Runaway Red-Claw

maybe thats why i never find mine. i always look for them around the aquarium. i should start looking across the room, under the couch.

hey same thing here

hey i used to have crabs and i was watching PIRANHA the movie which is very scary and all of a sudden i found the crab walking around by my feet!!!It climbed out of the tank and went all around the house!!I freaked out!!!


SCARY MOVIES AND SCARY FISH TYPE THINGS DONT MIX!!ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT!!!!!

I caught my 2 crays on a rampage once. They use Aquaclear intake pipes as ladders!

When you say "make sure there are NO cracks," I'm assuming you don't mean literally NO cracks. I mean heater cords, hanging filters, air tubes, etc. all need to have SOME way into the tank, so its not really possible to have a completely air-tight tank.

So, the question is, should whatever minimal openings there are in a lid be just slightly smaller than the crab's body, or do they need to be much much smaller than the crab? Basically, are crabs Houdini-like escape artists, or will they just take advantage of an "open door"?

I'm asking because I'd really like to get a crab or two in my tank, and I'd like to know how well I need to seal it up first.

when i had my four oscars in three ten gal tanks one of them had a 3/4 in gap between the power filter and the tank lid. one night we heard one of the oscars start jumping, the next morning when i went to work it was fine. when i returned, it had jumped out of the gap onto the floor and started to dry up. it was my favorite one at the time. i was crushed. didn't buy another one, but did buy a bigger tank for the other three. when i cut the openings for filters, there is no gap. i used an exacto knife and trimmed the plastic to fit perfectly around the filter and only enough of a hole in the corner for the heater cord and the airlines. no more casualities. now before i put on a new accesory, i buy a new backstrip and trim it to fit.

Originally posted by fishmaniac


of course he was kinda crusty...and I felt bad, but I couldn't help but laugh that he was clear across on the other side of the room.

Crazy Crazy Crazy......

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LOL if you think thats far.... our first shipment of Rainbow crabs was hell....the day after they came in we found almost the entire batch on the floor....they had slipped out through a tiny crack in the back of the tank. (we figured 5'' across crabs couldnt fit...we were wrong) The farthest one traveled all the way up to the front of the store where we found it behind a fish tank coated in hair and dust. Man do they run like the wind....but they are perfect for freaking out the little old ladies when they skitter across the floor

The mgr. at my favorite LFS said he used to find the crabs in the tank next to the one they had put them in the day before. They've also found a few on the floor but he has since made the tanks inescapable for crabs.