Freshwater Crab

[SouthernJustice]

I have a fresh water crab, the 2 inch ones with the large claw (male). I dont believe its a Fiddler because those are brackish. Anyway, I had the guy for about a couple weeks or so and he was doing just great. Eating off the gravel, running everywhere, climbing everything and trying to escape. However in the past few days I have found him to be quite lethargic, lying around not doing much, moving only once every 20 minutes or so. I have not seen him eat anything. I thought he was dead the first morning I found him - laying on his back lifeless, until I tried to pick him up in order to vacate him from my 10 gallon. The crab now seems quite sick and I do not know what to do. I thought he was molting or getting ready to, however that hasn't happend and its been about 5 days. The only changes I have made to the 10 gallon aquarium - of which houses about a few guppies, 4 swordfish, and one male betta and of course the crab - have been a top (to keep him from escaping) with a 24 hour light that heats and illuminates the tank at a nice 78 degrees around the clock. I used to have a heater, but disconnected it when I found that I did not need it due to the heat generated from the light. Any help as to what may be wrong with my loyal bottom feeder is greatly appreicated. Thank you.


-SJ

[IHadSexWithAllTheseFish]

You should be careful, that kind of around the clock lighting has been known to cause algae problems.

[SouthernJustice]

I haven't had any problems with algae whatsoever.

[maxpayne_lhp]

I have no experience in this. But I only see aquarists keep 'crabs' in backrish water and have basking place. What did you feed/ what did the store suggest you to feed them?

[maxpayne_lhp]

The big problem couldn't be algea cause algea will be boosted up by UV. But the problem may be stressing fish.

[SouthernJustice]

I was told the crab is freshwater, doesn't need to have a basking place or any of the like due to the fact its an aquatic crab, and that it will eat either crab food or extra food that falls to the bottom (of which he did).

[maxpayne_lhp]

Well this is what I found. It may be unaccurate so I'm still looking for more information

Fiddler crabs are often sold in pet shops as freshwater inhabitants. While in the stores they may be kept entirely underwater, and their water will contain no salt. Unfortunately for the crabs, they cannot live this way for long, and in under a month you can expect a fiddler kept in such conditions to die.

and some more:

Fiddler crabs must have access to dry land, as well as slightly salty water. They spend part of their time under the water, and part of their time out on the sand. The simplest solution is to line the aquarium with three to six inches of aquarium sand. Aquarium gravel will work, too, but they cannot tunnel through it as easily.

_Yeah I really think a basking place is a must. One of the reason may be as the crabs shed their shell, they gotta have a good place to hide. Sand or mud basking place may provide them place so they can dig the 'hide-outs'
_If you petstore insists that it's aquatic they may want to mean crabs that live completely underwater. They may be wrong or I didn't look up carefully enough but I havent seen any source about that crab.
Original

[maxpayne_lhp]

Still, no data about 100% freshwater crabs
This is another source

[blakeoe]

Maxpayne is right Fiddler crabs are brackish and may or may not need basking place.
However i think southern justice is talking about Red Claw crabs which are fresh water and are fully aquatic (do not NEED to get out of the water)
If there is no place for them to get out of the water they will constently try to find one
They like a neutral ph and are sensitive to meds and ph changes. Actually they are allot more sensitive than most people think.

Allot of people will tell you different things about them like they are not fully aquatic and so on but i have had two male red claw crabs in my 55 gallon community tank for about 5 months and they have done great. I did loose one recently b/c i broke out with a case of ich and had to medicate but the meds told me on the bottle do not use with inverts, it was a risk i had to take. They got along fine with my fish. They are way too slow to catch a healty fish but may chew on a dead one if it is on the bottom.

As for cause of death of yours i have no idea. before the 2 i have had for a while i had a few die on me after having them for a week or two but found no cause of death. the only thing i could think of is my ph was a little too high at the time and maybe they spent too much time trying to get out of the water and not enough time eating?!?