Crabs

[Sarra]

So, I got an itch to start an aquarium. At first, it was complicated, a Pipa Pipa in a semi-aquatic setup with some fish. I moved out of that and into a 2.5 gallon setup, and then into a 10 gallon aquarium. Eventually, it was the Pipa, some dwarf african frogs (non clawed), and some feeder fish (the Pipa was eating fish). Then, the Pipa mysteriously died, and I moved my little froggies over to the 2.5 gallon aquarium.

I found myself with a pair of blood fin tetra, a khuli loach, a gobie, a clown loach, and two of the $0.12 feeder fish from Petsmart. I wanted something different... Petsmart has some little crabs, red claw crabs. I found two that were healthy and active, and took them home. I read about them, and learned they like more salt, and a place to get out of the water. I added a piece of root wood, bought a cleaning kit, and finally a water quality testing kit (PH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate), and just today, a hydrometer. I also added a larger crab, which I cannot identify. I rescued it from the Grange Pet Country, they had it in a hermit crab setup, it's obviously an aquatic critter.

After having the little red claw crabs (RCC's) for about 2 weeks, they're both doing really well. They both molted, which freaked me out, thinking I had at first a dead crab, then a mysterious third crab, and ate the exoskeleton. They both have awesome color, one is male and the other female. They're both the same size, too. The male's name is Cake. Female is unnamed.

Now, I've got this much larger crab. It got named by my friend at the store, it's name is Frog. Don't ask. It's about 2 inches across it's shell, 4 inches with it's legs fully extended. It's a yellowish color, with yellow claws that are of approximately equal size. I was told it's a fiddler crab, but it doesn't look like one at all, as far as images.google.com has shown. It's a freshwater species, and it's cagemates had purple shells (mine is a white/yellow color). Frog hasn't really tried to eat anything else in the cage, the fish, especially the gobie, are too fast for it. It did pounce at my red claw crab, but missed. I dropped in some alge pellets and it devoured two of them happily.

Anyone have any clue what Frog is? I would LOVE to post images, but I don't have a camera anymore (my digital camera broke on the beach, my phone is completely destroyed, and I can't afford to get film developed).

[honuman]

Dunno for sure what the crab specie is but you do have an impossible combination of critters in that tank.
You may be in for lots of trouble combining all of those creatures.   

[Sarra]

Dunno for sure what the crab specie is but you do have an impossible combination of critters in that tank.
You may be in for lots of trouble combining all of those creatures.   

I expected things to die REALLY QUICKLY in there, but I'm surprised... I keep the big crab fed well, and the little crabs are really fast.

Nothing has even lost a limb yet, which is even more surprising to me.

I've been keeping a close eye on these guys, and the little crabs just avoid the big one. The Crawdad just doesn't seem to care about the others.

When they do bump into eachother, they all go away from eachother. I think the big crab knows the little ones are too much trouble, they have STRONG pinchers.

[honuman]

Okay -- but just be mindful when they shed again they are softshelled and vulnerable and quite tasty to eachother.  Good luck and I hope things continue work out smoothly for your little community. 

All those crabs are such interesting little creatures.  I love the large blue Yabbys (australian crayfish)  they are nice and get about the size of a chicken lobster.  Very impressive critters.

[Sarra]

They have good hiding spots for when they molt. Indeed, if it's possible to recognize when they're about to do so, I may just quarantine them from eachother when they molt. Otherwise, they should be just fine. I can tell they feel safer since they both molted right after I got them, I think they can actually stop molting if they feel too stressed.

Odd observation, both of my Red Clawed crabs have 6 main legs and 2 pinchers. My Fiddler has 8 legs + 2 pinchers. Wonder if both of my liddle ones are missing a leg, or fi they just have 6 runners normally. Well, my Fiddler only has 7, but you can see where #8 was. :p

I added a bubbler setup today, it's extremely ghetto, but it's neat. Very bubbly, I put a bubbler for a 20 gallon tank in my 10. When I graduate up to a 27 long, I'll transplant the bubbler and filter, and add a second filter.

[honuman]

They have good hiding spots for when they molt. Indeed, if it's possible to recognize when they're about to do so, I may just quarantine them from eachother when they molt. Otherwise, they should be just fine. I can tell they feel safer since they both molted right after I got them, I think they can actually stop molting if they feel too stressed.

They usually flip on their back when they are ready to shed.

[Sarra]

They have good hiding spots for when they molt. Indeed, if it's possible to recognize when they're about to do so, I may just quarantine them from eachother when they molt. Otherwise, they should be just fine. I can tell they feel safer since they both molted right after I got them, I think they can actually stop molting if they feel too stressed.

They usually flip on their back when they are ready to shed.

Really? Cool, I haven't seen any of them do that yet. Then again, I find out they shed about 12 hours after it's happened. :p Not around enough I guess.

[honuman]

They usually flip on their back when they are ready to shed.
[/quote]

Really? Cool, I haven't seen any of them do that yet. Then again, I find out they shed about 12 hours after it's happened. :p Not around enough I guess.
[/quote]

Also likely to shed at night rather than during the day. 

[Sarra]

Also likely to shed at night rather than during the day. 

Mine have shed during the day, actually. I checked in the morning, nothing, then in the afternoon, there's a third Red Clawed crab in there! Oh, just the shell...

Mine thankfully eat their old shells, glad to know they're getting their calcium back.