Adeeb's Crabitat V3

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adeebm

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
909
Location
Woodbury, MN
Well, it's time for a better home for my crabs again! I'm in the process of setting up my 55gal for my fiddlers and red clawed crabs. Their previous 29gal (old build thread) had flaws. And as always, bigger is better :D

Last time, I went all out with ledges, and a 2nd level. However, it seems that crabs aren't the greatest climbers, or atleast don't like to climb often. So the ledges never got used. And they had trouble going from land to water, and vice versa... So this time, I'm following the KISS philosophy. I put in a 5" high plexiglass divider, so that 1/3 of the tank is sand, and 2/3 is water. Then I piled more sand on the water side to make a nice slope so the crabs can actually go back and forth.

As soon as the water warms up, I'm going to start moving the crabs and old deco over. Future plans are for some mangroves and any other brackish plants I can find. I might add the old driftwood branches I had back in, though they just got moldy and nasty the last time.

And now for pics! (nothing amazing so far...):
img_1173177_0_a7e349e479c588ca511bd1ecb9271336.jpg

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I love working in this tank, so much more room that the silly 29gal :p

Oh, and update on the crabs: I unfortunately lost one of my males, no idea why. I know for sure I have 1 male fiddler, 2 female fiddlers, and 2 RCCs. I had another female that only had 3 legs when I got her, and another male. Not sure what happened to them, since I see no bodies. The do hide a lot, so maybe they're still alive *fingers crossed* Also, my female RCC has molted twice so far! :)

As always, I would love to hear your suggestions and criticisms :)

--Adeeb
 
I moved the crabs in yesterday night. So far they seem to be liking their new home.

Moar pics:
img_1173539_0_f10fcb3f0e554532075595ad37539ace.jpg

img_1173539_1_f5261aa506d5e9489eaeaaf5a26f88a8.jpg

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img_1173539_4_a3f0813d2f95d034a75ae2bf0c750395.jpg


--Adeeb
 
Looking good so far. What are your plans for the land side of the tank--going to be adding plants, decorations, etc?
 
Yeah, I plan on adding plants. Don't know what yet. Maybe some aloe vera...

I contacted my LFS about ordering some exotic fiddler species, and they said they'd check, but nothing yet :( I'll have to try again tomorrow. I'm also going to try and pick up another male and 2 females, and some mangroves.

The 55 is so tall, it seems like a waste of space. I guess next time I feel like upgrading, I'll make a full enclosure from plexiglass. 3'x3'x1' would be nice...

--Adeeb
 
Got some more cuties today! :D 2 females and one male. Also got a mangrove and an IR heat bulb for the land side (my house temp is 68F...) The bulb keeps it at 74F now, and is fairly bright at night, maybe I'll go for a ceramic emitter instead.

PICS!:
img_1174116_0_8d408559d7efa4ae23066335f69be085.jpg

^New mangrove
img_1174116_1_ba643c7ff03bdce189a8fdc63d20cf7b.jpg

Mangrove partay
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new female 1
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new female 2
img_1174116_4_9f5b04e97e4c1cf1b1d8c30b1f735094.jpg

new male
img_1174116_5_1c40f7170ad3a9fdcb513c8c9e240e74.jpg

FTS

The LFS said their supplier didn't have any exotic fiddlers in stock @#$&#%! I guess I'll have to try and import some myself if I can afford it... Collecting fiddler species is addicting. Also, I might be vacationing in Florida sometime this year, I'll be sure to study the wild fiddlers :D

--Adeeb
 
It's been a busy few weeks :p I lost my female RCC when the power went out and the temps dropped 20 degrees :( But in the past three days, both my male fiddlers have molted! These are my first fiddler molts, hurray :D So they must be happy.

Also, there are 2 fiddler burrows now, which means i see even less of the scaredy crabs, but meh. I knew one burrow was the smaller female fiddler of one species, but until today I have not seen the occupant of the other burrow. Today I saw some legs poking out so there must be a crab in there. Oddly enough, all my crabs were accounted for. It can only mean that it is the female that I thought died randomly! I guess when I saw her molt, I thought it was her body, because I couldn't find her, but apparently she had made a burrow to hide in. So actually I have had 3 fiddler molts now, and one crab back from the dead :D

--Adeeb
 
So, things have not been going well, and i think I might have finally figured it out. I added new fiddlers yesterday, and come in today to see my lone RCC had attacked one and was in the process of terrorizing another. I had never seen him attack before and had thought they were relatively safe with fiddlers. I guess not. This might also explain why the fiddlers are so brave in the store, yet become shy and hide once added to my tank. The RCC in question has been quarantined, and is going to be given to an LFS tomorrow. I guess I have to say that RCC's are not compatible with fiddlers :p

I placed an order on an ATO and three aqualifters. I was having problems with evaporation, so an ATO is the way to go. I plan to use the extra two aqualifters to create a tide simulation. They will both be put on a timer to periodically drain and fill 1-2 gallons on a 6 hour cycle like a tide in nature. The ATO will also be on a timer and run during high tide to determine the evaporation amount. If anyone see's a problem with this plan, please let me know!

