nettleshrimps
New Member
Hi! I'm new, and I have some experience in fishkeeping (mostly 10 gallon domesticated Betta tanks) and I work at a PetSmart as an animal care specialist. Right now I am mostly focusing on my current Betta tank and snakes, so I haven't had a lot of plans for another tank any time soon, but an opportunity rose for me to take in an injured red claw crab from work and I ended up jumping on it.
Red claw crabs have been one of my favorite creatures to watch during shifts and I have learned quite a lot about their care due to research that I do between working in hopes to give people up to date information. Obviously, the store is not as passionate as I am and many times makes (usually intentionally lazy) mistakes in their care. This time they ended up having multiple male crabs in the same shipment, which led to them fighting and causing one specific crab to have both claws and all but one of their legs removed. This is...extremely sad, but obviously, crabs are opportunistic-- it wasn't all that unexpected. What was unexpected is that the crab lived. Some of my coworkers noticed the destruction of the crab and ended up taking him out and putting him in a separate small container, with a small pink castle and very little water in hopes to allow him to be able to both breathe in the water and be able to have access to air. There's a picture of that set up in the attachments, when I first saw him.
My coworkers named him Davey Jones and threw blood worms into the tank with him, doing daily water changes due to lack of filtration and food being left to sit in the water. There is. A lot wrong with this care, but at the very least they were slowly transitioning him from freshwater to brackish by using the premixed saltwater solution bottles of water used for our hermit crabs. After about a week of watching him struggle and seeing that none of the employees wanted to hand feed him or give him further assistive care, I decided to take matters into my own hands. He was free due to his extensive injuries, but I know that they can regrow their limbs within a shed, so if I can take care of him and give him the best possible chance over the next few months, I think he can have a really good chance of living. I have a 10 gallon tank with a lid already at my home, and his tank set up wouldn't be difficult to build compared to a normal Betta tank like I was used to. The only thing is that before he can even start being in a 10 gallon with all of his needs met, he needs to be able to recover his legs.
I have him in a smaller set up than what my coworkers did. A plastic cup, sort of like the Betta cups at work, with holes in the lid to keep air moving. Then I have a small amount of the hermit crab brackish water solution I mentioned before with some water from a cycled tank, like my Betta tank, to make sure there's good bacteria in the water. I then added java moss that's been secured to a metal plate to the bottom, so that can help with sucking up excess nitrates while giving him something to grip and munch on. Then I have some flat rocks to make it easier to get to more shallow water if he wants to get to air, and some plastic fern leaves to make it easier for him to hold on with his one leg and move from place to place. I am floating the cup in a secure spot next to the heater in my Betta tank so he can benefit from some heat as well, as he has been in far too cold of water this whole time.
I do not have a picture of this set up because I have been trying not to disturb him except for during water changes in the morning and when feeding him at night. I am also trying to feed him daily so he will hopefully have extra energy to rebuild that shell, and I'm adding in crushed cuttle bone to make it as ideal for him as possible. While I have never taken care of crabs before, I have taken care of shrimp, snails, and millipedes before, who have similar needs as far as calcium and other things go, so I am confident that I am giving him a very good shot at being able to make all of this work. But I know I am going to have a lot of questions, and I want advice. You guys probably know a lot more about red claw crabs than me, and from my research online, not many people have dealt with crabs that have injuries this severe. Do you have any advice on how to help him have as much of a chance of survival as possible? Any information I might have gotten wrong on their water needs or how his semi-aquatic nature works? Please, tell me anything you think might help. I am going to be setting up and cycling the 10 gallon over the next month or so while he's recovering, so hopefully by the time he's got his new legs, he'll be ready for his new home, and I want to make it as good as I can.
Also, here's a picture of him eating raw tilapia. I saw that they liked raw fish, and since my store has basically only been feeding them blood worms, I thought he might want to try something with more protein. Luckily for me, I was right! I pulled him out into a bowl with brackish water using a plastic spoon, gently pushing the fish right up to his mouth. I could actually hear tiny little crunching noises as he pulled off pieces with his tiny mouth parts. Obviously, he didn't eat a LOT because he doesn't have claws and I'm sure he was exhausted from being poked around so much already, but I'm really proud of him for trying it and I can't wait to feed him again soon. I might even see if I can get some of the veggies I want to feed to the nerite snail and rabbit snail and let him try those, too.
