Fidiler Crabs?

Fishfriend1

Fishfriend1

Fishlover Extraordinaire
Dec 11, 2009
3,958
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Southeastern PA
Real Name
Mr. Palmer
Since I do have plans to replace the 40 breeder with a 55 long, and I was drifting through the inverts section of my LFS today (needed to pick up some food) I couldn't help but notice that the fiddler crabs were very cool looking. You all know where this is going.

I don't intend or plan to move my 30 tall SW set up into the 40 breeder, it's fine as is. Which leaves me with an empty 40 breeder. I think that about 1ft of sand + some plants, lighting, and salty water (have plenty, after all, I have a salt tank) would be just the right thing to create a fiddler crab haven.

However, before I spend a fortune on sand, a filter, and decor, anyone who is already a fiddler owner, please give me any suggestions and ideas, and of course a thought on what else can live with them (I was thinking mollies, as they are brackish fish).

The current plan is as follows:

Set up 30 gal SW tank. Set up 55 gal tank. Buy sand for 40 breeder. Buy lighting for 40 breeder. Buy plants for 40 breeder. Buy decor and get rocks and wood for 40 breeder. Put everything together and see what happens. Add mollies. Add Fiddlers. Observe.

Ideas are always welcome, and this won't be going ahead for several months, as the best, probably around half a year to 9 months.
 
definently have sand bc they love to burrow. oh and fiddlers need more land then water. id say atleast 50/50, but 2/3 might be better. have some rocks too.
 
I have no fiddlers but a good friend keeps a few in with 2 mudskippers. and mollies. His setup is about 1/2 land, with 1/4 of the water pretty shallow. The mudskippers can be risky though if the crabs are young, too small and they'll be eaten.
 
I'm reading up on Red Claw and Fiddler Crabs. lol, not one peice of information failed to mention the following two things:

They are both masters of escape.

They will both pinch you (hard) if given the chance.

They don't look like they will be difficult to care for, and with a 40 gallon tank it actually seems very reasonable to keep some. I will continue to research it and gather filters/sand/equipment until I set up the tank.
 
hmmmmmm one thing i didnt experience with female fiddlers were they never ever pinched me. they would let me pick them up and hold them. now i never tried with my male fiddler and my red claw crabs pinched me whenever i tried to get them but it wasnt hard just enough for me to yank my hand away.
 
I had fiddlers years ago and they would get out of the tank often. They shimmy up the silicone bead on the corners all the way to the top. Usually you find them weeks later dried up and dead somewhere.
 
Yeah, Red Claw crabs are mean and strong. They pinch as hard as a bigger crab might, and have hulk like strength. I had them years ago in a tank with a driftwood water flume kind of setup, and they spent most of their time on the wood, dipping food into algae. One time I put the tweezers too close to one, and he grabed each arm of the tweezer with both claws... when I pulled back, he held on, but also held onto the 12" driftwood, which is a heavy piece... and as I pulled, it started pulling the wood out of the water, just by the crab's strength between me and the wood. Ridiculously strong grip.

Gotta say, with a 40 breeder, you might be in a good place for a brackish beach, but when I was looking into doing something similar, I kept coming back to wanting it to be entirely freshwater. The brackish element really limits your plant choices, fish choices, and ability to swap things in and out... and the brackish sand beach is bound to start smelling foul if it's not regularly turned over and rinsed through... but you'd have to disturb their burrows to do it. As much as I always wanted one, I never built a brackish beach.

Something to consider while designing your tank, Red Claw crabs are pretty specific about how the like their burrows. I observed in a couple of instances, and have seen other examples online, of how they tend to dig burrows so that the floor of the burrow is exactly at the waterline. Your beach needs to be deep enough so they can dig a 2" or 3" deep hole that bottoms out at the water, in soil/sand that holds up enough to not cave in on them. branches and stones can help significantly, but you still need some depth.

You might consider freshwater crabs too if you're simply looking to keep crabs. My Geosessarma are fantastic, and don't need brackish conditions.
 
my red claws never burrowed. my male would stay in the waterfall(a collection of rocks), and my female liked to climb in the filter. my fiddlers burrowed all the time. ive also noticed,ironically, that red claws spend almost all of there time in the water(ironic bc theyre terrestrial in the wild). my fiddlers were more terrestrial and only went in the water to eat and sometimes burrow and such. none of my crabs ever tried to escape and i had my fiddler crab tank hoodless.
 
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