red claw crab help

J

jrobinson200

AC Members
Dec 27, 2009
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Hi everyone
I purchased 2 red claw crabs today! i have them settled in their tank but want some help off you guys! I want to know everything i possibly can to keep them alive and healthy.
I have what i think is 2 males, i cant get to them to look underneath yet. they seem to be quite happy wit each other at the moment, they hapily share the rock space together and were nibbling off the same piece of food before, does that sound ok?!
right i know the following,
they need water and land space. check.
they need the water roughly 25c. check.
a filter. check.
can escpae easily. check.
they molt and when they do they wont eat for a few days/week and will hide awya and then eat their shell hopefully.
they eat a variety of foods eg, veg, peas, pellets, blood worms etc.

i need to know how often to feed them and how much?
i am going to get a water tester too to check the ammonia nitrate levels. ive heard of the 1/2 tap water and 1/2 filtered water, is this correct?
and to do a 10% water change daily for the first few weeks?
thanks!
 
I think they're more brackish too. So aquarium salt is necessary. Might as well get a test kit for that as well. And yes, MAKE SURE IT IS COMPLETELY COVERED. I've had one escape once.
 
I would watch for aggression. Eventually, one will tear off the arms of the other one, unless you were fortunate and wound up with a male and a female.

I had to nurse one back to health that had all of his arms and legs torn off. He looked like a big grub. They may look OK for now, if they are both males, you will be down to one shrimp eventually.

If they are both males you will begin to see some agressiveness when they get close to each other. One of them will become the dominant shrimp and will chase the other, not in a romantic way, whenever they are near each other. If it's a male/female, the encounters will be much friendlier.

They are really cool to watch. Mine loved to pick algae out of my java moss. These guys will get pretty big. I've read that they are happy with a harem of around eight females. The females will get testy with each other, but the male will make them all get along.
 
do they ALWAYS rip each others arms off or is this just crab to crab variety?! would one be ok in a tank all on its own? i have put the aquarium salt in now, the whole bag. haha joking. measured it out. and put some bogwodd in they seem to like that. o and i found out they are both male and 7 weeks old.
 
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i have reALISED that i have used aquarium salt not marine salt as i have just read that i should have used!!! gonna take it back to shop in morn but right now should i chnage the water? partially untill i can do the whole thing in a few days or do i need to do the lot asap? as in now?!
 
Man... I am such a dope... I saw red claw and thought shrimp, not crab. Sorry... I have no experience with crabs of any kind, lol. ;)
 
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