Hi guys. First off, I'm going to be converting my 29 gallon freshwater tank into a brackish tank/terrarium for my male fiddler crab and his future harem.
I'm one of those idiots who 'rescued' an 'injured' fiddler crab no one else wanted from the crappy petstore. He was missing a claw and one of his eyes was shorter than the other so I named him Timmy after the South Park charactor.
As soon as I got home and did the research I should have done before purchasing a live animal, I realized he had special needs and slowly converted my 5 gallon ghost shrimp tank into a brackish water tank over several weeks. Kind of neat, the 'freshwater' Ghost shrimp are thriving like never before and have even started reproducing.
I added a bunch of floating areas to the tank along with a hollow log. He crawls through the log to hang out on the top floating stuff but he spends most of his time sifting through the crushed coral on the floor of the tank.
I feed the tank worms from my yard, brine shrimp and some occasional flakes. If we are having fish I usually toss Timmy a small piece. I also sometimes give him a tiny piece of cooked chicken, is that ok? His favorite food seems to be java moss.
He seems to keep busy and has shed twice in the 3 months I have had him. (I assume that means he's doing well) He's also grown a lovely new claw and he seems to be enjoying himself as he waves his arms and rocks out to unknown music. (I know thats not what he's doing but it sure looks like it)
What I was planning on doing to the other tank is to seal in a piece of plastic or glass as a divider to make it about 70/30 water to land. I was going to have sand filling the land side in the hopes that the crabs will burrow. I kind of worry that they'll dig too much and entomb themselves but I guess they could just dig back out.
I was planning on using the biowheel filter thats already in there and placing it over some rocks to make a 'waterfall' on one side. I would like to keep the filter going (to take advantage of the bacteria in it) and then place it right in my brackish tank. It's chock full of goodies from my oscar.
Would the bacteria from the freshwater filter/substrate die from exposure to the brackish water? I guess what I'm asking is: Will I need to cycle the brackish tank if I use all the freshwater 'furniture'? I can't just slowly convert it like I did with the 5 gallon, need it dry to add the divider. I was going to keep the filter going in a container with the water.
If I need to cycle, would Timmy be alright through it since he will be spending a lot of time outside the water anyway? I wouldn't add my ghost shrimp in a cycle as they are very sensitive.
I'm hoping to add some dead coral rocks since your articles told me live coral wont live in brackish. The ghost shrimp will look neat climbing in and around the dead stuff anyways. So far my java moss and moss ball are doing fine in the brackish water, anything else I can use?
Can I use my siphon on the crushed coral in the water section or will it just pick the sand up with the poop? Crabs sure poop a lot.. It's hard to get it out because it just disintigrates when I try and scoop it with the net.
One last question. I will just have some ghost shrimp in the tank with Timmy and would like to add some entertainment for him. Would 6 crabs be too many for a 29 gallon tank? 5 would be female, of course.
Thanks and sorry for the long post!
I'm one of those idiots who 'rescued' an 'injured' fiddler crab no one else wanted from the crappy petstore. He was missing a claw and one of his eyes was shorter than the other so I named him Timmy after the South Park charactor.
As soon as I got home and did the research I should have done before purchasing a live animal, I realized he had special needs and slowly converted my 5 gallon ghost shrimp tank into a brackish water tank over several weeks. Kind of neat, the 'freshwater' Ghost shrimp are thriving like never before and have even started reproducing.
I added a bunch of floating areas to the tank along with a hollow log. He crawls through the log to hang out on the top floating stuff but he spends most of his time sifting through the crushed coral on the floor of the tank.
I feed the tank worms from my yard, brine shrimp and some occasional flakes. If we are having fish I usually toss Timmy a small piece. I also sometimes give him a tiny piece of cooked chicken, is that ok? His favorite food seems to be java moss.
He seems to keep busy and has shed twice in the 3 months I have had him. (I assume that means he's doing well) He's also grown a lovely new claw and he seems to be enjoying himself as he waves his arms and rocks out to unknown music. (I know thats not what he's doing but it sure looks like it)
What I was planning on doing to the other tank is to seal in a piece of plastic or glass as a divider to make it about 70/30 water to land. I was going to have sand filling the land side in the hopes that the crabs will burrow. I kind of worry that they'll dig too much and entomb themselves but I guess they could just dig back out.
I was planning on using the biowheel filter thats already in there and placing it over some rocks to make a 'waterfall' on one side. I would like to keep the filter going (to take advantage of the bacteria in it) and then place it right in my brackish tank. It's chock full of goodies from my oscar.
Would the bacteria from the freshwater filter/substrate die from exposure to the brackish water? I guess what I'm asking is: Will I need to cycle the brackish tank if I use all the freshwater 'furniture'? I can't just slowly convert it like I did with the 5 gallon, need it dry to add the divider. I was going to keep the filter going in a container with the water.
If I need to cycle, would Timmy be alright through it since he will be spending a lot of time outside the water anyway? I wouldn't add my ghost shrimp in a cycle as they are very sensitive.
I'm hoping to add some dead coral rocks since your articles told me live coral wont live in brackish. The ghost shrimp will look neat climbing in and around the dead stuff anyways. So far my java moss and moss ball are doing fine in the brackish water, anything else I can use?
Can I use my siphon on the crushed coral in the water section or will it just pick the sand up with the poop? Crabs sure poop a lot.. It's hard to get it out because it just disintigrates when I try and scoop it with the net.
One last question. I will just have some ghost shrimp in the tank with Timmy and would like to add some entertainment for him. Would 6 crabs be too many for a 29 gallon tank? 5 would be female, of course.
Thanks and sorry for the long post!
