29g Vampire Crab build thread

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adeebm

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
909
Location
Woodbury, MN
I've been planning this for 6 months and finally getting started. Time for vampire crabs!!! My parents are opposed to another tank as usual, so this might not go through... I'll try anyway! Just pulled my old 29g out of the garage and got it cleaned up. It was my old fiddler crab tank, and had a lot of silicon left over from dividers. That took a couple hours of craping to remove.

I'm roughly following Caring for frogs for my build setup. I've tried multilevel before and it looks kinda ugly, so I'm not doing that again. I'll just have large pieces of driftwood to add dimension. I have pea gravel, screening, coco fiber, peat moss, and terrarium moss, so I'm ready to start laying in the substrate.

As far as vampire crab species, I'm thinking mandarin crabs, Geosesarma notophorum. These crabs are almost entirely terrestrial compared to the other vampire species. I'm pretty sure I could get away with just a water bowl. But anyways, I'm going to have a water feature like the link above. I'm planning on ordering them from Mandarin Vampire Crabs Seems to be the cheapest I can find. Does anyone have experience ordering animals from them? I know Brian's tropicals also sells them, but I don't have the money for $50 ea.

Anyways, I'll post pictures once there's more than just an empty tank...

--Adeeb
 
Well, since school is over in 3 days, I finally got started. After spending an hour washing pea gravel, I dropped it in. Then came fiberglass screening, and cocofiber. I topped it off with dry moss for now, while I figure out what plant I want for ground cover:
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Once I get a pump and tubing from fosterandsmith, I'll be adding the water feature.

I'll be ordering plants and driftwood in the coming days. Crabs will have to wait until I'm back from vacation so probably late July. All I have in mind for plants so far is bromeliads especially tillandsia. Anyone have any suggestions for tropical terrarium plants?

--Adeeb
 
Got some plants that should be arriving tomorrow!
For starters, I've ordered:
Cryptanthus "Sunshine"
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Ficus pumila
Pilularia globulifera
Tillandsia ionantha

That should get the tank started! Unfortunately, the site I planned to order my mandarin crabs from isn't offering them anymore :/ That only leaves Brian's Tropicals, at $50 ea....

Siva, does your LFS sell mandarins or red devils? If you were able to ship some that would be really awesome :D

I'll post pics of what I have so far later today.

--Adeeb
 
I wish they did, I would happily ship to you. They must be hard to find if Brian can get away with charging that much!
 
Darn, I guess I'll have to find another source :(

Anyway, plants came in and I got them planted! Here's some pics:

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--Adeeb
 
Woohoo! I finally found and ordered some mandarins :D I ordered 3 pairs, since apparently mortality rates are high with wild caught. The should ship monday and be here tuesday!

On another note, all the plants are growing well, except the pilularia fern.

--Adeeb
 
Where did you end up ordering them from? I sure hope the your mortality rates aren't anything like mine.
 
Hahaha they were probably worse... So I got them last week. 1/6 arrived alive :p They were guaranteed live delivery, so the replacements shipped today. We'll see how they arrive. The one that I have right now is still alive, and I think it's eating. I put some pellets before its den, and I can't see them anymore so I'm assuming they were eaten. I'll probably get some pinhead crickets when the rest alive, so I know for sure if they're eating.

--Adeeb
 
Well, all of them survived the second time around! So now I have 7 of them. Gonna see if I can get pics tonight, and probably pick up some crickets.

--Adeeb
 
Ok, so things seem to be going well. I had two losses, one random, and one died during molt. So that drops the number to 5. The rest seem to be active(for crabs) though it's hard to get a decent pic. I've fed crickets(which I've seen them eat), and crab pellets(which I think they ate), and thawed bloodworms(I have no idea). Each crab seems to have it's own nook or burrow, which they don't stray far from(atleast when I'm observing them). That makes it kind of hard to feed dead food, because I have to drop it infront of each crab. They actively hunt crickets, though I'm not sure if all the crabs are being fed. I think I might try to culture fruit flies, it might work out better.

Anyway, here's some pics of the enclosure and one poor shot of a crab:
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--Adeeb
 
The tank looks totally gorgeous! That's strange there was such bad luck with the shipment the first time and not the second. Do you know if these are imported or tank bred?
 
They're imported. Must have been bad handling or something the first time around. I sure hope enough stay alive to breed xD

--Adeeb
 
Well, feeding them has been a huge PITA. So far they haven't touched anything except live crickets, which isn't a big deal. However, since each of them built a burrow, they don't go more than a few inches from it at most. Which makes it hard to feed all of them, since I have to drop whatever I'm feeding in front of each burrow. Also, there's more burrows than crabs... I know 3 of the burrows are occupied, haven't seen the other 2 in a week.

--Adeeb
 
Most of the vamps I had would never come out during the day, but I designated a feeding spot where I'd drop it off every day before I turned the lights out and in the morning it would be gone. Typically all mine would ever touch was gut loaded crickets (I hate the sound they make so I never tried live) and bloodworms. I had atleast one that would go for the Hikari crab cuisine but my sole survivor won't touch anything but the crickets. I wanted to add some springtails for them to feed on too but I still haven't ordered any. I thought they should have some fruits and veggies in their diet but I've yet to figure out any they like.
 
Most of the vamps I had would never come out during the day, but I designated a feeding spot where I'd drop it off every day before I turned the lights out and in the morning it would be gone. Typically all mine would ever touch was gut loaded crickets (I hate the sound they make so I never tried live) and bloodworms. I had atleast one that would go for the Hikari crab cuisine but my sole survivor won't touch anything but the crickets. I wanted to add some springtails for them to feed on too but I still haven't ordered any. I thought they should have some fruits and veggies in their diet but I've yet to figure out any they like.

I'll have to try that, if only I could get them to search around for food. I did see 4/5 crabs today, so they are alive at least. I'm not sure what springtails look like, but I have tons of tiny white bugs that live in the soil and can jump. They just appeared naturally, might be springtails. They do a good job of eating whatever the crabs don't find.

--Adeeb
 
Well, at least 4/5 are alive as of last week. I've been putting mysis shrimp in a bottle cap and they disappear overnight, so some of them are finding food.

They need to hurry up and breed ;)

--Adeeb
 
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