Peaceful freshwater crabs and land space?

[NiaCas]

I've been thinking about trying out "the crab thing". I'm wondering what the most peaceful species are. The panther crab looks super cool and I'd still consider him even if he's a bit aggressive. From what I've read though, the panther's not aggressive, he's just an opportunistic eater? The vampire crab looks really neat too but I've been reading conflicting things about the personality. Are there any crabs that could be ok with angelfish? I've become an angelfish fanatic. I have them in all my non-aggressive freshwater tanks except for my super delicate tank and would love to be able to put them in the new tank as well....but they are slow..

Are red clawed crabs just a type of fiddler crab? Do they also require brackish water? (I've been told that fiddlers need brackish and never freshwater?)

What other crabs are cool and totally freshwater? I just mean totally freshwater, not totally aquatic which leads me to my next question:

I've seen lots of awesome ideas for underwater islands. I think a big upside down fish bowl looks like a cool idea, but how much space should crabs who need land have? All of the store made and some DIY underwater oasis things look too small to me. Maybe different crabs require different amounts of land based on just how aquatic they are? I.E. crabs who live under water most of the time just need a bit of land and crabs that like both equally would need more? So if you suggest a crab, could you also suggest some square inchage/footage or something please?

I'm a huge aquatic plant fanatic, so if the crab can do well in a heavily planted tank then that would be great! WHICH reminds me! If plants are ok then will the crab be able to swim to the surface if I make a floating or suction cup island if the water is high enough to cover a large amazon sword? (About 2 feet high) And will he climb out of an open tank if he has about 6 inches above the island (or even if there is no island and I use an underwater island)? I can put on a cover, but it would be cool if I could add some mostly aquatic plants that grow out of the tank (the ones I have are running out of space!) Tank size I'm considering, btw, is 150gal, but I can put him/her/them in a smaller tank if needed. I suppose I could create a slope. I'm looking at my cichlid tank right now and their rock cave set up actually looks a bit like stairs. I don't really like rocks with fish that don't need them though because I like to provide max amount of space to swim.

Sorry for the length of the post here, but I don't know much about crabs and want to start my research right!

[Autumnsky]

There are varying reports about the Crabs being alright in FW. Mostly they are not really, and that they need some salt in the water.

I kept some on the advice of the lfs guy who said his were 3 years old and were just fine.

Here is a pic. He is on a turtle island from the pet store.


They were in a tank with young Angelfish and pretty much kept to themselves.



I had to tape up the back of the tank with heavy duty plastic wrap doubled and duct taped so there were no gaps.

I always thought of doing a hamster habitrail thing out the back of the tank and hamster tubes into a sand bed area with water and shells like a beach thing where they can bury in sand with a sun lamp too.

But there was a pH crash and I didn't ever start over with them.

[NiaCas]

Cool - so that's a fiddler crab? The hamster tubing is a neat idea!

[Autumnsky]

Yes it is. I thought that it would be really fun. But I have too many projects on the list that I can't work that one out right now, maybe later. They crawl well, so some cotton netting for them to crawl up and into the "pod" and the out the other side would be awesome. You could have several of them.