# Crabs?



## Obsidian

My friend is looking at getting a fiddler crab or a red claw crab. She wants to know what is a good sized tank for these and what are good tank mates?


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## Cacatuoides

It is kind of a touchy subject with crabs, because they can eat any fish pretty much when they go to sleep (the fish). I've heard of people keeping them in 10g tanks. I would be curious though, because I have a 2.5 hex that I think would be interesting to keep on in. Though, that might be a bit small.


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## br00tal_dude

I have a ten gallon i am about to convert to a crabitat for some red claws, I was planning on keeping a pair of guppies with them, although what Cac said makes sense.


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## Guest

i guess a pair in a 10 would be ok. but it needs to a terrarium of sorts. a setup like Chormelibrarian's would work.


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## Gourami Freak

Red claws probably wont eat your fish. They do best if you have a place to crawl out of the water like a piece of bog wood. they are also gardeners so if you have a planted aquarium expect to be re-planting pretty often.


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## jrdeitner

no red and gold claw crabs wont eat fish.


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## Cacatuoides

Hmm, so for sure, the Red claw/fiddler crabs won't eat fish?? grr every other person i ask the answer changes.


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## jrdeitner

i said nothing about fiddlers. they are more likely to eat fish. though with careful choosing of fish you could keep them in an aquarium with fish.

red clawed crabs most of the time will not though. each crab has its own personality though, and as a general rule you shouldnt keep any crabs with long finned or slow moving fish, but ive been able to keep them with angels with no trouble.

but if i were to set up a tank around crabs i would pick fish like danios, tetras, you know, small fast fish that a crab wouldnt get a chance to eat. i would caution against other bottom feeders though.


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## Cacatuoides

Really, my lfs has crabs and they said they are fiddler crabs, also known as red claw crabs.  I kno not to trust the lfs, but I think they had both in there, and they just told me they where the same thing and one was female and the other was male.


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## jrdeitner

hmm well maybe they are the same thing. they certainly look the same. just whenever i hear about a crab eating a fish they are called fiddlers. i always though they were two diferent species. ill do some research on this........


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## jrdeitner

ok no they are not the same. although the lfs might probably doesnt care and may sell red claw crabs as fiddlers and vice versa. so you really cant be sure about what youre getting. the same precautions should be taken for both though, even though fiddlers tend to more violent. if they were bought online you could probably be more sure of what youre getting.


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## Gourami Freak

Fidler crabs are an entirely diffrent crab that red claws.


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## PLECO!

well for a red clawed crab they do well in 29's but tens and 20's our good to the tank mates should be other crabs crayfish something like that but fish you have to be very careful they will eat fish so no corys and pleco will eat the crab so you should have top swimming fish i have glass catfish . catfish work best to me like sun cats pictus eclipse or like i said glass cats or also called ghost catfish but if you get a sun cat also known as eclipse cat you must get a big one 3 to 4 inches. but if you don't want to worry about (ALL) of this (STUFF) just get Draft craw-fish aka shfeldtii. they are good with fish and they are ten times better trust me i have some the red clawed crabs are not really good my 55 gallon i had set up had two of them next day half of my fish were gone shrimp are good to (grass shrimp) and you can sometimes order them at your local pet store in different colors. and fit-tiler crabs are a mess they smell to i sold mine to my pet store guy and bought a bamboo shrimp ten times better but what you can replace the fit-tiler crab with is a moon crab our Halloween crab both are bigger then the fit-tiler crab and can't be under water like the fitlier crab. but i do like them and i had some it's just i like my moon crab more think of it as a monster size fit-tiler. well that about it what they eat....fitilers idk moon crabs and Halloween hermit crab food or gold fish. red clawed crab all your corys and fish bamboo shrimp algae grass shrimp what do you think same thing as bamboo shrimp and other food . and draf craw fish my FAV eats fish food and algea agea disc DONE


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## Guest

ok i really couldnt understand a WORD the dude in the above post was trying to say! any one any good at translating gibberish here?


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## timmo2009

yep, time to learn about puntuation, and some sentance structure.


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## fishbone

I've been caring for crabs for years now. You have to decide up front the purpose of getting them.
If you are getting them as a "throw-away" pet and you are not concerned with their well-being, then by all means toss them in a freshwater aquarium.
If you want to genuinely meet their requirements then you'll have to set up a separate environment for them because:
-they will not live the length of their natural life in full freshwater; they need low-end brackishwater (salinity somewhere between 1.004 and 1.008)
-they are amphibian creatures; they need access to land, otherwise they slowly drown over time in an aquarium
-they will hunt and tore up other fish and plants

Those two requirements right there puts crabs at odds with your typical freshwater set-up.
As far as mixing them, crabs are very temperamental and have their own personalities.
I have fiddlers that are chill and get along with everyone.
I had a red claw crab that tore up 4 fiddlers in one single night.
I have had a male fiddler get along with everone.
I have had a male fiddler actively hunt out other male fiddlers even if there were just two of them in a 75 gallon tank ...
In my experience:
-do not mix species; they become territorial
-red claw crabs, male or female are not as social as fiddler crabs
-both red claw and fiddler crab MALES are territorial for the most part
If you want the most peaceful crab tank with no aggression, then get fiddler females only.

Right now I have 3 fiddler crabs that are 4 years old. According to all articles I have been able to find, they have already exceeded their normal lifespan. So I must be doing SOMETHING right  They are housed in a 75 gallon tank which is half water, half sand. The water is brackish, always has been, and they have access to a dish of freshwater up on land. Every once in a while I will see one completely submerged in the freshwater, just hanging out. They do this to regulate the salt in their bodies. THere is also a dish with full-strength marine salinity and they rarely get in it.


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## 1up

I agree with the guy above, good stuff. Although I think it would be ok to have one male with the females, or enough hidding spots and very few males (with given space).

As for a community fish tank set up, I've had better experiances with fiddlers than red claws, but as said before, all are differant.
To keep my fiddlers happy in my community 10 gal tank and have them live a good while is pretty simple (Mine, around 2 years typically, but hard to say since the last time I had my male and female fiddlers, my tank began leaking and had to give them away) Right now I have a male and female guppy, zebra danio, Sunny day (or something like that) gourami, female betta, 1 prego ghost shrimp (testing whether or not will be ok with my..) and Fiddler crab. Also growing some bulbs and some pre-grown plants. Now the crab needs axcess to the surface so I used the betta bowl my female came in, made a hole to use as a door near the top next to the lid, weighed it down with rocks and gravle and put the lid on. Then I put it into the tank so its half full of air and adjusted the rock to allow the crab to confortably stand out of the water. Another thing to do, is rig an air pump to it to circulate the air, tho I've yet to do so and it seems fine so far. 

This seems to be a good set up if you want more than just crabs. I did have a redclaw too, but after adding the fiddler it became stressed and after a few days, sadly, had died. This has happened before but I decided to try it out again, and it seems to me that red claws are much more sensitive to new or other species of crab. For me, its alway been the red claw to go, no matter how badly I wanted both, or how I set the tank up. 

Hopefully, my ghost shrimp will be ok, otherwise its food for Kingler (lol, my fiddlers name ) But hey... Thats what they are typically bred for.


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