Freshwater crab... what kind??

[HOLLIEO]

A friend of mine at work just brought me a freshwater crab. What do i do with him? Can I put him in the fish tank? the guy said to just stick some drift wood in there for him to get out of water. Is this okay? Actually i don't even know what kind of crab he is? He has a large claw, a brown color and is about 2" wide (the body alone). Any ideas??? What do I feed him?

 

[Guest]

FW fiddler crab. He will eat fish food, scavenge around for it. Tight lid and no escape routes, he may decide to wander around your house, not a good thing. He does need to get above the water some, so does need a way to climb out of the water, but not outta the tank.

 

[cdawson]

They also require brackish water, they do best with harder water and higher ph. I strongly recommend putting them in brackish water as they need the minerals in the salt for their shells. Aquarium salt will not do here.

 

[William]

They don't need brackish.

I've had a male and female fiddler in my fresh tank for about...two and a half, to three months now.

Not to say there is no salt in the tank, theres some there to keep the fresh water fish happy, but its far from brackish and my crabs are thriving.


I do have a toy fireladder in there from a childhood toy for them to climb up onto to get above water. and I've enver had one escape on me.

Had them get in strange places, like inside my filter once But never out.

and my fiddlers eat just about anything that any other bottom feeder eats.

They'll pick algae off rocks and plants, I swear they eat the plants themselves, they eat shrimp pellets I put in there for them and the like.

I've never had them get hold of one of my fish, I've had a fish die and they get to it AFTER it died, but never kill one.


Also do good, for the most part, with other bottom dwellers.

I have a CAE and a Peacock Eel that sit on the bottom alot, and they never once bother any of them

 

[HOLLIEO]

That is funny you say you have found them in the filter. Mine keeps crawling up the filter intake pipe and into the filter. What a goober!! I have to keep picking him out and setting him back in the tank.
I stuck an aquarium decoration rock in the tank so its top is poking out of the water, but he would still rather climb up the filter intake. Hmmmm....
I need to go find a ladder from one of the kids toys.... he might like that better.

 

[cdawson]

How big is the tank? Try and rig a piece of driftwood so that it's just above the water yet comes up from the substrate.

 

[HOLLIEO]

It is a 7 gallon Hex. I tried to find the wood... trouble. They don't have it anywhere around here. I found some in Petsmart, but it was too big and way too expensive.

 

[William]

That is funny you say you have found them in the filter. Mine keeps crawling up the filter intake pipe and into the filter. What a goober!! I have to keep picking him out and setting him back in the tank.
I stuck an aquarium decoration rock in the tank so its top is poking out of the water, but he would still rather climb up the filter intake. Hmmmm....
I need to go find a ladder from one of the kids toys.... he might like that better.

I know,

I just had to pick Hammer [ my male fiddler with the two inch claw ] out of the filter this morning when I woke up, again before I went to work, and I had to kick his shelly butt out of the filter AGAIN when I came home!!

Good lord what has gotten into him recently!