Set Up A Red Crab Tank....

[mamboboy]

Basically I set an old ~35-40l tank up with rocks, land area, shells/caves to hide, a mist maker, added a teaspoon of aquarium salt... but I've had no luck getting the crabs to live together peacefully.

I bought six of them to go in the tank. Two have died already (not from fighting from what I can see, but they just weakened over a few days).

There was one who wasn't looking too great yesterday (lost it's colour) so I've been keeping my eye on it.

I check now and notice two of the remaining boisterous ones are on top of him... well, basically ripping it apart. In the 10 minutes I was downstairs they'de taken off both of it's claws and two legs and are now happily munching on them.
I've taken the crab away and put it in an area they can't get too, but should I just euthanise it some way? Perhaps in some iced water? It's a pretty horrible shape to be in and I feel real bad for it...

Are crabs usually this bad? At the pet store they had a good 20 of them in a similar sized tank and they seemed to be getting on fine. I'm thinking about just returning them and giving up on the crab venture...

 

[stevereade]

I've kept red clawed crabs for years and never had any killing each other, maybe they're hungry? lol may seem stupid but it happens, when I first got mine they kept catching my dwarf frogs and eating them untill I fed them a bit more and then they lived together peacefully.
I had about 8, one or two lost a claw from time to time but none died, a pair even bred one night at about 4am, I woke to find them releasing a huge white cloud of eggs by banging against my heater. Where did you buy them from? Wasn't pets at home was it?

 

[mamboboy]

I've kept red clawed crabs for years and never had any killing each other, maybe they're hungry? lol may seem stupid but it happens, when I first got mine they kept catching my dwarf frogs and eating them untill I fed them a bit more and then they lived together peacefully.
I had about 8, one or two lost a claw from time to time but none died, a pair even bred one night at about 4am, I woke to find them releasing a huge white cloud of eggs by banging against my heater. Where did you buy them from? Wasn't pets at home was it?

Yep, pets at home... notorious for lying to customers! Actually, apart from my Dwarf Puffers I don't think I've ever had any aquatic animals I bought there survive for more than a few weeks.
From what I've read you shouldn't have more than one male in any group - I'm sure that's the problem. But the two remaining ones are just as bad (I think it's a male and female). For example, I just observed one sneak up behind the other on the 'beach' I made and it literally JUMPED onto the other and they started scrapping until I put my hand in their to break it up!
I've been putting 2-3 algae pellets in each day, as well as a few dying plants from my other tanks so I think it's more than enough? It was pretty grim to watch the one happily pick at the freshly severed claw, whilst I moved the now deceased victim to save place - not nice at all

I've constructed a makeshift wall on the land area now so they can both (hopefully) have their own territory whilst relaxign. If they are still hostile come Saturday I think I'll return them with their 7 day return policy. It's a bit disheartening really as I've spent almost £40 on things to make it a nice home for a few crabs!

 

[kiriyama]

I was in an LFS yesterday, they had a tank full of them they looked very temting, they had no land area , the tank was full of water and had fish swimming about also. I have to admit I was very tempted but from what I'm reading here are they best suited to a species only tank ? Would it be shallow water and a "beach" ?
They looked cool but I would be scared they ate my fish.
Sorry to hear about your misfortune......

 

[mamboboy]

I've basically got the tank half filled with water and a small beach on the side made of gravel. Regardless of what PAO say, the crabs spend a lot of time on land - I'd say a good 50% of the time they are out on it chilling (with the mist maker running however).
I've kept a few tricky pets over the years (including an eel that would jump 1-2 feet out of the water!), but crabs are definitely the worst when it comes to the effort to pleasure ratio. Cannibalism, fighting, trying to escape... and I've realised it actually isn't worth the hassle as they are ultimately very boring and realistically unless you have a huge tank where they can form their own territories well out of the view of others, it's quite a tricky venture.

Oh well, lesson learnt!

 

[flapperjack128]

i was thinking of getting a crab for my tropical fish tank, but i have no idea what on earth to feed them !!

much appreciated for any response ASAP

Flapperjack128