Red Claws & Dragons?

IndieVonRicarda

IndieVonRicarda

Red Claw Crab Owner
Aug 25, 2009
10
0
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36
Washington
Okay so I have a dragonfish/dragon goby(not the real name of it...) and a red claw crab.

I cant say I'm good at knowing what they need by any means. I've searched online and asked the petco fish people, but somehow I'm not quite satisfied.

I've been feeding them both shrimp pellets. They seem to be getting eaten.. I mean not always but mostly. They dissolve pretty fast, and the crab(Burtolli) and the dragonfish (Ghoul) are both very shy. So I think they don't eat while I'm awake... which is when the lights are on. I do want to look at them sometimes without having to look all over the place around rocks and things.. do they ever get used to their owners and just come out whenever they like? I've only have them for about 4 days to a week.

Is there anything else I can try feeding them? I haven't really found anyone who owns either so it's sort of difficult to get real information. I guess what I'm looking for is.. what do they eat, and how should I keep the tank up for them?

Right now I've added aquarium salt and that carbon stuff that keeps water fresh and so clean clean. :D

Also, what temperature is best for them? Right now it's been a steady 78 I believe... well let me go accidentally scare the crab into the back of the tank again... yup, 78. And it's been kept that way, not on purpose, just sort of... the temp it's been where I live.

Anyone have tips? Or even OWN either? I'd love some friends who own some.
 
Have you tried feeding them frozen foods? They may like that. I think that red claw crabs need access to air/land, so you may have to provide that for them (not entirely sure, I'll wait for someone else to give some input on that). They are both brackish, BTW, but i think you already know that since you've added salt to the water. They may need a certain specific gravity, but again I'm not totally sure. There are a couple of members on here who keep these particular species so they'll correct me if I'm wrong, lol. Good luck!
 
Dragon gobies. a.ka violet gobies need brackish. flat out.
Or they will grow gross red tumors and die usually within the first year.
go buy a hydrometer or a refractometer to measure the salinity.
Go buy some actual marine salt like instant ocean
You will need IMO at least a 55-60 gallon for the dragon g as they can get to be up to 1' or longer in captivity.
They are generally peaceful creatures, but can become more agressive to tankmates when they are past the juvenile stage, IMO.
I currently have 2 in my 135 gallon, and IMO Im not going to get three.
plus, I would get tat crab out.
I had agressive fish in with my dragon and they nipped a chunk of his tail off.
 
As well, bloodworms and snail jello ake good food the the goby. you must spot feed him with a turkey baster, literally its the only way IMO that I have found works... They are mostly blind. Give the dragon lots of hiding spots, dont mess with his dunes. GET SAND, if you do not allready have it. DG's can hurt themsleves easily on rocks...
 
I second everything that Phoenix said. Dragons in the wild feed on microorganisms, insects and small crustaceans in the sand. They are filter feeders, and you are going to have to target feed him. Also, they actually get closer to 24" long in captivity. The Dragon is actually in danger of being injured by the crab.

Specific gravity should be between 1.005 and 1.010 with MARINE salt. Aquarium salt is worthless in this situation.

I have two dragons also.

Kristina
 
Aquarium salt is not the same as marine salt, so as phoenix mentioned you should grab some marine salt and start researching how to maintain a brackish aquarium. Its not all that different from FW, just another thing to measure: specific gravity. The conversion from fresh to brackish water needs to be slow in order for the beneficial bacteria to adjust to the higher salt concentrations (I assume you went through some form of cycling?)

You can always head over to the brackish forum (under the marine forums) and ask away! :)
 
EDIT:: WELCOME TO AC

Well not much to say to add here but a recipe for you for brackish water for the tank.

For my brackish I run .75 lbs of marine salt to a 16ltr pail, I then put in 1/3 hot water to help dissolve the salt and use a hand mixer to totally dissolve the salt then I take the temperature down by adding cold/room temp water till I get it to my desired tank temp. Then I add my prime to the water in the bucket and slowly add the new water to my tank so as not to mess up the sand bed to much.

I usually do w/c 1-2 per week on my fresh but do 3/month on my brackish tank about 35% per wc.

I have lots of live rock and some very large shells in my tank to give them lots of places to hide. I also have 4 knight gobies and a columbian shark in the tank with them. I run the salinity at 1.011-.010.

I also put in a nerite snail to help with any algae that might show up and will be putting in 5-10 more.

For food, I like to use real high quality sw foods as the aromatic nature tends to draw the fish like flies to honey.

When I find my camera I will load up the pics I just took of my brackish 75g
 
phoenixn7g said:
I would get tat crab out.
I had agressive fish in with my dragon and they nipped a chunk of his tail off.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any problems with them together actually. They are always next to each other and I've never seen the crab get aggressive with the dragon. The only time was when I introduced then and the only thing that happened was Burt held his claws up in defense.

I definitely don't want to take the crab out! :( I love him!

I have dried blood worms, but they float... and like you guys said, the dragon is blind and finds food by smell/taste so I found that food to be useless. Is there anything I can feed both of them like.... tiny guppies or shrimps?
 
I put in frozen bloodworms and my knight gobies go to town and stuff falls down and the dragons home in, I also feed ocean nutrition flakes and they hone in on that right away as well. I use stage 2 pellets from ocean nutrition and they like that as well.

Here are a couple of shots of my 75g
IMGP5080.jpg

IMGP5086.jpg

IMGP5084.jpg


I made sure there are many many hiding spots, will be adding more rock and sand in the days to come, they really love the shells though.

I would leave the crab so long as he is not attacking the gobies should leave him be, he should be a good clean up crew for you. I would also recommend nerite snails they are great for brackish. If you look in the picture you can see how mine has been eating the algae off the back of the tank.

edit:this tank will eventually become a full sw flitter tank with the brightest soft corals I can find and a few very colorful small fish, so I dont care what the back or left side look like as they are to the wall.
 
the goby will die without brackish water and he will need a suitable sized tank, as phoenix mentioned. and the crab will die without access to land. not just a stick poking out of the water a decent amount of land for him to walk on. with those requirements met you could start watching for aggression between the two, sometimes two animals generally labeled as incompatible can do fine together but just be sure to watch them very closely
 
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