adeebm
Aquarium Advice FINatic
It's good that your little guy is alive! Did you order the 6 new ones yet? Brian was too pricey for me so I got mine off aquabid, worked out pretty well. 6 for $100 isn't bad though.
--Adeeb
--Adeeb
20l vampire crab paludarium build thread
- Thread starter siva
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Yes they are from Sulawesi. And I all but forgot in my last post to specify they have some sort of molting problem. I'm fuzzy on the details now but I'm not sure if I've seen a successful molt yet. I think every one I've had died soon after molting. This is a common complaint with the imported ones, for some reason.
I never actually added springtails, though I will order a culture with the new crabs I'll be getting, but I think I ended up with some anyway. There are very small bugs hopping around in there, and I think that is what is making up the majority of the crabs diet. It takes a gut loaded cricket from time to time but that's it.
Yes, it is watertight. I do have my lower land area water logged, but only because I had unintentionally filled the water area too full and realized the crabs really like it that way, spending most of their time in the swampy area and burrowing, so I've continued to do it that way.
I'd be curious to see a list of the plants I'm using too..lol. I just grabbed some stuff locally and didn't really pay attention. I wasn't very focused on the plant aspect at the time, for some reason. I'm not satisfied with alot of it now though and want to improve. Gonna order some cool moss and stuff. Thinking about going on a hike and trying to find some local stuff I can use too.
I never actually added springtails, though I will order a culture with the new crabs I'll be getting, but I think I ended up with some anyway. There are very small bugs hopping around in there, and I think that is what is making up the majority of the crabs diet. It takes a gut loaded cricket from time to time but that's it.
Yes, it is watertight. I do have my lower land area water logged, but only because I had unintentionally filled the water area too full and realized the crabs really like it that way, spending most of their time in the swampy area and burrowing, so I've continued to do it that way.
I'd be curious to see a list of the plants I'm using too..lol. I just grabbed some stuff locally and didn't really pay attention. I wasn't very focused on the plant aspect at the time, for some reason. I'm not satisfied with alot of it now though and want to improve. Gonna order some cool moss and stuff. Thinking about going on a hike and trying to find some local stuff I can use too.
I never see bi-colors on AB. I've found on them on ebay, but they were imported. So it comes out to like $16.66 ea and I paid $12.95 for mine at the shop. So these ones aren't much more. Plus shipping, of course. I'm bummed though because I wanted to order some frogs at the same time, since shipping is a flat rate of $35, but he doesn't have any of the ones listed that I wanted. On that note, if I turn a 20H into a viv, how many darts do you think I can put in there?
SO...I just ordered the crabs from Brian's. 
I also ordered some sweet new plants for the palu.. anubias barteri, begonia, fittonia, lemon button fern, and suzy wong fern. I'm thinking about possibly picking up some manzanita as well, to really change up the look, but not sure if I'll be able to afford it right away. I'm pretty excited! 
I also ordered some sweet new plants for the palu.. anubias barteri, begonia, fittonia, lemon button fern, and suzy wong fern. I'm thinking about possibly picking up some manzanita as well, to really change up the look, but not sure if I'll be able to afford it right away. I'm pretty excited! 
Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
Nice! Looking forward to updated pictures when you get the chance.
The crabs are here! They are all alive and active. Cute little buggers. The plants are gorgeous too. I'll take pics as soon as I get it all done!
I need some reco's for the water portion. I can't really figure out what to put in there. I figured out that anubias' are good, since they do well growing up out of the water, so in addition to the barteri I added today, I'm going to get atleast one nana petite. I've got some little java fern babies in there and some java moss. What else? Would anything like micro sword, chain sword, or hair grass work? The water is very shallow..2" deep or less..so whatever it is needs to be able to grow up out of the water OK. And with that distance, between the water and the light, I'm not sure what I can grow. Should I replace the 8000k bulb with a 10000k bulb?I've done that in many of my aquariums but, honestly, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not!
I need some reco's for the water portion. I can't really figure out what to put in there. I figured out that anubias' are good, since they do well growing up out of the water, so in addition to the barteri I added today, I'm going to get atleast one nana petite. I've got some little java fern babies in there and some java moss. What else? Would anything like micro sword, chain sword, or hair grass work? The water is very shallow..2" deep or less..so whatever it is needs to be able to grow up out of the water OK. And with that distance, between the water and the light, I'm not sure what I can grow. Should I replace the 8000k bulb with a 10000k bulb?I've done that in many of my aquariums but, honestly, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not!
The new crabs are freakin' awesome. They are pretty young, most don't have orange or yellow on their backs yet. You can so tell they are tank bred. They aren't nearly as skittish as the wild caught. I can pretty much reach in a touch them. They don't hide much either. I'm pretty happy!
I have a real hard time taking good pics of this thing, trying to get a view of the different levels. I'm not a great photographer anyway...
