Starting a crab tank ???

[screaminbuckeye]

I just inherited a 10 gal tank from a friend of mine who just moved into a no pets dorm. I've had a crab tank before but without much success before (I was little and kitty thought escaping crabs were toys). I wanna do this right so I have a few questions:
1. Do I cycle? Is cycling the same for a crab tank as it is for a normal tank?
2. How deep should the water be?
3. What kinda crabs are ok with a 10 gal tank? What params should I have?
4. Is there such a thing as a horse shoe crab that people can keep as pets? Like a mini version or something?
5. What do I feed them?
6. Can crabs be kept with newts? I was thinking of getting a firebelly newt

Please bear with me I have never set up a crab tank before. I have a good hood for the tank and a stack of chemistry text books i can use to keep the hood from being removed by the lil escape artists.

 

[grimlock3000]

1) Yes you cycle the water in the tank.
2) It only needs to be a few inches deep, you might notice that most of the time the crabs are out of the water.
3) No idea.
4) Never seen one, most just Fiddler crabs where I live.
5) No idea.
6) No idea.

Wow, that wasn't very helpful of me

 

[WarOrks15]

i think most crabs are saltwater. the only fw/ brackish crab that i know is the fiddler. but i think you could do crbsa and fw lobsters

 

[beachbumin]

my lfs will sometimes carry horseshoe crabs. They look great but not what i need for my small reef tank, but they would prob be great for your crab set up. You could check any of the sponser sites to see if they could get you one. good luck! let us know how it goes. As far as the water depth goes, im pretty sure that you would want it full for the horseshoe and also for emerald or coral crabs and to be on the safe side i would change water weekly and watch all your quality levels.

 

[William]

Horseshoe crabs get far to large for a 10gal.


What you want is a water about 4 inches deep, and have the sand above the water level on one side of the tank, and slope down to beneath the water on the other side [ like the seashore and beach ].

Personally, I would keep two female crabs in a tank this size and like this, and I would burry some short lengths of PVC in the sand, to act as burrows for them. a small shoal of Neon Tetras in the water portion would be nice but would require the water to be deeper and the sand to be higher.

Some live plants on the beach side of the tank would also be a plus, like Mondo grass [ Mondo Grass can live in marshy areas, just not fully submerged ].

A GLASS LID! a tight fitting glass hood, to prevent escapees.

And either keep up on your water params, or just buy a very small submersable filter unit. and perhaps a 25watt heater to keep the water and tank a decent temp.

Feed them whatever they like, personally my guys like Shrimp Pellets and Algae Waffers, and the occasional piece of raw fish.

And I would not keep crabs with newts, or frogs, or anything of the sort.

I had a crab kill a dwarf frog before, so I don't think its ssuch a good idea to keep the crabs with anytype of amphib.

<--- Crab Fanatic.

 

[screaminbuckeye]

OK thanks for the advice. What kind of sand should I use? Are fake plants ok? i've got a plastic hood with no holes(kinda eclipse style) but i also have 40 pounts of chem text book that i can put on it to keep them from moving out.

Just out of curiousity, how big of a tank would I need for horseshoes?