Freshwater crabs

[Asully70]

I was wondering about these little crabs I saw in petsmart. They arnt the hermits they were ones that could be underwater. I just wanted to know if i could keep one of them in my 29 gallon tank with out a problem. like if they would eat my other fish or corys? or what they eat? or if they need to be out of water sometimes because thats how they were displayed in the petsmart. the lady there wasnt too helpful so i was just wondering if anybody know much about these little guys?

[LittlePuff]

Was one arm bigger than the other? What color were they?

[Ghost Knife]

You are referring to Mini-Crabs. They also carry Red Clawed Crabs. These crabs require a brackish tank with a couple inches of water with plenty of ways to get above water for air. They really can be quite difficult to keep alive during molting and their lifespan is generally less than 2-3 years. I have kept land hermit crabs for 4 years now and thoroughly researched these guys, but decided not to keep these brackish water crabs because of their really short lifespans. BTW land hermit crabs can live up to 30-40 years and I still have several that I started with 4 years ago.

[trashion]

They are probably fiddler crabs. Brackish water, not freshwater. I would keep them in a species tank.

[Asully70]

they were the red clawed crabs. they look kinda neat but i think i would have to have a whole other tank to actually keep them. thanks for the info though

[Ghost Knife]

Originally Posted by Asully70

they were the red clawed crabs. they look kinda neat but i think i would have to have a whole other tank to actually keep them. thanks for the info though

No problem at all. I have always been fascinated by Crustaceans as they are the clean up crew for a large portion of the world, although my land hermit crabs eat much better than they would in the wild. I keep them in a 75G terrarium with 200 lbs. of sand.

[Plecostomus]

I have kept a red crab before, and it did okay in my freshwater tank even though I didn't know at the time it was brackish. I didn't realize how much time it would spend out of the water! Its favorite place was half in half out of the water in the filter. It climbed up the heater then over to the filter to get up there. I thought one day it might escape from my tank, so I duct taped off the opening by the filter so it wouldn't be able to get out. No success, a few days later, it was gone. I searched all over for it in my room, and there was no trace of it. The next morning we found it all the way downstairs hiding under my dad's breifcase still alive! It wandered all the way to the other side of the house in one night! We were lucky to find it, so I promptly put the crab back in the tank, but a few weeks later, it somehow escaped again despite all the duct tape, and I found it's dead shell in my closet a few months later. The crab was really cool though, and it is definetly a scavenger animal. One of my danios wasn't doing so hot at the time, just sitting at the bottom of the tank, and the crab sneaked up really slowly and then lunged, but the danio darted away. I also saw it digging or something in the soil of one of my plants, it could have been eating the roots, but I couldn't tell for sure.