Mini Crab Feeding

[Ryne]

I got this crab from Petsmart called a Mini Crab by them. It has a big claw in front and made me think it's a Fiddler Crab but aren't they saltwater? I really know nothing about crabs except this one is freshwater and likes to get out of the water a lot. So I've been trying to feed it by placing shrimp pellets on the driftwood it sits on and I can only reach to the underwater parts of the driftwood without taking the top off every time I feed it. After a while, the catfish get to the pellets and it's gone and I never saw the crab go for it. So is the crab just feeding off of the organic material covering the driftwood? I know there's a lot of algae on it and the crab disappeared into a crevice once and wouldn't come out (it wasn't stuck because I poked it out once), so maybe there was something down there. So any suggestions on what I should do? I added some salt to the water too, I know a lot of crabs need that or else they won't last a week.

 

[Blucat]

i don't know much but maybe this link helps...
http://forums.fishindex.com/archive/index.php/t-26048.html

 

[thanew]

well does it look like a fiddler crab... with the white large claw ?

or is it red, and have red claws ? I bought two red claw crabs from them and they seemed to love blood worms, algae wafers and this crab cuisine stuff that hikari makes. as do any freshwater inverts...

as for feeding off of driftwood, it does seem to do that, mine creates holes, little by little into the drift wood to create a new home.

as for it trying to escape, just create a place where it can safely crawl out of the water to get some air, like maybe placing a piece of driftwood so it can crawl up and get out (of the water, not the tank, I had a problem once with one escaping the tank and running through my living room.. it was funny, but my parents didn't think it was)

 

[newhobbist]

I have one fiddler and one red claw crabs. It's hard to say what a fiddler one its since it is not seen very often, but my red claw one likes zoo plankton, but especially, it likes shrimp pellets. It gets out of its cave when I feed fish, runs to a pellet that I put several inches from its cave, grabs the pellet with its claws and runs back to the cave. Looks very funny.
To bad that I found out that crabs need access to water surface after I actually bought them.