red claw crab on my heater

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JHZR2

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
17
Location
Bear, DE
Hi,

I have a planted tank with 3 tetras 2 danios and a CAE. I also have a small red crab in there.
The way my tank is setup, there are no large decorations, just four bunches of plants. Then there is a heater right next to the filter inlet tube, both right in the corner of my tank. Neither of these can really be moved much, as they are located by the tiny opening for wires to pass through.
The 'problem' is that my red claw crab insists on climbing up between the one side wall and the heater element, and going up out of the water or to nearly on the surface, and sit and hide there. This gives me two worries, first tat he may figure a wayu to escape, although the wire hole is much smaller than he is, who knows... He has even made it up to the filter. also, I worry that if I open the lid sometime, he may get smart and posie himelf to jump out.
I have arranged the heater anf ilter inlet to make it the most difficult to climb (so the space between the heater and side wall is large, so he cant wedge in there and climb), but he is still managing to do this. Is there some sort of way that I might be able to keep him in the bottom? WOuld the addition of some sort of rock/hiding place be good? I do not know if crabs like to hide, and this is the reason why he goes there... It is certainly a good hiding spot.
Any help would be great,

JMH
 
If hes anything like a fiddler crab...

He has to get above the water to breath. Yes, They have gills, but they breath air. That dosn't mean remove him from your tank, since his gills HAVE to be wet for him to breath.


Just do what I did and rig up some silly thing [ toy fire ladder *cough* ] and he'll be happy.


and don't be surprised about finding your crabs in weird places, I've found my crabs sitting a papers width away from the florecent bulb in a tank that had the glass in the hood broken [ Funny thing is, there is NO PHSYICAL WAY he could have gotten up there 0X ]

I've also found my female in my filter once, They are... odd little creatures to say the least, Hehee 8O
 
yeah, unless you've got land for them you're most likely going to smell something bad comming out from under your couch one day, only to discover a crusty old crab.
 
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