Hi! new here 55gal fresh with crabs

[Carter]

Hi everyone,

Well lets see I'm new here obviously. I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank. I set up my tank roughly 5 weeks ago or so. I currently have 4 fiddler crabs, 8 ghost shrimp or so and 6 danios. *shrimp and fish were more for my cycle but they never died so I still got em. I set up a rocky beach for the crabs to get out of the water. * They were the main reason i wanted to set up an aquarium.* I put sand on the bottom for substrate on the water side. In the hill i put a mix of sand/rocks to show more of a transition then a sudden sand to rock switch. They seem to be very happy so far. Put in a few tablespoons of fresh water salt to help with slimecoat and such. I guess i only really have 35 gallons of water in the tank because of the beach and the slightly lower then normal water level. I gave a few hiding spots and a artifical branch they can walk up on and do their thing. I'm thinking of giving them more beach but still obvserving atm. If they go on it more often then I'll give them more, if they don't go on it often I think i'll leave it as it is. I'm in the procoess of making my own little cave with gravel and pvc pipe but not finished yet so its not included in the pictures. Let me know if you have any questions/concerns etc. Btw I built support for the beach with egg crate which seems to work very well, but sometimes requires some touch up on the rocks as they become exposed every now and then. Thanks for reading!

 

[mfdrookie516]

i had fiddlers in my 55, they ate 4 zebra danios and a dwarf gourami...

 

[Carter]

Ya I was told they might eat them but the danios are normally fast enough to get out of the way before being attacked. But my main priority is the crabs so if they stay ok then i'm happy.

 

[gzeiger]

Fiddler crabs are actually primarily terrestrial. They like to have a stable substrate they can burrow in (sand or mud) to reach down to water, but given the choice they will spend most of their time on land.

 

[Aquarium1]

Looks really cool.

 

[Carter]

Fiddler crabs are actually primarily terrestrial. They like to have a stable substrate they can burrow in (sand or mud) to reach down to water, but given the choice they will spend most of their time on land.

ya thats what i read but i wanted give em choice.. but so far they not really go on land.. been few days now with the crabs * got after cycle* and they go up maybe for 10 min on land each in a day and once they up there for few min they go back into water again... Gonna give em few more weeks to get used to everything and go from there on how i'll change the set up a bit to make em happier.

 

[mfdrookie516]

you will probably see them coming out more and more... mine are out of the water every time i look.. i never see them in water anymore... just a thought, but mine really like leftovers. i can put a piece of steak or hamburger or something like that in and they will eat on it forever...

 

[Carter]

you will probably see them coming out more and more... mine are out of the water every time i look.. i never see them in water anymore... just a thought, but mine really like leftovers. i can put a piece of steak or hamburger or something like that in and they will eat on it forever...

lol i can see it now.. going up to mcdonalds drive through... ya can i get a fish fillet sandwich please... come home and give it to my like 4 50 pound fiddler crabs from giving them scraps lmfao

 

[mfdrookie516]

lol, maybe i should add that i only give them a PINCH lol...

 

[Carter]

lol i know i was just having fun with the scraps thing.. when u said that all i could think of was my crabs munching down on a bigmac lmfao

 

[gzeiger]

Choice is good. They should have water, but I don't think you have enough land in that setup for them to be really happy. Ideally if a tank was set up just for crabs it should be about 2/3 land, with at least some of it a couple inches above water level so they can make a partially dry burrow. You can do it your way too, with fish in the water, but I still think you need to expand the land area in some way. They might appreciate a small piece of PVC pipe or something stuck into the gravel at an angle so they could have a burrow even in that loose substrate.

 

[Bige]

Looks good. Makes me want to put my feet in with a stick and bacon. I guess that is wierd.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome to AA

 

[DragonFish71]

You can also use frozen beef heart. Most pet stores that carry frozen foods like brine shrimp carry this with it.

 

[gzeiger]

There's no reason to pay pet store prices for that stuff. I do buy it for small fish because of the convenience of having it cut up in tiny pieces the way they do, but crabs can handle a larger piece since they have bony jaws. Raw liver from the grocery store is an excellent food for them, and you can get 2-3 pounds for the price of one of those 4 oz trays of beefheart.

 

[Carter]

woohoo finally finished my cave.. got a peice of pvc from ace hardware cut it in half with a hacksaw got some aquarium safe silicon and some pebbles from walmart and finally finsihed it.. been working on it off and on for a few weeks and happy with the result.

 

[gzeiger]

That whole thing is held together by silicone?

 

[Carter]

Ya it worked pretty well. First I cut the pipe and sanded it down so it was more rough so the silicon stick better. Then I got busy and didn't touch it for a bit. Then when I got back on track I applied a crap load of silicon and took an old big kitchen plastic spoon. Spread it out around the pipe and rolled the pipe in the pebbles. Since the outside is more visible I let it cure for about a day then repeated the process to get a good pepple coat. Then I did the same to the inside and filled the middle with pebbles and used my hand to apply good preasure to get em set. Then I applied more silicon to the edges and pushed them into the pile of pebbles then i let the whole thing cure for 2 days outside and now i'm gonna let it sit a few days in water thats Prime treated to make sure all is good. If you get the silicon on your hands though its a pain in the butt to get off so just be careful with it if any of you guys are gonna try. Use some gloves or something lol. *I used 1 full 12 oz i think is the size tube of silicon on this cave so use the silicon generously.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i made a couple a while back, did pretty much the same as you... i didnt wear gloves and regretted it... apparently im allergic to pure silicone or something, my hands were red and burned lol