Freshwater crabs

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chadandstacy

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
20
Location
Greenwood, IN
I have no idea what they are called, but the male and female have both shed a shell so far, how often will they do this? Our female is actting really weird and has not been real active the last two days.
 
Many "freshwater" crabs are actually brackish, and also require a place where they can get out of the water and hang out on land. Most that are sold as fully aquatic crabs die after seemingly getting along fine for a few months.

That said, they molt every few weeks.
 
Our lfs has theirs in full aquariums which is what we did. We are getting a 20 gallon on July 4th so we can set up the 10 for a red bellied frog my fiancee' wants. Can we put the crabs in with the frog if they are brackish?
 
NO! Do not mix the frogs and crabs. One will kill the other. Remember that fire bellied toads (I assume that's what you mean by red bellied frog) are mildly toxic. I have had them for quite a while now.
 
hey my lfs has a tank full of crabs they just put some sticks in there and let em poke outta the water. actually its not a LFS but petsmart
 
Ok so is it possible the female is laying eggs/ or birthing? She doesn't seem to be molting. We took both of them out today and let them sit neither seemed to be helped by the open air.
 
Your crabs have to be able to choose when they want to come out and how long they stay out themselves.

It is very unlikely that your female is reproducing. It is much more likely that she is dying, unfortunately.
 
Most freshwater crabs you can find are Fiddler crabs, which need at least some salt in the water to survive for any length of time. I have mine in with african cichlids, with just a little salt (my water is already pretty hard). The most important thing is that they have an easy way to get out of the water, or else they'll die or find a way to climb out of the tank altogether. I think this is the main reason why so many people have trouble with their crabs climbing out of the tank, no matter what they do to try to prevent it.

-J
 
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