Yay CRABS!

[Malhavoc's]

hehe, What a fun title eh?

Well I posted awhile ago about adding a crab to a ten gal fish tank, but I cant find the thread so I'll start a new one!

Awhile ago in the ten gal I had 5 neons 1 dwarf frog and a pete, The frog ate all but one neon and lived happily but the water went heywire and they all died before I could add a crab, so finaly after a few weeks of removing dead fish water changes and fun chemicals to balance out what happend and trying to figure out why it happend the tank is stable, So, after my second attempt 4 female and 2 male guppies died, but on the fun side 4 baby guppies were found and rescued placed in a deli cup of bottled water, okay third try tank leveld it now contains 4 neons, one beta fish [simameese fighter] one red clawed crab [the focus of this thread] ,one Pete and one dino eel. . YAY!

During the packing the very smart lady at the pet store emptyed water from that lil plastic box thing they use leaving about an inch or two of water with 4 neons and the crab, sufice to say the crab got sooshee [spelling] so we got a free neon.

So now we have this beautiful tank and a beautiful small red clawed crab [missing and leg but it'll regrow] and am going to try and get pictures of the lil guy soon, anyone got any tips or pix of their crabs, I love em, underwater tarantula kinda thing

 

[Empi]

Cool man. I'm glad to hear you got one. My red claw molted a few weeks ago and is getting pretty big. They are fun. I will try to get a pic of him for ya. I probly wont be able to though cuz he is in a sixty gallon with 8 piranha and he is hidden most of the time. I'll try though.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Hmm one neon down 3 to go, seems everynight when I turn the lights off on fish tanks somethings missing in the morning lol, and if the crab would sit still I could get a pix of him..

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Cool! I'd love to get a crab! What kind of setup do you have? Do I understand you right, that you have feshwater in the aquarium?

 

[Malhavoc's]

Yes its Fresh Water aquirum, I wanted some crabs and found to commenly available species are Red and Blue clawed crabs, Neither need access to air, or special requirments, and seem somewhat easy to care for, I can give you a read off of my tank if you want [balance] I am keeping an eye on it anyway as my last tank went heywire so I';ll be monitoring this one good. So far its got 1 tall artificial plant in one corner hidding a bubling undergravel filter and a regular side clinging filter [the under gravel came with the tank and doesnt do shyte] then one small about 3 inch articial plant in the middle and a artifical rock arch agenst the left side, White and bleu pebbles on the bottum. Anbd hope to add 1 or 2 live plants and a few more hides before adding anything else to the tank, The Claw in question needs to regen a leg which brings up a question, Do crabs liek tarantula continue to molt after reaching maturity [even though this one isn't mature thought I'd ask]

 

[Thoth]

The funny thing this only happens with my neons too, my glo-lites, cardinals and serpae tertas are fine. I don't know if the neons just die and the crab then eats the remains or of all my tetras the neons are the only ones that are stupid enough to get caught.
I have two of the little guys, one through some secret crabjitsu always manages to get in to the filter and hang out there happy as anything. The other guy likes climb the plants then hang off with one claw.
I know crayfish and lobsters continue to molt through out their lives, so I'd presume crabs do. The leg will come back with the next molt.

Cirith if you want to do a a purely crab set up with red claws and/or fiddler crabs (the ones most commonly available in the US), you don't need a full tank, best would be a semi aquatic setup. All you need is a couple of inches of brackish water with a rock/gravel beach/land area. This is the most basic set up, obvious you can add filtration, heating, disco ball et c. If you wan't to keep one in an aquarium use the red claws. I think they are way cooler than hermit crabs.

 

[Malhavoc's]

LOL.mines doing fine in a full ten gall of water, he finds his way tho the surface which he rarely does [why do they need access to air?] Another question is how often do they grow?

 

[Empi]

Mine has yet to go to the surface for air since I have had it. I don't think red claws need air. Fiddlers need access to air though or they will die. My last red claw escaped right after I got him. The one I have now though has not even tryed to escape. He must be happy in his big tank.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Thanks Thoth for the adivce! I'm gonna look into that in the future and obviously do my homework before making my move

 

[Malkavian]

Mal when you say dinosaur eel do you mean something that looks a little like this?
http://www.polypterus.info/Images/p_weeksii1.jpg
http://www.fishesnpets.net/gallery/oddball/armoredbichir2.jpg

but probably plain bronzed in color and about 4 inches long?