Also, I ordered more mangroves from hawaii. They are $15 at my LFS, and I got 15 for $10 from hawaii(all hail ebay!). They might not make it in the cold, but it's worth a shot. I plan to restyle the tank as more of a mangrove swamp than a beach.

Also, from what I've heard, indian mudskippers and fiddler crabs get along. I think my LFS has them in stock, so I will be trying them out soon. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a lot of research on fiddler crabs, and have put together a website. It's still under construction, but here is the temporary link: The Finicky Fiddler | Fiddler crab care made easy I plan to expand it to include other freshwater/brackish crabs at a later date. I haven't gotten around to citing sources yet, since most of it is off the top of my head so far. I've been trying to find scientific articles to back my claims. If anyone has more info on fiddler crabs, finds any mistakes, etc, please let me know!

--Adeeb
 
Haha a lot of things have happened! I have 3 crabs as of now, that have been with me for 6 months and are doing very well. I changed the land side from sand to a sand/coco fiber, in hopes of getting them to exhibit burrowing behaviors, but no luck as of yet. Perhaps they have gotten too used to their "territories" which they have created to go to burrowing now. I'll find out when I get new crabs whether the coco fiber helped.

Also, I ordered 6 indian mudskippers from franks aquarium. Unfortunately, only 2 arrived alive, probably due to bad weather. Of those, one died in a day. So I'm left with one muskipper right now. It's not much to go in in regards to observing the interactions between fiddlers and indian mudskipeprs, but so far he's been doing well. Unlike my previous skippers, these guys are quite small, and pose no threat to the crabs. The fiddlers for the most part seem to leave my one guy alone, and he keeps his distance. I'm thinking they have a good chance of coexisting. So far I've been feeding him mysis, which he snaps up. I'll get more skippers once my LFS gets some in, since I don't want to risk shipping in winter anymore. Unfortunately, my LFS only gets them every few months or so...

The tank also homes 5 ghost shrimp. They seem to be thriving, often berried, though no babies survive. They make an excellent CUC for the fiddlers, and it's always funny to watch a shrimp run around with a crab pellet half its size. Mangroves have been growing well, I have a decent forest of them xD

That's about it for updates, I'll get pics tomorrow!

--Adeeb
 
Oh very cool, I've looked at those on franks but they were out of stock forever. Are you gonna have him send replacements?
 
Oh very cool, I've looked at those on franks but they were out of stock forever. Are you gonna have him send replacements?
I decided on a refund because I don't want to risk shipping again. It's getting pretty chilly here.

--Adeeb
 
Video update :D

crab.mp4 - YouTube

I'm actually surprised I managed to capture so much of their behavior. They are usually fairly skittish when I'm around. You can see both males practicing their waving, and the female is visible for once(she usually only comes out to feed, and is well camouflaged as you can see). Note the different waving gestures between the two species. One is smooth and steady, while the other is completed in several jerks. It seems to be the same across other individuals of said species. That mudskipper is incredibly outgoing. He jumps straight towards me when he sees me, and that is his usual reaction. I've only fed him a few times so I don't think he's associated me with food yet. So I have no idea why he is so curious.

If you're wondering why it's so long, the original was 12 min. It takes a lot of patience to watch these guys...

--Adeeb
 
What a cool tank! Do your male crabs fight? I only combined males once, and one killed the other.

That mudskipper is so awesome! Now you've got me really thinking about those again. What do you think the min. tank size is for them? I wonder how they would do with BB gobies?
 
What a cool tank! Do your male crabs fight? I only combined males once, and one killed the other.

That mudskipper is so awesome! Now you've got me really thinking about those again. What do you think the min. tank size is for them? I wonder how they would do with BB gobies?
Thanks!
The males will spar sometimes, usually over food. Nothing serious though. It's two males in a 55gal, so plenty of room for them. Ideally I would have more females to even out the aggression, but my LFS has very few if any females. A lot of times it's just males. i'm going tomorrow though, hopefully to pick up a few more crabs.

Yeah, the muskipper is really awesome, and surprisingly active. No problems with him and the crabs so far. They're pretty small and you could probably have 4-6 in a 30gal.

--Adeeb
 
Picked up some more crabs, bumping up the numbers to:
U. minax 2M 4F
U. pugilator 1M 3F

I'm happy with the stocking now, probably won't add a any more crabs unless a new species shows up or some die. I will be adding more skippers, once my darn lfs gets them in xD

My lfs did get a new species once. They were a beautiful blue color, U. vocans I think. Unfortunately there was only one female left, and she was dead :p haven't seen more since.

Oh, and my ghost shrimp are berries again, not that I expect any shrimplets. They must be happy though.

--Adeeb
 
Dude, you have some awesome lfs. I can never find anything but U. pugnax, I believe it is. Blue fiddlers? I'd about die to find those...
 
Haha yeah. My lfs is not that great actually, but I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to nab some of those bad boys.

btw pugnax? You couldn't send me some could ya ;) ;)

--Adeeb
 
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