PJB1984
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2012
- Messages
- 16
We recently setup a 10 gallon paludarium with about 2/3s land and 1/3 water. It has about an inch of hydro balls (used as a false bottom) then a layer of fine mesh (we used the stuff you place down in your garden to keep weeds from growing) then jungle mix on top of that. We siliconed a tube (like the kind you use for air pumps) at the bottom to syphon out water (we plan later on to add a drip wall to keep the water from getting stagnant) Had we done this right we would've used egg crate and made a false bottom but it was our first time and we didn't know. The water portion has several live plants in it as well as a piece of driftwood for the crabs to get in and out of the water, along with a few fish (which don't seem to be bothered or bother the crabs). The land part had leaf litter covering the jungle mix as well as several pieces of cork bark. We also have live plants planted in the jungle mix and some cork bark siliconed to the walls for something for them to climb on(although in the two weeks we've had them they have yet to climb on them). In the tank we have 4 red devil crabs and 3 vampire crabs, we have yet to see any aggression toward one another between any of them ( I read online that they can not be kept in the same tank, although another site I read said that they kept the both and they were fine) so we figured we would try and separate them if we needed to. They are feed several different foods; live crickets (which I've only seen one hunt and eat), sprinkled fish food on the land part, calcium dusted shrimp & lobster pellets, frozen bloodworms (thawed first), springtails (ordered a culture off line and just dumped them in), and whatever they find and eat out of the jungle mix. I also ordered pillbugs (or rollie pollies) but they weren't alive when we received them so waiting for another shipment to see how they like them. The first few days they all hid and we didn't really see them much, now that they are getting more comfortable in the tank they are out more and don't really run and hide when we look into the cage. They seem to like the land more than the water, for the most part they stay out of the water unless it's on the driftwood or plants. However this morning we did find one in the water and it looked very light and pale in color as we looked closer we realize that it had just molted in the water and it was the shell we we're looking at. The crab it self was one of the red devils and his color is still lighter for now as his new shell (exoskeleton) is still soft for a few days. Over all they seem to be doing very well in here! We keep the tank around 72-76 degrees and around 75-90% humidity. They seem to be more active and like it better around these conditions, we had it up to about 80 and they seemed to just hide. We just added a exoterra monsoon set to spray for 10 seconds every hour. Before we got the monsoon we used a fogger and made sure to keep the tank covered to keep it humid, they seem to like te monsoon better than the fogger, guess its more like rainfall instead of not being able to see anything because the fog was so thick. Since the monsoon we keep the top cracked a little, and have yet to have one try to escape, even though everything we have read online says that they love to escape. We have a uv light in a hood fixture mostly for the plants but I guess the crabs as well. As well as a heat lamp which we just turn on every now and then, although the cage maintains a pretty constant temperature and humidity level with just the uv light and monsoon. This has pretty much been a try and learn thing since finding any information on these crabs on the Internet is next to impossible! They have several different names, from what we have read they are called vampire crabs ( general term for all colors of them, bi color being the yellow/black/purple ones; red devil being the mainly red ones; mandarin being mostly orange) I've also read them being called carnaval crabs and scientific name is Geosesarma sp. I believe that there are more names for them as well but that's all I can remember finding them under. There is almost no information on keeping them other than two websites I found which both state pretty much the same information. We are hoping to breed them as we got them from a local pet store and they are wild caught. I looked everywhere for them online to buy but either they were wild caught or they wanted $20+ per crab. Locally we paid $10 per crab and they had a 7 day guarantee as well and them not having to be shipped across the country. They are originally from somewhere near Sulawesi (or most the sites we found about them said that). From what we have read and seen online they are freshwater (which is what our water is, kept at 78 degrees) and they can reproduce without having to make it back to the ocean! Meaning they should be able to be bred in captivity. I have read a few articles about people successfully breeding them in captivity. The female keeps the eggs in under her carapace just like fiddler crabs but unlike fiddler crabs the vampire crabs eggs hatch into miniature versions of adults. I've attached two pictures but there are many more on my profile.
