Whats Up With My Crab :(

[taylorspl]

hiii, i have thai crab, and its buldging out of its underside , not like they are normaly when they shed thier shell, but its really wierd n been like it for a week or so,
really odd question--- could it be pregnant??

its still eating well and moving , climbing like normal, but has become a bit aggressive.

any ideas whats

 

[three-fingers]

Do you keep it in brackish water or provide a brackish bath for it?
If not it could have just been a problem moulting.
But other than that...i have no idea what a pregnant crab would look like, but i've heard that the larvae arent too difficult to rear as long as you give them marine water to start with and feed them marine invert food (like the stuff for corals) and green water.
You would need to transfer the female to a tank with marine water in it though, and it would need to be a good size for all the crab larva and then baby crabs.
I think you would need an air powered sponge filter to (much better than just an airstone), to avoid them being sucked up while still providing filteration.

 

[taylorspl]

I dont think i keep it in brackish water, but i use water from a tank in the roof that has been sat for sometime, so it may have a small salt content.
Non of my fish seem to be bothered by the water, although i have had trouble keeping Plecs alive for more than a month or so.Also Tiger barbs seem to die.
But my angels, red tailed shart, cory doris, neons and few others all seem to thrive.

I have now come to the conclusion that she is pregnant as i have 3 females and one male and she looks very pregnant lol.

I have read that she will give the eggs to the male to look after untill they are ready to hatch.

Catching the crabs to transfer them into another nursery tank will be near inpossible.Also tack of equipment and room will also stop me from being able to do this.

 

[three-fingers]

The most likely problem is just a sheding complication due to lack of minirals in the water. What you should do is fill a dish with brackish water for them and put it in the tank so they . can bathe in it, this needs to be in the 24/7 and should be changed every few days.
Buy some marine salt used for marine tanks at your lfs(no other salt is suitable) and mix the water with this salt to about 1.004 (you should buy a hydrometer to test it).

Do you add any thing to the water to take away chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals?
Or do you mean that you use rain water?
Either way, if you live in a big town or city rainwater is going to have loads of pollutants in it no matter how long you leave it to sit.
If its mains water that you leave to sit in the tank, this will not get rid of everything either.

Something else you should do in addition to help your crabs is add some tufa rock to the tank or replace the substrate with coral sand.
This will harden the water for them (soft water is bad for them) and increase the pH. This is especially essential if you keep them in rainwater or if the water you use is soft and below pH 7.0.