Red Clawed Crabs

thebrandon

thebrandon

I like fish
Jan 29, 2009
1,846
0
36
Tucson, AZ
I have a few questions about these guys.

I have a 20 long I want to set up and put some in. Is the 20 long an ideal home for them? How many can I keep in a 20 long?

I keep reading that they are fresh water, and I keep reading that they are brackish water. When it comes to which they are the argument seems to lean towards brackish conditions being the best. So I am looking for first hand experience on how successful people have been keeping them in either conditions. I personally will be keeping them in brackish conditions to see how it works out. From what I have read about there natural habitat it seems that they go back and forth between fresh and brackish water, and that the salt has certain properties that are very beneficial for them.

I'll have plenty of places for them to climb out of the water and get fresh air with rocks and drift wood, more specifically manzanita. Would manzanita be safe with them? I know they like to sometimes munch on wood.

I like the look of live plants, which is why I have them in all my tanks. What plants can tolerate slightly brackish conditions?

What would be the best substrate for the crabs? I was going to use some kind of sand.

If anyone has any advice or tips when it comes to keeping these guys please feel free to contribute:)
 
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I had them in freshwater for a long time and they seemed to be fine. They would probably live longer in brackish though. My tank was the same thing, 20 long. I used pea sized gravel and provided a beach for them to come out from the water. They will die quite fast if you do not allow them to come out of the water. I learned that the hard way when I got my first one. Mellow has alot of experience with them I believe, might wanna contact him
 
Thanks:)

How many did you keep in there?

I have started making a built in sump for it, still need to find some diagrams so I know exactly what I am doing though lol. So the living space they will have in the water will be a bit less. Does this sound like a good idea?
 
I just filled it with water to about 1/4 of the tank then built a beach that took up 1/4 of the tank on the left hand side. Really basic, nothing crazy. Then in the water I had some big rocks n stuff sticking out of the water so they could separate themselves while still being on land. Are you trying to make a paludarium? I kept two females and one male. At one point I had a male fiddler crab who would mess with the male red claw. Well the male red claw got fed up and snipped his big arm off. Had to put him in another tank to say the least
 
Which of the two crabs would you guys recommend? I can get either at my local pet store, red clawed crabs or fiddlers. I like both of them really but obviously can only get one lol. Which is more active between the two? Is one easier to care for than the other?

I think I am going to go with one male, and 3 females.
 
Well the red claws look like little bruisers and are a little more shy imo. But theres nothing like those male fiddlers. He will sit there all day and wave his big claw in the air trying to scare you lol
 
ha that's hilarious!

Here is the start of what I will be doing. Nothing has been siliconed yet but you can sort of see what I am going for.

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Water enters on the right by over flowing over the top where I have started to make some slits. Then it travels from right to left getting filtered through the various media in the sump, then it gets sucked up through the eclipse filter(so much filtration!!) then back out into the tank where I will be making a mini water fall, where the cycle gets to restart:)

I still have to make a few more dividers before I can start the project and silicone everything and test it out, but it should be pretty cool:)
 
Looks good, a lot more complicated than what I had. A lot of filtration is good for those little guys cuz they are really dirty. Make sure there is no where to escape cuz they love doing that
 
I'm going to be hiding the back with cork bark, driftwood and rocks, so it will be impossible for anything to get back there once the lid goes on.

I'm pretty excited:) I'll post up some pics in here as the tank transforms:)

It will be a fun little paludarium!
 
Sweet. I think I might go the crab route again, I cant keep rcs alive at all
 
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