red claw crab beginner question

[vicnair]

So I bought three female red claws today from petsmart. they are in a small tank, maybe 10 gal. heres my question, am i doing this right? ive been doing research but i cant really find any site to say what they need as far as habitat goes. so im asking on here. what i have is this, about 4 inches of water on one side with a large air stone, gravel on a steady incline to the other half leaving about two inches from left to right and about 8 inches front to back above water. no filter. i have a decoration for them to climb on too. like i said, im using gravel... should i use sand? i bought some but when i put it in before i got the crabs to get the tank ready, but all it did was cloudy the water beyond belief. i even used a 36 gallon filter to try to clean it out over two days and it did nothing, so i dumped it out and got gravel. i still have some extra sand that would fill the tank nicely, but i dont know how to get it in there without it completely sanding up my tank.

also, (in the future) i am going to get a male to let them have babies, i know my son would love that. is that hard work? ive have and have had fish before but ive never had crustaceans. Thank you for your help and advice!

 

[OrangeCones]

Are you keeping the crabs in brackish water? They do best with a filter and a normal fish aquarium, with ways to get out of the water if they want to. Some use driftwood, some build up a side with sand (putting in a plexiglass barrier works well to keep the sand from sliding into the water and leveling out over time). They like to burrow in the sand and pick through it to find food. They also will hide for days after they molt and it is very important not to disturb them during this time, as they are easily stressed. Some presume they have died when they have hidden away for days and not ventured out to eat.

As for breeding them, it is very difficult to accomplish in an aquarium from my experience. The young have a plankton form that swim in the water column before developing into the adult form.

 

[Andrew Castagna]

When I had my red clawed crab I did not even give him land I just put him in my aquarium. Now two years later he lives and gets oxygen by climbing up a coral decoration in the center of my tank. They are way harder to breed than fish and I had no success.