Crabs! What a good idea!

[Tetra]

Well I was reading a previous message about crabs! What a great idea for an addition to the aquarium! to have a little creatin walking around the aquarium floor yeah! cool.  I was wondering though for those who keep or have kept red clawed crabs, are they nippy? and can they escape? it would send me  *twirlysmiley* if one was to nip my toes at night time in bed  *laughingcryingsmiley* No seriously I would like to keep them other than the fear of them escaping if they were ferocious! (as small as they are) if they are handleable I am not too worried, not that I would want to have to pick one off the floor every day! lol

 

[RedTurquoise]

They are pretty cool! You can watch them woddle around trying to catch your fish with its claws! You will have to watch out what kind you get!  *crazysmiley* *thumbsupsmiley*

 

[SoulFish]

i noticed at a LFS that there was 4 little crabs in a tank 2 dead with 1 live one eating out of each, so i dont know how well they do with each other

 

[AquariumBoiler]

I went out to look around last nite.  Couldn't find much crabwise.  My LFS didn't have any redclaw crabs.  I then went to Petsmart and the guy there said the crabs they had there  (called minicrabs, looked like some sort of fiddler) did so "well" there bc they had something they could go out on to be in dry land.  He said people that bought them anyway would always call about them escaping.  He also said that they didnt really like being underwater all the time and could only live for about a month that way.  None of these were red claw crabs and from what I read about on  this site

http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/

they seem to be ok underwater.

 

[colesea]

Crabs of the type sold in LFS redclaw and fiddlers do need to climb out on land to breath. These animals are really intertidal creatures that belong in more brackish/marsh conditions than a freshwater tank although they will tolerate freshwater when properly acclimated. They frequently escape aquariums in their efforts to breath by climbing up filter or airline hoses or decorations near the top. I've even seen them "chimney-climb" up corners.  

The only truely underwater crabs I am aware of are totally marine crabs.  Land crabs such as certain (not all) species of hermit crabs, ghost crabs, devil crabs, etc should have very little water in their tanks except to moisten the substrait and a very shallow soaking dish.

In my experience they have never lived very long at all in an aquarium. Not a good animal to have at all. Stay away from crabs.
~~Colesea

 

[AquariumBoiler]

How much time per day would one of these crabs need to be out of water?  If I were to say, take a bowl, put a little water in it and let the crab hang out there supervised for an hour or two and then keep him in the tank for the rest of the day, would the crab want to escape still do you think?

 

[Vyache]

I have four fiddler crabs in my 135 gallon aquarium. They've been in there for about a month and don't seem to be having any problems. There is a tall plastic plant that goes all the way up to my powerhead to hide the riser tube and a branch from a manzanita burl that goes up there too.

Most of the time they hang out out of site, but when I put fish food in, they dive into the water after it. I think it adds a lot to a tank to have non-fish inhabitants including live plants, crabs, snails, and frogs. I have a dwarf african frog in the same tank. The one bad thing that happened is that one of my crabs molted and got eaten by my clown loaches while she was soft. The crabs don't wave thier hands around trying to catch fish. They hold up their claw to show off for the other crabs. I used to work on a shipyard in south carolina and these crabs were all over the river bank, signaling to each other. They can easily get out of a tank with any cracks bigger than about a quarter inch but you can put one of those flaps on the cover glass and just cut out spots for filter tubs and such. I bought a new two foot flap for one of my tanks a week and it only cost a dollar.

 

[Volitan]

Yeah.. I remember as a Kid we had a 10 gallon tank with a Crab of some sort.. and it was out of the tank everyday.. just had to pick it up and put it back in everyday.. never went far.. just walking around the livingroom.. So IMHO Dont get one.. they dont like to be in there all the time.. so unless you setup a terrarium these guys will not be happy.. Now my Marine Hermits.. they Like to be underwater all the time.. they have never attempted to escape and they have plenty of options to do so.. I dont have that tank sealed up as it has Alot of heat from lighting.. so if ya want a Underwater Crab.. You will have to go Marine I am sorry to say.. or build yourself a little terrarium.. I have thought about doing that myself..

 

[colesea]

Taking the crab out for an hour or two will not do it. That is a sure way to kill the creature. First you are drastically changing the temperture of the animal by removing it from a warm tank environment to cold outside environment, second the crab is stressed from the dislocation/travel it has to do.

