10gal Crabitat!

[adeebm]

I had a 10gal tank lying around that I was saving for a QT, but of course, I couldn't resist not using it. Anyway, I got a red clawed crab last week and was keeping her in my other 10gal temporarily. Her new crabitat (or is it a palaudrium) is finally ready! Half land, half water is techincally a palaudrium right? Its about 60% water, 30% land, play sand, gravel, slate and rocks The water portion is only ~2gal and I have a tetra 10i internal filter, so it should be good. The plan is to add 2 male fiddlers, 1 female fiddler, and a male red clawed crab along with the female red claw already in there. Is that pushing it? Here's some pics:

Added some decorations:

Right now it's freshwater, because thats what the petstore's tank was. I'll be slowly changing to brackish over a few weeks, maybe after I get all my crabs. Any suggestions for decor and plants. I'm trying to keep it all natural and realistic. I guess it could be a Thailand estuary or something. I'm thinking of adding a mangrove, but would it get too big?

--Adeeb

 

[Tabbykat9698]

That looks great, I've been wanting to attempt something like that for a while. I don't have any suggestions since I'm not sure about what they need. But good job so far!

 

[logansmomma1228]

That is pretty sweet. Where is the crab? Lol. I too have wanted to do something like that, with some frogs and fishies.

 

[dkpate]

Looks pretty cool!!!

 

[adeebm]

Here's the crab, she likes hiding I guess, or she's sick :/

And here is one of the two ghost shrimp I added today. The seem to be real shutterbugs, but almost impossible to focus on

--Adeeb

 

[happygirl65]

Neat! I like it!

 

[Aquarium1]

Wow looks awesome!

 

[adeebm]

Ok, so I though she was sick, but just now I was looking at her and she seemed to be eating, but it was funny because she sort of opened up her belly and waved it around. Thats not where the mouth should be. Its more like the tail and there seems t be cloudy stuff inside. Maybe she's carrying eggs?

--Adeeb

 

[logansmomma1228]

Maybe she is just getting used to the tank? IDK about the last post you made.

 

[adeebm]

Yep, she is definitely carrying eggs. I doubt I can raise them, so what do I do?

Heres a pic of the eggs:

They need seawater and artemia to eat or something, waay out of my depth. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Oh, and I put in an algae wafer and my two ghost shrimp were fighting over it, soo cute The kept on waving their claws at each other and then one would try to drag the wafer away. Greedy little things, the wafer was bigger than they were...

--Adeeb

 

[dkpate]

You are really making me want to get some shrimp/crabs!!!

 

[rive1404]

Hey, this is pretty neat! Now I want one...

 

[Aquarium1]

Haha same here.

 

[Etunes]

Taggin along with the expence.

 

[adeebm]

Got another red clawed crab. A male this time(or so I think). So now one of them spends its time hiding behind the filter, and the other inside the filter... Going to get a fiddler crab or two on Monday. Plus I'm thinking of special ordering/importing some awesome fiddler species from Indonesia. I saw these pics and fell in love: ----- CRAB ----- ELOK AQUATICS Theres a wholesaler in CA that sells these and supplies to some Petco's nearby, so I'm going to try and see if they can order some for me. Also gonna try to see if I can upgrade to a 20gal. I've always had a soft spot for crabs...

--Adeeb

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

looking good! following!

 

[adeebm]

So I was cleaning my room last night, and I saw a flash or red out of the corner of my eye. Turns out one of my crabs had crawled up the filter's power cord, and through an 1/8 gap in the tape I used to seal my hood... He scurried under my other aquarium stand, but I managed to put him back. Those guys are some escape artists! Lucky I saw him, or he would have been dead by morning... The hood is completely taped up now, guess I'm going to have to rip the tape out every time I need to take the hood off. Naughty little buggers.

--Adeeb

 

[adeebm]

Got a fiddler crab yesterday! He started fiddling within an hour. I watched him for 45 minutes last night. Much more active than RCCs. I was doing some filter maintenance today, and I guess I disturbed my crabs enough that the got into a crab fight. Fiddler vs 2 RCCs. No one was hurt Will add pics tomorrow. Also gotta see if I can get this 20gal I found on craigslist, should make the crabbies happier.

I talked to my LFS about special ordering some exotic fiddler species. Unfortunately their supplier has bulk packages, and I have nothing to do with 25 crabs The LFS is going to see if they're in stock however, and maybe get one of the exotics instead of the regular fiddlers, so I might get some after all.

--Adeeb

 

[Aquarium1]

Awesome! Can't wait! So are fiddlers and ACCs brackish or fresh water? Just wondering.

 

[adeebm]

They can live in FW for a while, but are mostly brackish. They need an SG of ~1.005. Fiddlers are found in a variety of water conditions but most will adapt best to brackish. I'm not sure what species of fiddler I have atm.

--Adeeb