Reply With Quotetake the bully out?
Hi everyone, just want to find out if anyone out there has experience keeping different species of crabs together.
I have a 30 liter tank and I keep two vampire crabs, one tomato crab, and one red claw crabs together (the other red claw crab is still sick and I keep her in a separate 'hospital' tank). I made sure that they have 2/3 land surface and 1/3 water surface and also put in a lot of 'furniture' inside for them to climb up on, run, and hide.
Yesterday was the first time I introduced them all together into the big tank (previously they were kept separate in smaller tanks) and I noticed that the red claw crabs has been bullying the rest of the crabs! He will chase the others around and sometimes will pounce on the smaller ones. Of course the always escape.
I know this is nature at work, but I'm not sure if there is anything I can do for my crustacean friends! I think it's be very stressful for the rest (who seems amicable with one another) to live with a bully lurking around in their compound!
I'd like to hear your opinions/ and experiences.
Thank you in advance =)
take the bully out?
Red claw crabs are at twice the size of those other 2. I think its a matter of time that they get eaten. In my case I have some different colored vampire crab, they each prefer a cubby hole to hide, but when I introduce a new crab, I will notice that they will all shift positions. I have a male bicolor vampire that is very active, it will pounce on my pincer and raid the other crabs territory.
hi Shaihulud,
Thanks for sharing. So what did you do with that active male? The funny thing was that I took out the bully, which I named Angry, and I put in the other red claw crab which just recovered (which I named Sickly) into the big tank. Sickly is even bigger than Angry, but Sickly is so peace-loving. I have seen him walk past my other smaller vampire crabs without getting aggressive! Angry would have ran over and pounced on them even from a distance!
I have isolated my active crab into a temporary setup. I am setting up another 30cm cube paludrium for him and perhaps another female since I learnt that the bicolor are a seperate species. Here is my main crab tank.
Last edited by Shaihulud; 29th Oct 2009 at 11:30. Reason: picture format
that's a cool set-up. Mine is rather sparse right now and i'm still in the process of decorating my tank! May I ask how often do you change the water, and what are the water parameters, i.e. how do you prepare the water? thanks for entertaining my newbie questions!
I am a newbie with crabs too, I have them for only a month and have killed 3 crabs :C. I don't change water only top up, I have no idea on the water parameters but it should be hard, the land area is formed from garvel, coral chips and volacanic rocks. The water region is populated with baby guppies and snails.
Haha, me too! My orange crab (Crawly) has been with me for 3 months and molted once. I have killed 4 of his friends. But now I have introduced 3 others for him (different species) and the last one, Angry, is giving me a bit of problems!
You keep guppies in there too? I don't see any filter in your tank. And by the way, from the picture, I see that your aquarium light is flurescent (white) and not UV light? How will the plants survive? I'll post pictures of my crustacean friends and tank soon! thanks again! =)
It is white fluroscent light, plants does not use UV light. The guppies are for food, not sure if they are being eaten. I feed my crabs mainly bloodworms and turtle stick(because it floats) and once tiny crickets. My crabs are in the interface between land and water, when threatened they pop into the water.
Alot of the crabs from the lfs are not very well off, those that died were all very lethargic and doesn't eat well. I will only buy active crabs in future.
Hi Shaihulud,
Is the tank, then, placed near the window? If not, how will it photosynthesize (and survive) without UV light?
Last time when I purchased both my red claw crabs, one wasn't well. He was very listless and not moving much. What I did was I put it inside a very small container (with sand substrate and a log) and diluted a small amount of sea salt into the water. I kept him there for two days and since then he has recovered. I have put him inside the big aquarium already.
Where is LFS? I am planning to go down to C328 later to see if they have any female orange/ vampire/ red claw crabs. =)
LFS is licensed fish shop, not saying which specifically, but I think the crabs are not treated very well before sale. Plants do not photosynthesize with UV light, but with the visible light spectrums, it is not near a window, it is actually an office tank. I was at clementi yesterday and they have bicolor vampire crab(yellow).
hey shaihulud, I went to C328 and there were no more crabs left!
How do I insert pictures? How come must paste link? Can't I just upload from my compputer?
Geosesarma krathing
Perisesarma bidens
Geosesarma sp.
some species of freshwater crab
ok that was a failed attempt! anyway if you search for my pictures, you'll see some of my crabs! =)
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