Death of My Red Claw Crabs

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Stuart Watson

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Jun 30, 2003
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London, UK.
www.succeedsystems.co.uk
Hello from London.
First my thanks to all of you that have recorded and posted your RCC information as it has been of great benefit to me.

To give something back I wanted to record my thoughts and findings surrounding the death after 3 weeks of my RCC's and assumptions etc. that I make.

I look forward to replies and hope that we can enhance what is already an excellent forum topic!

In short, I was made aware of 10 RCC's that were going to be "dumped" and so I thought I was being clever by rescuing them. Got them home and into an 18" tank and all seemed fine and they settled in and set about eating as much bloodworm as I cared to give them.

Four molts were found in the tank in the first week, and the internal Fluval filter sponges were satisfactory.

3 weeks later, and within 6 hours, all of the crabs had rolled-over and died, some of the carapaces were beginning to "unpeel" from the underneath. 24 hours later no change so death was certain.

The filter sponges were brown that week and very, very sludge-like and the water a little brown and the gravel tainted with light brown.

I have settled on the opinion that although cleaned weekly the quantity of crabs must have made sooooo much waste and mess that the filters could not cope on a weekly basis after 3 weeks and that they were poisoned? 2 small lamp-head that shared this tank also died with no sign on attack and the other fish and the crabs got on really, really well.

I did not have the money to get more tanks to reduce the number nor could I put them elsewhere - I am very sad that I feel I have killed them and let them down and although I do not wish to be flamed I did want to share this story as a warning to others and also to prompt discussion on what could have happened and what did go wrong.

Looking forward to being a part of this fine forum and hope to hear from you soon.

:)
 

Stuart Watson

AC Members
Jun 30, 2003
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55
London, UK.
www.succeedsystems.co.uk
Incorrect member information

Sorry,
I see I am listed as a Junior member and ought to advise that this is not correct and I have e-mailed the moderators about this.

In the interests of honesty of the group as it includes junior members and guardians I am 35 years old, father of 2.
 

SBA

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Mar 25, 2003
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Hi Stuart

Sorry to hear about your RCC loss.

FYI the 'junior member' tag refers to the number of posts made. As your post count increases so the tag changes.

You can change it yourself by editing your user profile, and then you can be whatever you want! You could even join the childawg appreciation society, but that's another story...

HTH
Ade
 

Stuart Watson

AC Members
Jun 30, 2003
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London, UK.
www.succeedsystems.co.uk
Thanks Ade.
This weekend I am going to totally sterilize and clean the tank and equipment, refill and aquascape, then treat and bubble for a week to settle down.

The I shall get 3 crabs from the excellent Maidenhead Aquatics @ Morden Hall in Surrey and start-over. Me and the wife, and my 5 year old and 1 year old really miss them despite the short time we had them so we are going to have a planned go at keeping them.
 

SBA

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Stuart

No problem!

There are a few threads on here regarding RCCs. Do a search for it, some of them have links to other sites if memory serves.

Do you need to cycle the tank before adding crabs? Are they fresh or saltwater? As you may guess - I've never kept them!

Regards
Ade
 

Stuart Watson

AC Members
Jun 30, 2003
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London, UK.
www.succeedsystems.co.uk
Ade,
I am no expert yet! I rushed them home in "rescue" and assumed they were freshwater/brackish from what I was told by the would-be disposer of free- life!!

Basically water was treated and the crabs put in almost straight-away as there was no time as they are 90% amphibious although they do come out to "bask" under the tubes!!

I was thinking about making a contribution thread that would chronicle what I do when we setup this time and then others can add tips or warnings as we go along, and hence make a good record on keeping and maintaining these wonderful specimens - they are really great to observe.

From the threads here some say fresh, some brackish so at the moment there is lots to be learned from us enthusiasts!
 

RTR

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Oct 5, 1998
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First, these crabs are brackish. True FW crabs exist but are extremely rare in the trade. These do not however require high brackish, just light brackish water, so 1.002-1.005 should serve. You might get away with less, but the higher pH, harder water, and larger presence of traces in the light BW will be beneficial.

Most crustaceans are intolerant of ammonia and nitrite, so the chance is fair that your uncycled tank was the immediate cause of problems. Next round using smaller numbers and monitoring ammonia/nitrite should help.

Using marine mix in the water also provide the beasts with iodine (and other minerals), which is present in the SW mix. Crustaceans require this (among other things) for molting properly. If Hiraki brand foods are available in the UK, look for their "crab pellets" which are also iodine-supplemented. If not, add a drop of marine iodine supplement after water changes.

I agree that these crabs spend much less time out of water than do fiddlers, but they do need/want to get out periodically. Although it complicates cleaning, irregular rock or dead coral jumbles allow them to retreat to safety post-molt or any other time they feel harassed.

HTH
 

Tom.E

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Jan 6, 2000
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Stuart

If you’re going to get more crabs and write/post about them, ask the shop if they have the crab's _taxonomic name_. There’s no such thing as a generic “red-claw crab”, and referring to them using the RCC acronym is even worse. Not properly identifying crabs is probably the number one reason there’s so much misinformation about them on the internet.


Tom
 
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thom336

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Dec 17, 2002
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Stuart - this couldnt be more of a coincidence. Apart from we're both from london (not really a coincidence), but I too recently started to keep RCC's in an 18ins tank, with fluval internal filter, and mine were obtained from maindenhead aquatics @ polhill. I experianced the same shedding of skins after about a week, and after afew weeks (of it all going well) I lost one. After acouple more weeks this turned into two, and finally after acouple more days the third pegged it. I kept them in FW, as what were the conditions in the shop, in a tank with Tiger barbs. From what I had read after getting them, they only required brakish conditions to breed...but Im not going to try again - but if I would I would certainly go with a brakish tank.
 
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