just curious...

[kat and james]

hi everyone..
i've kept my red clawed crab for about six months now, and she seems to be really happy. i THINK she was laying eggs the other day, she opened up this funny hatch on what i can only presume was her butt, and started pulling at the fluffy stuff that was inside (needless to say the fish munched all the "eggs").

and just recently i thought she'd died, as the hole in a bit of bogwood which she usually sits in contained a white crab shaped thingy, which i assumed was her, but upon closer inspection, i noticed she was sitting under the slate, and this shell thing actually appeared to be some kind of skin, which she has shed..!! didnt even know crabs did that..

anyways, just wondering if anyone else has seen this sorta behaviour.. is it normal.. and is she happy??
thanks
kat

 

[MasterP]

If you mean molting their shell, than that means the crab is growing. The crabs shell is soft over the next couple days and that is when their new shell grows and becomes bigger.

 

[kat and james]

thats what i thought.. just was a little bit of a shock, to find this whitish soggy crab shaped mass.. which wasn't the crab!
well thank you for clearing that up for me..
should i buy her a boyfriend.. or fellow crab, her little buddy died shortly after we bought them, and we didn't buy any others?
do they get lonely?
thanks!!!
kat

 

[MasterP]

How big is your tank?

 

[kat and james]

50 gallons.. but we are upgrading to 170gal ASAP!! can't wait!

 

[SRC]

Are crabs like shrimp..in that when they molt you need to add an iodine suppliment (like Kent's) to help their shell harden? I know I didn't do that for my ghost shrimp and they all died because of it..their shell never hardened...just kinda went smushy.

 

[kat and james]

hmm.. now i'm worried.. i had no idea about this.. lfs said nothing. although we do have high calcium food which supposedly strengthens thier shells.. she seems to be doing fine, and has been more active in the last 2 days than she has for a while..

 

[MasterP]

With other fish in the tank i say you can have bout 4 for every 30 gallons. Does your tank have smoewhere they can climb out of the water?

 

[kat and james]

yea, i wasnt told this when i bought her though, but noticed that she liked to climb up the heater, and sit on the powerhead, so this is where i put her food now too, it means the other fish can't get to it.. although my sneaky clown loach and red tailed shark teamed up and started ramming the the tube leading to the powerhead in order to knock the food off.. those sneaky little fishies!!

 

[MasterP]

Thats good because there is supposed to be someplace where the crab and escape from the water.

 

[comedykicks]

Yep, the shedding of the shell is normal and I also found out that the crabs usually eat a portion of the shell which helps with calcium. So if your crab did that, then she proabably doesn't need any suppliments.

But check online to be 100% sure about it. Google's an awesome tool for finding out info on fishies and invertebres

 

[kat and james]

yea will do.. maybe we should have left her soggy ex shell in thier.. didn't look too great.. but at the time we didn't even realise taht they did that
i will check on google though
thanks for all the help!!
oh yea forgot to ask, should she have a little friend.. do you know if they like to be in pairs or groups.. she seems perfectly happy, but i thought i'd ask! plus would be so cute to have little crablets running around the tank!!

 

[comedykicks]

As far as I know they don't mind being in pairs but I'm not too sure about groups. But I'm sure she'd like a boyfriend

 

[kat and james]

wonder how you sex crabs then...???

 

[MasterP]

You usually tell the sex by the size of the claws. One sex will have a big claw and the other will have two regular sized claw.