But I did the best I can do!
I took out all of the original plants, except for the vine-y one in the middle. If anyone knows what that plant is, please let me know.
In the water portion, I added a small banana plant on the left. I realized banana plants should work well in this set-up (I hope). Coming up over the rocks all the way to the left and on the mopani is some java moss. I wanted it to look more natural, but eh, it's OK I guess. The crabs seem to like it. Behind the mopani is the anubias barteri. To the right of the mopani is several small java ferns, a couple are also tucked into the wall behind it, and all the way to the right is a misc anubias. I have several of these I bought locally unlabeled, so again pls let me know if you can tell which anubias this is. I also put some guppy grass throughout to fill in empty spots, and a bit of water lettuce is floating around as well.
Crab under the fittonia
Crab under water
I have a real hard time taking good pics of this thing, trying to get a view of the different levels. I'm not a great photographer anyway...
But I did the best I can do!I took out all of the original plants, except for the vine-y one in the middle. If anyone knows what that plant is, please let me know.
In the water portion, I added a small banana plant on the left. I realized banana plants should work well in this set-up (I hope). Coming up over the rocks all the way to the left and on the mopani is some java moss. I wanted it to look more natural, but eh, it's OK I guess. The crabs seem to like it. Behind the mopani is the anubias barteri. To the right of the mopani is several small java ferns, a couple are also tucked into the wall behind it, and all the way to the right is a misc anubias. I have several of these I bought locally unlabeled, so again pls let me know if you can tell which anubias this is. I also put some guppy grass throughout to fill in empty spots, and a bit of water lettuce is floating around as well.
Crab under the fittonia
Crab under water
Last edited:
Butterflychild
Aquarium Advice Regular
ok were abouts do i look for your step by step instructions.? Oh i know they need only 25% water in there tank But im needing to know can i use a Aquarium or do i need a different kind of inclosure and what size do i need.? Thank you i will ask you if i need more info tyvm
adeebm
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Aww that sucks I sure hope your little guys make it. The tank is looking great! Makes me want to order some vamps from Brian too.
Butterflychild, you can use a regular aquarium. They need part land and part freshwater, which you can accomplish in several ways. A plexiglass divider, a hill of coco fiber, raising the land on gravel, or etc. If you look through siva's thread you should get an idea on how to build a good enclosure. You can also take a look at my tank(link in sig), but keep in mind that my species needs less water than yours. As for size, 10g will do for a few crabs, but 20 long will give you a long more working room.
--Adeeb
I sure hope your little guys make it. The tank is looking great! Makes me want to order some vamps from Brian too.Butterflychild, you can use a regular aquarium. They need part land and part freshwater, which you can accomplish in several ways. A plexiglass divider, a hill of coco fiber, raising the land on gravel, or etc. If you look through siva's thread you should get an idea on how to build a good enclosure. You can also take a look at my tank(link in sig), but keep in mind that my species needs less water than yours. As for size, 10g will do for a few crabs, but 20 long will give you a long more working room.
--Adeeb
Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
Sorry to hear about the crab - hope the rest pull through for you. Cleaned things up a bit - thanks for helping out Siva!
Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
Thanks Wy!
Looking nice, to be honest I'm still learning about the plants as I go, so I would hate to send you down the wrong road. You might consider some of the peacock ferns if you can find them, and place them in the water section and let them grow out over the water. If you want a bigger fern, you might try a Rabbits foot. I like the look of your water portion, you'll just have to be careful to balance the height of anything you put in the water with the plants in the back. You might want to look into some floating plants as well - something larger than duckweed might be nice (and something that doesn't spread as fast LOL). The viney plant looks like it might be pothos, although I can't say for sure. It comes in the green or a varigated version (which I personally like a little better), but it should do very well for you and may even send a shoot out into the water.
Oh I love peacock ferns! I bought several of them for my aquariums before I knew better. So you think they will work planted in the water portion? They rotted so quick when completely submerged that I can't help but wonder...
I think you're right on the pothos ID. Hmm..now I wish I had that varigated variety.
I think you're right on the pothos ID. Hmm..now I wish I had that varigated variety.
Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
Should work fine - from what I've read and heard they are "semi-aquatics or hydrophytes. Cant say that for positive, but I did pick up a couple to try in the water portion of my salamander build. If I can ever get the dang thing sealed off, I'll let you know how they do.
As for the pothos - you could always pick up one of the varigated and plant it next to the other and intertwine the vine/leaves - might make a rather interesting feature plant.
Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think given your location that you should be able to find some moss that will do quite well in there. The caution I would give would be to sift through it as carefully as you can, as you could end up bringing in some undesirables - sometimes those are interesting, and sometimes they are a nightmare. With terrestrial varieties, you probably won't get too much to worry about, but you certainly want to make sure you're not bring in something that might bite or sting your crabs.
Similar threads
