fresh water red crabs

[mantis]

Does anyone know anything on the small red crabs that you can get at LFS? They didn't have a scientific name posted so I can't get any info on them. I had one molt already....which was exciting.......but it made me wonder....just how big can it get???? I have a 39 gal FW.
Any info would be appreiciated. Mantis

 

[Froggy]

Check out this site to see if this is even the type crab you have http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?Crabs.htm~mainFrame if so..its The Red Claw Sri Lanka Crab.....Sesarma sp.. 1st photo or the Sesarma BidensRed Crab
2nd photo. The Red Claw Crabs have black or very dark maroon bodies and red claws. These Crabs can live for a few years and grow to be about 2.5" across the shell.They can live indefinitely on the bottom of your aquarium completely under water. They are truly aquatic and do not need to get out of the water.
These small Crabs seem to be too slow to catch most fish. The Crabs wave their claws at fish but don't ever seem to catch one, unless the fish is sick and crashed on the bottom.They don't seem to bother Plecostomus Catfish. The Plecos. just swim away and hang on the side of the aquarium above the Crabs.They will bother and sometimes eat African Dwarf Frogs and Ghost Shrimp. Puffer Fish will attack and eat Crabs.They will quarrel among themselves, so be sure each one (if you have over 1, lol )has plenty of room and don't crowd too many in the same aquarium. One Crab per square foot of bottom area is enough. So, for example, a standard 10 gallon aquarium would have about 2 Crabs. A larger 40 gallon aquarium has about four square feet of bottom area, which is room for about 4 Crabs.They will eat almost anything such as particles of flake food that sink to the bottom of the aquarium and other bits of food. For this reason they are excellent scavengers and help improve the water quality by reducing the amount of uneaten food in the aquarium. They also stir the top 1/4" of gravel and help keep it clean. But they are not a substitute for cleaning your aquarium and changing some of the water (Had to throw that in ya know). They will eagerly eat live and frozen food such as blood worms and brine shrimp. Crabs will escape from your aquarium unless you make sure there is nothing near the vertical pieces of glass for at least 4" above the bottom of your aquarium.So move the rocks, ornaments, and all the other objects away from the glass. Shorten the length of the siphon tube, so the strainer is 4" above the gravel. Make sure there are no pieces of airline tubing the Crabs can use to crawl out. Good luck & I hope this helps.

 

[mantis]

Thank you. It was very helpful. Sorry I haven't replied sooner. This is my busy season and travel ALOT. I only have one crab. He was pretty active at first but now he hides in a log all the time. Yes, they can climb and sit in the filter eating algae and stuff off of it. I had to enclose the area around the filter with screen wire. Mantis