FW crab lucky dip at LFS

[Alan79]

Hi all.
I am slowly discovering that i'm a sucker for oddballs when it comes to the aquarium pets i want. I have wanted some fiddler crabs for a while now but never see them at my LFS's. However i saw on one of their facebook pages that they have FW crabs in stock this week. I asked for info about the variety via facebook unfortunately they can't give me a name for them . I dislike buying pets if i don't know how exactly to care for them so i'd like to go pre armed with a little knowledge of what i may be buying. I'd love it if some of the experts here could help

I have researched FW crab varieties through google but would like to see if i missed anything. So could people give me a list of names for FW or even brackish crab varieties that would stay small enough to live well in a 2 foot tank i can scape specifically for them. I have till friday to research them as i'll go for a look then. I just want to make sure i can house my potential new pets adequately before i buy them. Thanks in advance for any help people are willing to provide about small FW or brackish crab varieties.

 

[SgtMjr]

Strange the wholesaler didnt supply the store with a scientific or common name. I only know of the tiny Thai crabs that survive long in a fish like aquarium.
Several species exist that can live in fresh water however they require a access to the surface.
I would find out if they are partial land or full aquatic, that will help.. Then ask for a photo... A photo is worth a thousand words when it comes to identifying oddballs!

 

[Autumnsky]

I got little "lilypad" floating islands for mine. They are usually for turtles.

They will escape from the tiniest of openings in the lid, not a joke. I used doubled up heavy food plastic wrap, (but I would check into heavy duty plastic) and duct tape to enclose my back openings.

They do indeed require some aquarium salt. Mine stayed alive for about 6 months probably, but I think it might have been eaten by a bigg bottom feeder. There are a huge number of varieties which go by "Fiddler" Crab.

My local fish store guy said his are 2 years old and doing great with no salt, but I do not think it is right to not give them any at all. I would buy them Hikari Crab Cuisine, because it is formulated for healthy shells when molting.

I also kept the water a couple inches lower so they could crawl on the DW sticking out of the water.

Here is the one sitting on the lily pad.

Here is the other one who loved to climb up the out flow tube and sit under the plastic wrap on the brace looking around.

 

[Alan79]

Strange the wholesaler didnt supply the store with a scientific or common name. I only know of the tiny Thai crabs that survive long in a fish like aquarium.
Several species exist that can live in fresh water however they require a access to the surface.
I would find out if they are partial land or full aquatic, that will help.. Then ask for a photo... A photo is worth a thousand words when it comes to identifying oddballs!

The LFS that has them is newly opened and don't label anything they have which is a bit annoying. I guess they just lost the name. The plan is to build a specific crabitat for them in a crab only tank. It will have some islands and i may even make a brackish pool and a FW pool to be on the safe side if i can't identify the crabs easily. I have so far come across red claw crabs, fiddlers (many and varied), blue moon/halloween crabs (a tiny and a larger variety), Gold claw crabs and Patriot crabs.

I got little "lilypad" floating islands for mine. They are usually for turtles.

They will escape from the tiniest of openings in the lid, not a joke. I used doubled up heavy food plastic wrap, (but I would check into heavy duty plastic) and duct tape to enclose my back openings.

They do indeed require some aquarium salt. Mine stayed alive for about 6 months probably, but I think it might have been eaten by a bigg bottom feeder. There are a huge number of varieties which go by "Fiddler" Crab.

My local fish store guy said his are 2 years old and doing great with no salt, but I do not think it is right to not give them any at all. I would buy them Hikari Crab Cuisine, because it is formulated for healthy shells when molting.

I also kept the water a couple inches lower so they could crawl on the DW sticking out of the water.

Here is the one sitting on the lily pad.

Here is the other one who loved to climb up the out flow tube and sit under the plastic wrap on the brace looking around.

Thanks Autumn.

So far my plan for designing a crabitat for these guys is to use a 2 foot tank that doesn't offer very much height for water in a 15G-17G tank. I have 2 of these tanks so to start out with i may just set one up with FW while i modify another tank to make a FW and Brackish pool at alternate ends with a planted island in the middle. I will only fill to about 50% and leave them places to climb though and they shouldn't be able to climb out the top. I was reading a link from another thread that allows you to put biodomes under the water which are basically a place for the crabs to breath dry air/feed at the bottom of your tank. Crabs Habitat by Atlantis Underwater Islands - Underwater Islands They're a nice idea for people who want crabs but not an island. For me these crabs are probably going to be a good way to use a tank that is a little bit shallow to bother setting up for fish. I really hope they aren't fully aquatic as i'd love to see the whole tank get used.

 

[Autumnsky]

As far as I found the only fully aquatic FW is the Thai Micro Crabs.

I always thought of adding Habitrail hamster tubes with some material they can crawl up to to top of the terrestrial part resting on top of the tank, set up a little like a hermit crab habitat with three branch food and water sandy seashell rubble!

 

[Alan79]

As far as I found the only fully aquatic FW is the Thai Micro Crabs.

I always thought of adding Habitrail hamster tubes with some material they can crawl up to to top of the terrestrial part resting on top of the tank, set up a little like a hermit crab habitat with three branch food and water sandy seashell rubble!

I hadn't seen any images of those. I'm really hoping these are semi aquatic and odds are they will be.

I do have future plans to build a planted waterfall over the back of one tank. Maybe the crabs will eventually move to that setup. I have a 4 foot tank with a 48cm top brace that i used to hate. I hated that brace until i saw a waterfall set up on the planted tank forum. It gave me the idea for my waterfall fed over tank pool. The waterfall is going over that tank and will feature a 48cm x 30cm pool atop the cross brace that will drain gently into the tank. I always wanted that pool to find a resident or two and some crabs that like to climb will probably fit the bill when i get it set up.

I decided to have a look at the crabs this afternoon so i'll see what more i know about them in a short while. Now i'm excited.