Mini-crabs

[jesse217]

Can someone show me a comunity fish tank setup but with something for the mini-crap climbs on and gets out for air.

 

[three-fingers]

Which crabs? I've yet to see a any crabs in lfs' which are suitable for regular community tanks.
Do you already have the crabs? Or are you just thinking about them?

 

[TylerFerretLord]

What species of crab are we talking about here? 'Mini' can describe nearly all crabs when they're small.

Most on the pet market require brackish water, and thus are not a good addition in your average community. They'll also eat fish at night if they come across them.

It's better to set up a tank just for crabs.

 

[raptorrex]

What species of crab are we talking about here? 'Mini' can describe nearly all crabs when they're small.

Most on the pet market require brackish water, and thus are not a good addition in your average community. They'll also eat fish at night if they come across them.

It's better to set up a tank just for crabs.

Crabs will nip, crabs will display to chase off fish, but Crabs killing healthy fish it may happen with fiddler or Rainbow. but redclaw crabs, perhaps the most commonly sold "tropical" crab, have no interest in live fish! the only real problem with crabs in a community tank is that they need brackish water and a fair amount of dry land, or a dry area to go sit in. give them that and , more often than not, things will be fine.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

That's assuming that he's referring to red-claws.

 

[raptorrex]

That's assuming that he's referring to red-claws.

err yes .

 

[dizzied]

I've always thought the red claws were the "nippiest" of the commonly sold crabs. My fiddlers have never touched a fish.

Here, "Mini Crabs" almost always refers to fiddler crabs, which for the most part, live on land.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

err yes .

But I think, in general, that it's just a bad idea to try to keep crabs and non-amphibious fish together. They just need a tank that's set up too differently.

Of course, sometimes you can get it to work out, but it's usually not completely fair on either the fish or the crabs.

 

[raptorrex]

I've always thought the red claws were the "nippiest" of the commonly sold crabs. My fiddlers have never touched a fish.

Here, "Mini Crabs" almost always refers to fiddler crabs, which for the most part, live on land.

well that would not be the behaviour, that i have found, both in keeping and from the comments of outher keepers
i would challenge this too! without doubt the most talked about "mini" crab, of recent times on this forum, are Redclaw Sesarma Bidens. they actually need slightly more land than Fiddllers.

err yes .

But I think, in general, that it's just a bad idea to try to keep crabs and non-amphibious fish together. They just need a tank that's set up too differently.

Of course, sometimes you can get it to work out, but it's usually not completely fair on either the fish or the crabs.

indeed so, but some well setup brackish tanks do quite well. that said, if you keep them properly, even in a three foot tank you would have too little water for keeping fish anyway.

 

[jesse217]

sorry for late reply but im talking about these ones http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...amp;pcatid=2788.

 

[BecciMac1987]

I had a red clawed crab in a comm tank (freshwater till I learnt about brackish), and it ate tetra all the time. Id watch them swim past and him get them. They were perfectly healthy too, so I dont think you can defo say that they wont touch healthy fish.

 

[dizzied]

i would challenge this too! without doubt the most talked about "mini" crab, of recent times on this forum, are Redclaw

Perhaps on this forum, but in actual stores, the crab sold as "mini crab" is often the fiddler crab.

they actually need slightly more land than Fiddllers.

Given that fiddlers basically live on land and are usually only underwater because of a high tide, I doubt that. It would make sense if they both needed land equally, but I don't how a red claw would "need slightly more land" than a fiddler.

 

[raptorrex]

i would challenge this too! without doubt the most talked about "mini" crab, of recent times on this forum, are Redclaw

Perhaps on this forum, but in actual stores, the crab sold as "mini crab" is often the fiddler crab.

they actually need slightly more land than Fiddllers.

Given that fiddlers basically live on land and are usually only underwater because of a high tide, I doubt that. It would make sense if they both needed land equally, but I don't how a red claw would "need slightly more land" than a fiddler.

Fiddlers live on land, however, in nature they would sleep, under the sand at high tides, in the estuary. red crab, live predominantly on river banks and mangroves, and sleep in burrows that are damp but not below the water line. the both forage at the waters edge, though the red crab forages further afield. put simply the red crab spend more of its time away from water than the fiddler. how they act in a tank is a different matter. but, in most instances, we are aiming to get as close to nature as possible.

 

[dizzied]

Assuming all fiddlers slept under the water line and all red claws above it, that isn't exactly good reasoning that the latter requires more land.

Granted, I've had a lot more experience with fiddlers than red claws, and have talked to a lot more fiddler keepers than red claw keepers, but I can tell you fiddlers do spend the majority of their time out of the water. In nature, they create burrows that can reach several feet deep and interconnect with other burrows, which isn't something most of us can recreate, but does point out how active they are and how much land they use. Of course, I don't know the red claw's habits (they don't exactly live around here) so I can't compare the two, but I can tell you the fiddler would prefer a lot of land in captivity.