A day in the Life of a Crab, a Cat, and a Human

[rob28]

One day the lil crab wakes up and searches for something to eat. He quickly fills his stomache and heads out to find a nice place to relax....
Ah ha!!! The heater!!

crab 004.jpg ohyes, this is nice.

then the lil crab decides he wants to go explore. Only he knows what happens after that.
The very same day the human comes come from work and checks his water peramitters of his fish, he feeds them, and enjoys his creation.....but then.....he notices it!!!

WTF, there's only 2 crabs in the tank!! The bumbling human frantically turns over every ornament and moves every plant to find his lil crabs, but...there gone.
Then, he gets an idea....maybe theyre in the filter!! Thats when he finds 1 of the lil crabs, just sittin on the back of the tank...CHILLIN!!

crab 005.jpg
Thats one, the human thought. Still scared the other was, forever, gone. So, he continues his search. He empties his filter....nothing. He checks his drapes...nothing. He pulls the 500lb+ aquarium 2 feet away from the wall, (yes, this human is strong)...nothing. Finally, the human admits defeat and begins to mourn his loss. He moves the tank back to its original position with his freakish strength.
He decides he must tell his newly aquired fishy friends about his loss when.....holy crap!!!
In the kitchen, 3 rooms away, he sees his lil crab...but the lil crab wasnt alone. The lil crab was fighting a monster like he had never seen b4. It was......

crab 001.jpg...babers, the humans 15lb cat. The cat didnt know what she had come across, but she did know that it was quite entertaining. Until the human had to come spoil her fun.
The human quickly scooped the lil crab up and rushed him home. The lil crab lived happily ever after...THE END!!

crab 009.jpg

So, i was warned bout the crabs being able to do this but i just didnt beleive theyd be able to escape my tank. Does any1 have any suggestions on how to cover these escape points without it looking too bad?
hope you enjoyed the lil story lmao!!

 

[Purrbox]

Go to the craft section of your local walmart or similar store and find what's called plastic canvas. It's usually used with yarn for making craft items, but is handy for many aquarium uses as well. You can buy a sheet and cut it to fit over the openings at the back. A little glue should allow you to attach it to the existing hood. You can get it in black so that it blends nicely.

 

[rob28]

omg....
in the time it took me to start this thread, ive already lost a crab!!!
ive just finished searching and its been like 2 hours. I guess 1 of 4 things is possible.
1) he'll die somewhere never to be found
2) my cat or my dog may eat him
3) my wife or I may step on him
4) out of the blue we'll run into him just chillin

i really hope itll be the 4th

 

[Zagz]

Hopefully he will be alright. Joy has a great suggestion. I may pick some of that up myself. Until you get it you could use cut cardboard as a very temporary cover as your crabs seem determined to explore. Or if you have some egg crate lying around..

 

[rob28]

hey thanx for the ideas!! at the moment i have a couple of old cd's wedged in there to plug the hole.
i wont be able to get anything for it till tommorrow though.

man, i hope my crab pops up somewhere.

 

[Sombunya]

My Crays love to climb. I keep places where tubes etc. enter the tank very secure.

 

[Jnam]

Silly question, I have never had a crab. Dont they need some where above the water line to hang out? Or are they fully aquatic?

 

[rob28]

Silly question, I have never had a crab. Dont they need some where above the water line to hang out? Or are they fully aquatic?

no thats a good question which im still waiting for the answer. my crabs are mini crabs, also known as fiddler crabs. when i bought them is asked the owner of the lfs if they were fully aquatic. she said yes. i also asked her if they would eat my fish. she said no, they only eat off the bottom of the tank.
i really think i made her mad because i asked her 3-4 times if she was sure they were fully aquatic because she was getting visibly annoyed at me. so i said, lemme get 4 of them. i picked out 4 males.....all the males have the ginormous claw. i took them on the condition that if they drown....i get my money back.

Oh btw, for any1 that wanted to know. We found my missing crab. He didnt make it. It really looked like my cat or dog may of found him first.

 

[rob28]

My Crays love to climb. I keep places where tubes etc. enter the tank very secure.

yeah...
lesson learned!

 

[jrp1588]

i always heard that they weren't fully aquatic. I suppose I could be wrong though

 

[rob28]

all the research ive done on them says no. I did call her back to ask what species of crab they were, even though i had found out on my own, and she told me she didnt know. she said they are the same crabs that she's been gettin for years. you would think that she would know what shes sellin.
ive had them for about two weeks now and they seem ok. i may just give them away to some1 in my area. its not fair to them if they die because some1 else was wrong.

 

[Jnam]

I went a did a little looking fiddler crabs are semi aquatic. They "prefer" an area that is not submerged to preen and feel safe. Whatever that means... At my LFS the tank they have the crabs in is about 1/3 full with some DW that comes up out of the water. So who knows. Sad that your other guy turned into a cat toy. My dog has eaten a flying long finned danio. She caught the fish mid air right after it lept from the tank when i was changing the bulbs on my fixture... My dog was really confused why it was moving when she ate it...

*edit* this is your gross warning *edit*

She then proceeded to puke and hey look a live fish!! She swallowed it whole and puked it back up... It didnt make it though i put it in the QT tank and it swam for a good 5 mins and then bellied up on me. Woops off topic and gross sorry.

 

[rob28]

im sorry, thats not supposed to be amusing, but i couldnt help but to laugh.

 

[rob28]

see, thats what through me off when i first saw the crabs....they were in a tank full of water that had no island for them to bask on.
so thats when i asked her bout them.

 

[Jnam]

I wasnt too sad this was a very suicidal danio, it was always doing some stupid thing. Jumping from the tank, getting sucked to the filter inlet, eating the angels eggs, it was affectionately named suicide crack fish by my wife. When we would feed the tank we had to open the top and throw in the food and slam the lid shut gauranteed it would fly out. RIP suicidal crack fish =)

 

[rob28]

roflmao

 

[gzeiger]

Some are, some aren't. Some are fully terrestrial except for the larval stage.