated as QT — same thing.)

Decorator Crabs (Camposcia retusa and related species) do exactly what the name promises: they actively attach living sponges, algae, colonial tunicates, and other small organisms to hooked Velcro-like bristles covering their carapace and legs, building a genuine, growing camouflage suit out of whatever material is available in their environment. It’s not passive debris accumulation — the crab selects and places material deliberately, and a decorator moved to a new tank will often re-decorate itself using locally available organisms within 24–48 hours.

The biology behind this is fascinating: the hooked cuticular projections (setae) on their exoskeleton function like biological Velcro, holding attached organisms in place. The attached organisms typically remain alive and continue growing, which means a well-established decorator crab is carrying a miniature reef of living organisms on its back — including organisms that weren’t there when it arrived.

Peaceful, slow-moving, and one of the more genuinely fascinating behavioral quirks you can observe in a reef cleanup crew. They’re not aggressive toward corals, fish, or other invertebrates, and their deliberate, unhurried pace means they rarely disturb settled specimens even when climbing across the rockwork.

Scientific name: Camposcia retusa (and related decorator crab species)
Origin: Indo-Pacific — rubble zones, reef slopes, and sponge-rich habitats across tropical reefs
Water parameters: Temp 72–80°F · Salinity 1.023–1.026 · pH 8.1–8.4
Tank requirements: 30 gal minimum; a reef with diverse living organisms gives the crab material to decorate with
Diet: Omnivore scavenger — detritus, algae, and small particulate organic matter; often eats what it collects
Compatibility: Reef safe; peaceful with all species; won’t harm corals or fish
Husbandry note: The decoration behavior is directly tied to camouflage — a decorator crab in a bare or sparsely decorated tank will appear underdressed and stressed. A tank with diverse macroalgae, sponge fragments, and varied rubble gives it the palette it needs to fully express this behavior.