To Stock or Not to Stock: My 1 Crab!

Mjmeyer2

Mjmeyer2

AC Members
Jul 23, 2007
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I have a 5.5 gal tank, filled only a third of the way, with rocks for my fiddler to climb and get air. The setup is perfect: I use R/O water and pure aquarium salt, white sand and lots of shells and rocks. A small filter too. He seems happy. But for one tiny 2 inch-long crab? That's a palace in my opinion. Fiddlers don't grow much bigger than that. Some people on this forum told me not to get a lady crab for him, as he may kill her. Snails can't handle that salt amount. I'm not leaning towards getting a fish, but it depends. Maybe like a guppy: something small. Its a shame I couldn't have another crab though. What, if anything, an I add? It seems empty in there!:(
 
If the tank was larger then I would suggest mollys or platys (brackish fish). But 5.5 gallons is just too small for even a group of 3 of them. D:

Plus, a palace doesn't sound so bad..
 
A 5.5g is actually considered quite small for a crab.

Given that the tank's filled only to a third, not a whole lot of fish would be happy in that small a space.
 
What do you mean by pure aquarium salt? I don't know a whole lot about crabs, but I think they need marine salt, not aquarium salt.

I'd probably leave the crab by himself.

Some snails do fine in brackish water.
 
If your crab seems happy and content in his so called palace then I would leave it that way. Don't fix something that is not broken. All is well, then leave it that way or next thing you know you will have a problem.

Marinemom
 
Well that's what the girl at the pet store told me, and everything I've been seeing says that saltwater is good for mollies and the like....idk, thats what i thought and they're doing fine. I don't see what's wrong with aquarium salt compared to marine salt either. My college apartment is literally the size of a small bedroom, so i think getting a bigger tank for my 1 crab is out of the question. I guess he seems happy and so do my fish, so i suppose i'll leave him. I don't want him killing anything. Oh, and my fish and the crab are in different tanks duh!
 
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Well first of all I've never even seen marine salt sold at my pet stores and didn't know it existed! Sorry, This is the N00b forum! And my first crab! Please forgive! I'm really trying my best, but it seems like I buy EVERYTHING possible and ITS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH. What is in marine salt besides salt that a crab needs? If it's vital, then I'll see if i can find some somewhere. I don't want to end up with a gallon size salt container for 1 crab. Just don't be mean guys....That's why I'm asking, I'm trying to help my crab, don't make me feel like an idiot because I'm not trying to be...
 
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