Hello Everyone,
I suppose I will start from the beginning. I put 4 red clawed crabs in a 10 gallon tank. Two of the crabs are male...two female. After some time, I noticed the bottom part of the exoskeleton of both male crabs pealed open and one of my red clawed crabs was missing a leg. I suspected that my male crabs were fighting, so I donated one of the male crabs to a local fish store. Today, I got the chance to look at my only male crab left in the tank. He has lost all of his legs except for 3. Now I am wondering if something else is going on...or if this is normal for a crab recovering from combat wounds? I don't notice any of these symptoms or problems in the female crabs. Any suggestions?
All of my water parameters are normal...0 nitrates...no ammonia (or hardly any ammonia)....ph is about 8.3. My nitrates are maybe about 35 ppm which is sort of high but is is always within the normal parameters when I test it. I also use brackish water and the specific gravity of this water should be about 1.006-1.007. My temperature stays around 78-81 degrees Fahrenheit. I try and do a water change with a small vacuum gravel once a week since these crabs are so messy. My tank is about 1-2 months old and I typically feed my crabs about four shrimp pellets 2 times every day. Occasionally, I feed them freeze dried shrimp/krill as a treat! I use a Marina i25 filter and a Fluval 25 watt heater.
I suppose I will start from the beginning. I put 4 red clawed crabs in a 10 gallon tank. Two of the crabs are male...two female. After some time, I noticed the bottom part of the exoskeleton of both male crabs pealed open and one of my red clawed crabs was missing a leg. I suspected that my male crabs were fighting, so I donated one of the male crabs to a local fish store. Today, I got the chance to look at my only male crab left in the tank. He has lost all of his legs except for 3. Now I am wondering if something else is going on...or if this is normal for a crab recovering from combat wounds? I don't notice any of these symptoms or problems in the female crabs. Any suggestions?
All of my water parameters are normal...0 nitrates...no ammonia (or hardly any ammonia)....ph is about 8.3. My nitrates are maybe about 35 ppm which is sort of high but is is always within the normal parameters when I test it. I also use brackish water and the specific gravity of this water should be about 1.006-1.007. My temperature stays around 78-81 degrees Fahrenheit. I try and do a water change with a small vacuum gravel once a week since these crabs are so messy. My tank is about 1-2 months old and I typically feed my crabs about four shrimp pellets 2 times every day. Occasionally, I feed them freeze dried shrimp/krill as a treat! I use a Marina i25 filter and a Fluval 25 watt heater.
