The Crabs In Pets At Home

[MermaidMel]

Does anyone know what the small little colourful crabs are they sell at P@H for £3.99
I saw them yesterday and thought nothing of it really, but now I'm home I might like to have one given the right conditions, can anyone tell me anything about them?
Thanks

 

[Kevin_D]

They are probably Red Clawed Crabs, Pseudosesarma moeshi. They are brackish, and need a land area as well as a heated water area.

 

[raptorrex]

Does anyone know what the small little colourful crabs are they sell at P@H for £3.99
I saw them yesterday and thought nothing of it really, but now I'm home I might like to have one given the right conditions, can anyone tell me anything about them?
Thanks

you will, most often, find these named Sesarma bidens. A brackish, LAND crab. needing about 75% of the tank to be dry land.

 

[MermaidMel]

Would a 4 gallon long, heated and filtered be appropriate for 1? Bearing in mind if they need 25% water 75% land it would be 1 gallon of water. There would be bog wood in and out of the water also.

 

[raptorrex]

Would a 4 gallon long, heated and filtered be appropriate for 1? Bearing in mind if they need 25% water 75% land it would be 1 gallon of water. There would be bog wood in and out of the water also.

As long as the Tank is at least 18 inches tall, i guess so. bit small for two though, which i would recommend.

 

[MermaidMel]

Would a 4 gallon long, heated and filtered be appropriate for 1? Bearing in mind if they need 25% water 75% land it would be 1 gallon of water. There would be bog wood in and out of the water also.

As long as the Tank is at least 18 inches tall, i guess so. bit small for two though, which i would recommend.

Why do they need height rather than width then?

 

[raptorrex]

Would a 4 gallon long, heated and filtered be appropriate for 1? Bearing in mind if they need 25% water 75% land it would be 1 gallon of water. There would be bog wood in and out of the water also.

As long as the Tank is at least 18 inches tall, i guess so. bit small for two though, which i would recommend.

Why do they need height rather than width then?

they tend to be escape artist of a high order. and if you have 4 inches of water, you will probably have 8 or more inches of dry land. that only leaves 4 inches to the top of the tank. add a few decorations, and the crab could bump its head on the lid.
you will need an heat light, as they seem to spend most of their time out of the water.

 

[MermaidMel]

OK I read you wrong, thought it was 25% water not 75% water lol duh, thanks for your help

 

[raptorrex]

OK I read you wrong, thought it was 25% water not 75% water lol duh, thanks for your help

Ahh yes, sorry my bad! when you talk about tank size, you are referring to total volume, i did not take this into account in my post.

I have actually given your problem some thought. if we ignore what the "books" say to do (there are not actually any books in truth) you could put the water in some form of container, and place it anywhere in the tank, making a hole so it sits, roughly, level with the sand. this would allow you to add, only an inch or two of sand. pop in some rocks, some little plastic houses, or some such, some little false trees, and your tank would be more than deep enough. if you use a slightly deeper container, say 4 inches, it would be all the better for the crabs, and there is still enough room!

sorry about the confusion in my last post

oops forgot to mention.
you will need to do, daily water changes, I would suggest 3 parts per thousand salt, some keep them higher and some lower, i just think this is a good compromise.

 

[MermaidMel]

So with a bowl of water, you could just take that out and change it every day leaving the rest of the tank in tact, which is a lot easier than changing the water in the tank itself. But you are saying a bowl of water 4 inches deep would be ok yeah? It's gone from being 75% water in the tank to just a bowl of water... am I getting that bit right?

 

[raptorrex]

So with a bowl of water, you could just take that out and change it every day leaving the rest of the tank in tact, which is a lot easier than changing the water in the tank itself. But you are saying a bowl of water 4 inches deep would be ok yeah? It's gone from being 75% water in the tank to just a bowl of water... am I getting that bit right?

yep, unless you make a proper "crabitat" which would need a 20 or 30gallon tank.
not sure how it got changed from my original post 25% water/75% land. but these measurements are of floor area not total volume.

this is how a traditional, if there is such a thing, crabitat is made up.
side view

top view

this is what i am suggesting:
side view

top view

as you can see this gives you the chance to use a much smaller tank than would normally be needed.
hope this makes thing clearer!

 

[3ndl3r]

red clawed crabs should be kept in small groups. your tank will fit 1 in comfortably. i would recommend a larger tank of around 10g

 

[raptorrex]

red clawed crabs should be kept in small groups. your tank will fit 1 in comfortably. i would recommend a larger tank of around 10g

indeed so, I would suggest 3-5 as a start.

 

[3ndl3r]

5g at the very least. if it were me and i had the space and money, and really wanted RCC. i would get a large ish (20g+) and devote it to either 10-15 of them. or a rainbow crab. But they are a whole different science.

 

[ladylette85]

5g at the very least. if it were me and i had the space and money, and really wanted RCC. i would get a large ish (20g+) and devote it to either 10-15 of them. or a rainbow crab. But they are a whole different science.

Wow! I just bought one of these mini crabs last night from Petsmart just cause I thought she was cute and enjoyed watching her. problem is, is that she is a very BIG time escape artist. She lives in a ten gallon tank with 4 neon tetras 3 male guppies a small bottom feeder, and two ghost shrimp. She escaped this morning and I found her in the inside of my filter system perched on the edge . so I chased her back in. Then later on tonight I had found her on the inside of the tank but she was underneth the filter system where the water runs into the tank . So if I find her a stick to climb out of the water onto, do you think she will try to escape anymore? And can I use a limb off a tree?