hmm

[nightlife20]

ok u can all have a laugh on me today...



2 days in a row now iv come downstairs switched the light on in my tank to find my crabs belly up!! (or what i thought were my crabs) turns out both of them have shed at the same time... and me being a dumbass i thought they were dead...


but one of the shells was perched in my big crabs fave spot.... so u can see why i freaked an thought it was dead....



well the little one must have thought its a great laugh to see me screachin outside its tank..and this mornin decided to shed its skin right next to the filter... so the first thing i saw in the tank this mornin was its shell clingin to the filter intake....


so go on u all have a laugh at me......

 

[Kribensis]

hahahaha, its happened to me too )

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Ewwww, I am bad enough when my weather loach sheds his skin!!

 

[Stryker]

Not only that, they shed their skins then hid to see your reaction

BTW, I've seen some little freshwater crabs ..... damn forgot their name at my local hollybush. I was wondering, see the content of my 120L tank in my sig? would a couple of crabs be ok with those fish? do they put a lot of bio load on the tank? what do you feed them? prawn a day?

 

[Kribensis]

i used to own a crayfish, one morning i came down to see what i thought was a dead crayfish, i got rather upset, called my sleeping hubby from his bed(he works night's) pointing at the tank that his lobster was dead, for my hubby to lift up the lid and find alive and well on the underside of the hood, needless to say, a not very happy wide awake hubby

 

[nightlife20]

crabs eat anythin, that includes dead/dying fish.. i cant see a problem with u havin one in ur tank, as long as theres no escape routes (cause they little houdinis) i havnt got the half land half water setup, both of mine have ways to get up on the ledge just underneath my lid... many a times iv taken the lid off to do a water change an one or both of them are sittin there.

Not only that, they shed their skins then hid to see your reaction

too right

 

[Stryker]

ooh, had not thought of that. For best health do they need land mass? I ask because I've got glass sheets on the ledges to stop condensation.

 

[CFC]

As a general rule crabs (and crayfish) should not be mixed with fish, they are predators that will attempt to catch and eat anything that swims past which means that any small or slow moving fish will end up as food.

We too were fooled by our crabs shedding their shells. We originally bought 5 of them as pets for our then 3 year old son as he was always fasinated by them but within the first week one had escaped and died and then over the next 6 months or so another two "died" and their "corpses were disposed of. After a while our son was no longer interested in them and we decided to return the remaining two to a LFS so we could use the tank for a breeding project, imagine my suprise when some weeks later i found a crab sharing the tank with a very frightened pair of appistos! It seems the two presumed dead ones had been hiding inside a hollow ornament and only feeding when we were not around

 

[nightlife20]

i think it depends on what crab it s, mine are two red clawed crabs.. i was told they dont need to get to air... but mine have the option... then can if they want... its not somthin i made for them... they found it themselfs.. they always climb.. so if u have any holes in ur lids, block them up.

 

[Stryker]

hhhmm, interesting, you jogged my memory I think they were red claw, hollybush may of called them "dwarf red claw", they did seem pettite, around 1" across on the body shell.

I'm not keen on this idea of introducing a predator tho. None of my fish are bottom dwellers but they do often explore.... for that something different I may just end up with a couple of ghost shrimp.... well many thanks and sorry for hijacking your topic.

 

[nightlife20]

no problem...