Watermelon Crab (Fiddler??) help

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ashbyyokosuka

Registered Member
Sep 9, 2007
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So.
i bought what i was told, a watermelon crab. i am looking on the internet and can barely find anything about them--and what i find, leads me to believe it is in fact a fiddler crab.

which is brackish AND doesn't fully live underwater... (in the tank there was no way for it to get out of the water)

anyone have any experience w/ this fish?

it looks like a watermelon (hence it's name) and has one giant red claw (thus, i gathered, a male).

any help would be much appreciated.
it is totally cute,
but i am thinking i am going to have to take it back :cry:
 
I don't know a thing about crabs, but could you post a picture? It would help with identification.
 
I don't know too much other than it will eat the fish that it can grab and also needs some land area to live on. When in doubt, take it back!
 
Water Melon Crabs do need Brackish water. And They Need to be able to reach the surface of the water or they will drown. I hope the little crab is okay right now, whether you took it back or its still in your house cause they are very cute. You can give the crabs either an environment where its like a beach kind of thing except with rocks instead of sand, so they would be able to climb up the rocks and reach the air. Or you can put some type of floating device in the water with a string coming down so the crab can climb up it and reach the air. My advice is do the beach of rocks thing. it just seems easier to. Oh and incase you don't know what to feed them, they'll eat pretty much anything they can get their claws into. I would feed them those shrimp pellots that you would feed a fish, the kind that sink to the bottom though.:) If I helped you any. Then I'm glad to be of a help.
 
If it is a fiddler crab and you decide to keep it.....make sure your crabbie can't get out of the tank. They are marvelous escape artists. Don't doubt for a second that they can't scurry up an airtube or filter intake...they can. I came home in time to discover mine walking across the counter.
 
silentskream said:
if it looks like a watermelon, then it's actually a sand fiddler or sand flea.. not a fiddler crab.
http://www.fishingthesurf.com/sand fleas.jpg


if its a fiddler crab, it should look like this:
http://www.fiddlercrab.info/Pics/U_intermedia1.jpg
Click to expand...
No, fiddler crabs are very varied in appearance. Sand fleas (mole crabs) are a kind of Anomuran (like hermit "crabs," squat "lobsters," and Aegla) and not true crabs at all. Being purely coastal animals, they would shortly expire if placed in a freshwater aquarium.

The species in question is probably this (a true fiddler crab):

watermelon-crab.jpg


To the best of my knowledge, it requires a "land" area and brackish water.
 
my boss had his tank at work for a while (his house was being fumigated). he had a crab in it. then one day it disappeared. he (my boss) assumed it had died. well, about 2 weeks later, i was rolling my chair backwards away from my desk when something moving caught the corner of my eye (my vision is really poor and glasses dont help with peripheral vision so all i saw was the movement). i got ready to yell, thinking it was a big cricket (i am scared to death of the dumb things even though i know theyre harmless). turns out it was the boss' crab
 
Did any of you realize this thread is nearly a year old?
 
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