Crabs should be given the chance to climb out of the water as needed. Last time we sold crabs at my LFS we used a piece of cork bark tapped to the back of the tank. The cork bark floated. Then we stacked rocks so the crabs could climb out onto the bark platform at will.  It was not very aestic looking but it kept the crabs alive long enough.  Usually the first sign that your crabs are in distress is when they start popping off limbs (claws legs etc). THis is not a molt (a molt will be a whole crab shell) but a defense mechanism used by the crab to escape predators. Since crabs have very rudimentary survival skills, any physiological stress (such as drowning) can envoke the limb loosing. The crab is probably "thinking" a fish has got a hold of that limb and is dragging it away from the surface to be consumed so it will drop that limb to get way and race back to the surface where no fish inhabit.

Crabs are just a bad idea in my opinion.
~~Colesea

 

[Vyache]

Crabs are not any worse of an idea than any other animal with special needs. One should do at least minimal research on any animal they plan to keep. (Do a google search and read several web pages about the animal) As long as you provide for its special needs a crab is a fine addition to the aquarium. If you plan on getting a crab and just tossing him in your tank and forgetting about him, don't get one. Here's some webpages about one kind of crab:

http://pelotes.jea.com/fidcrab.htm

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/acebasin/specgal/fiddler.htm

 

[Matt Nace]

Vyache, your lucky so far. I bet you they will get out eventually. I had to totally seal my tank off a few years ago when I kept them. My crab lasted a year or so, and became pretty big. He lived in a 29 gallon tank.

He loved shrimp pellets, and would chase the catfish away to grab them. Eventually he started climbing the sides and filter intakes and getting out. He got out twice, and a few attemps later, I sealed everything up.

He eventually got up my whisper filter, over the waterfall, and lived inside the filter. I had a corkboard for him to sit on out of the water, but he liked the filter better.

Just be careful if you have small fish.

 

[Vyache]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Don't count on your LFS worker to be an expert on every fish they carry. When I bought my fiddlers the lady in charge of the fish department at Petco told me that the crabs were totaly aquatic and did not need to get out of the water. I asked why there was styrofoam floating in the crab tanks and she told me it was just for them to play with. She is generally pretty knowledgeable when it comes to fish questions, especially when compared to the other three people that work in the department, but she was aparently misinformed about the crabs, perhaps by her wholesaler.

 

[Vyache]

Up to this point my tank has been just about totally sealed off, it doesn't have anything but wires going into the tank up top, everything else is internal. However, I just got a fluval 404 canister filter and its going to be a challenge to keep all the spaces sealed off but allow the tube to go in to the tank. Like I said before, one can custom cut a rear flap, and they are relatively inexpensive.

 

[schneirw]

Vyache, I also read on a number of web sites (seemed like good ones) that gold fiddler crabs were totally aquatic.  Is this definitely not the case?  I would like to get something "different" for my tank and I was thinking of these crabs or africian dwarf frogs, since they both are supposed to be totally aquatic.  Do you know if the frogs are totally aquatic or are the site incorrect?  I was going to check out Petsmart, but I don't know how much they really know.  Thanks!!  Also, do they die if they can't get air easily?

 

[Vyache]

Frogs obviously have to breath air. In my tank I have some plastic breeding grass mats that I have suction cupped at the surface and "Swampy" my african dwarf frog hangs out wedged in these little floating islands quite often. I only see him every couple of days, usually dashing to the surface of the tank for a gulp of air. There should definitely be some plants or something near the surface where they can rest and breath at the surface without doing any work. Unlike the crabs that I have however, he never pulls his body out of the water, just sticks his nose up to breath. I've had him in the tank over two months now and he's still going strong.

 

[schneirw]

Gotcha ... I kinds figured they needed to breathe.  I'll have to look into a good setup for them (if I decide to get frogs or crabs).  Thanks Vyache!

 

[SoulFish]

about crabs getting out i have a large 10 year old land hermit crab who climbs to the top of his cage with a big shell on his back by sticking his claws into the silicone in corners (he doesnt live in a tnak with water)

also if you setup a big half land half water ank you could get mudskippers