the momma crab :)

[ghoastoflyle]

Well it looks as if i might have little crabs in the future . if i can
keep the zoea larvae away from the mouths of my fish. does any one know an easy way to barricade off a section of an aquarium so that i could keep the zoea contained and permit fresh water flow into the section.
Also is that needed(fresh supply on water) or since i have a land area could i just barricade off that portion of the tank and the crab will come out if it needs air?
here is a link if any one is interested. about half way down is a picture of a crab with its abdominal flap down with eggs attached just like mine is, except mine is a fiddler crab. thanks in advance
http://www.mesa.edu.au/friends/seashores/crab_reprod.html

 

[Capt.Gorilla]

I suppose you could QT the crab but you may not want to stress a expecting mother.
Maybe you could put a glass or plastic divider in the tank, but it all depends on your setup.

 

[An t-iasg]

What size is your tank? I bought a 10 gallon tank divider at the lfs, but modified the frame for my 5 1/2 gallon tank and bettas. The actual divider I didn't like and made my own, but I think the divider would be good in your case because the holes are very small, and wouldn't let the baby crabs through. You could probably set that up with minimal disturbance to the mother crab. Or you could try to catch them as they hatch and place them in a little hang-in tank breeder until you can set up a grow out tank of some kind. Here's a link to the DrsFosterSmith.com so you can see them or see if this is what you need. They have 2-way and 3-way breeders. The 3-way one looks big enough to put the mother in, if you think it would be ok to move her in there. I don't have fiddler crabs, but I hope this helps a little. Neat link that you provided, btw!

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/sc_view.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3768

 

[ghoastoflyle]

wow man thanks alot. i made a shelf in my aquarium so all i guess id have to do is
net off the shelf allowing the water to get though but not the tiny crabs or let fish in.
thanks alot both of you. that really helped me out alot

 

[jratuszn]

I may bewrong, but I have heard that it is next to impossible to grow crab babies past the egg stage- something to do with certain requirements such as changing tides, and things like that. Also, I am pretty sure that fiddler crab developmental stges occur at sea, and as such, I don't think a freshwater tank would really be suitable until they were adults. Even then, they really need the water at least somewhat brackish to live more than a few months.

Good luck,

-J

 

[ghoastoflyle]

yeah ive read that also, but when youve got a crab with eggs its hard not to try
to do your best to increase the odds of survival. :| i cant find her right now so
i think she already found a place to hide and lay her eggs. if thats the case i dont want to disrupt anything. we'll see how it goes

 

[jratuszn]

Good luck, but I wouldn't invest any money in trying to keep them alive. You'd be better off just buying another crab then trying to raise them.