Celebes Jungle Crabs

[KJD]

I am beginner Vampire Crab hobbyist and have a 45x45x45 tank, 20:80 water land setup, lots of natural hiding places the odd plant. I originally bought 5, but 3 have died, I believe due to the tank being too cold, but now the tank is a regular 28 deg C, water same, so I am now looking to restock with some more.

However, I have noticed that the 2 remaining hardly eat anything. I have tried them on Hikari crab cuisine, JBL Crab pellets, live crickets, dead crickets, bloodworm, lance fish, cucumber, grape, raw mince, but nothing ever seems to be touched.

Can I have any advice on what to feed them?

Thanks!

[Mustafa]

You're offering them the right food....they're just not in good shape. Your animals did not die because of temperature...they died because of stress during capture, export, import, transfer to the dealer, shipping to you..etc...etc.. These animals go through a lot. My Mandarin crabs survived air temperatures down to 37 degrees by the way. All you can really do is wait....your crabs may recover, or they may just die off...it's just not in your hands unfortunately.

[Guba]

I think crickets are too agile for the crabs. My crabs will take mealworms that have been dropped in front of them. Small mealworms are perfect for them. I also keep a culture of flightless/wingless fruitflies in with them. When I slice a grape in half and drop it in, the fruitflies will gather on it. But I never see any fruitfly maggots, I think the crabs like those too.

I haven't seen any piggybacking behavior in mine. But I think I may have broken up a mating ritual the other day. DOH! I found a pair locked together with their claws and definately herd some clicking from claw snapping going on. Being the curious me, I caught them both to check if they where the same sex. They weren't...so much for that. I hope I see more young ones, but I don't think so in the near future.

They are secretive, but one of mine will stay put and take mealworms out of my tweezers.

[orin]

I have some young captive-bred ones I just bought. I am wondering if I should house each in a deli-cup or place them together in a larger container. Right now they are together. Anyone familiar with the rates of cannibalism when they molt. One arrived missing a front claw which could possibly be from a tankmate having a snack during its last molt.

[Guba]

Hey orin, I haven't observed any cannibalism. If they do it's not near as bad as shrimp do. They like some space and keeping them in a deli cup is a bad idea. Males are intolerant of each other, so give them a bit more space. There seems to be a pecking order and will fight to establish dominance.