(He has less water here than his actual tank, I wanted to give him some so it would be easier in case he needed it, but in his set up he has enough to easily cover his body outside of the more shallow area.)
Red claw crabs have been one of my favorite creatures to watch during shifts and I have learned quite a lot about their care due to research that I do between working in hopes to give people up to date information. Obviously, the store is not as passionate as I am and many times makes (usually intentionally lazy) mistakes in their care. This time they ended up having multiple male crabs in the same shipment, which led to them fighting and causing one specific crab to have both claws and all but one of their legs removed. This is...extremely sad, but obviously, crabs are opportunistic-- it wasn't all that unexpected. What was unexpected is that the crab lived. Some of my coworkers noticed the destruction of the crab and ended up taking him out and putting him in a separate small container, with a small pink castle and very little water in hopes to allow him to be able to both breathe in the water and be able to have access to air. There's a picture of that set up in the attachments, when I first saw him.
My coworkers named him Davey Jones and threw blood worms into the tank with him, doing daily water changes due to lack of filtration and food being left to sit in the water. There is. A lot wrong with this care, but at the very least they were slowly transitioning him from freshwater to brackish by using the premixed saltwater solution bottles of water used for our hermit crabs. After about a week of watching him struggle and seeing that none of the employees wanted to hand feed him or give him further assistive care, I decided to take matters into my own hands. He was free due to his extensive injuries, but I know that they can regrow their limbs within a shed, so if I can take care of him and give him the best possible chance over the next few months, I think he can have a really good chance of living. I have a 10 gallon tank with a lid already at my home, and his tank set up wouldn't be difficult to build compared to a normal Betta tank like I was used to. The only thing is that before he can even start being in a 10 gallon with all of his needs met, he needs to be able to recover his legs.
I have him in a smaller set up than what my coworkers did. A plastic cup, sort of like the Betta cups at work, with holes in the lid to keep air moving. Then I have a small amount of the hermit crab brackish water solution I mentioned before with some water from a cycled tank, like my Betta tank, to make sure there's good bacteria in the water. I then added java moss that's been secured to a metal plate to the bottom, so that can help with sucking up excess nitrates while giving him something to grip and munch on. Then I have some flat rocks to make it easier to get to more shallow water if he wants to get to air, and some plastic fern leaves to make it easier for him to hold on with his one leg and move from place to place. I am floating the cup in a secure spot next to the heater in my Betta tank so he can benefit from some heat as well, as he has been in far too cold of water this whole time.
I do not have a picture of this set up because I have been trying not to disturb him except for during water changes in the morning and when feeding him at night. I am also trying to feed him daily so he will hopefully have extra energy to rebuild that shell, and I'm adding in crushed cuttle bone to make it as ideal for him as possible. While I have never taken care of crabs before, I have taken care of shrimp, snails, and millipedes before, who have similar needs as far as calcium and other things go, so I am confident that I am giving him a very good shot at being able to make all of this work. But I know I am going to have a lot of questions, and I want advice. You guys probably know a lot more about red claw crabs than me, and from my research online, not many people have dealt with crabs that have injuries this severe. Do you have any advice on how to help him have as much of a chance of survival as possible? Any information I might have gotten wrong on their water needs or how his semi-aquatic nature works? Please, tell me anything you think might help. I am going to be setting up and cycling the 10 gallon over the next month or so while he's recovering, so hopefully by the time he's got his new legs, he'll be ready for his new home, and I want to make it as good as I can.
Also, here's a picture of him eating raw tilapia. I saw that they liked raw fish, and since my store has basically only been feeding them blood worms, I thought he might want to try something with more protein. Luckily for me, I was right! I pulled him out into a bowl with brackish water using a plastic spoon, gently pushing the fish right up to his mouth. I could actually hear tiny little crunching noises as he pulled off pieces with his tiny mouth parts. Obviously, he didn't eat a LOT because he doesn't have claws and I'm sure he was exhausted from being poked around so much already, but I'm really proud of him for trying it and I can't wait to feed him again soon. I might even see if I can get some of the veggies I want to feed to the nerite snail and rabbit snail and let him try those, too.
(He has less water here than his actual tank, I wanted to give him some so it would be easier in case he needed it, but in his set up he has enough to easily cover his body outside of the more shallow area.)
