Red Claw Crab

[AnneRiceBowl]

After I moved my bee shrimp colony from their 5.5 gallon to their 10 gallon, I decided that it was finally time to get a crab.I have had land hermit crabs and marine crabs, but the just weren't "cool" or interesting enough for me. That, and I hate being glared at by an empty aquarium...it gives me the creeps *shudders*.

So, I threw together the 5.5 gallon with some natural pea gravel, black lava rock, an ornament, and some marine salt I had sitting around.

My in-the-near-future plans for her tank is to replace the pea gravel with play sand. Then, I want to get some branchy driftwood and tie Java ferns to the bottom-most branches. I want the branches to come out of the water so that she has access to dry land. I also want to keep the black lava rock in her tank.

Here she (?) is about a week or so after I got her (?):



She was missing two legs, a pincher, and had some funky stuff growing on her exoskeleton. She now has 2 new legs, 1 new pincher, and a fairly clean exoskeleton. I am still not sure how to sex these crabs, but I am assuming it's a "she" judging by her claws. I will get a new pic of her as soon as I get new batteries for my camera.

I am currently housing her in brackish water due to this species being found in mangroves.

[Mustafa]

I love crabs and I think there is huge potential for them in the invertebrate hobby, especially the ones that produce miniature crabs instead of saltwater larvae. Anyway, you can sex any adult crab easily by just flipping it over (or positioning yourself so you see its underside) and looking at the part of its exoskeleton thats tucked underneath the body. It is long and narrow, it's a male..if it's wide and rounded (to have space for eggs) it's a female. Can't tell for sure in this picture but yours does look like a female.

[Neonshrimp]

Very nice picture of your crab. Please keep us updated, I too like them and might want to try raising some in the future

[Guba]

Congrats on your new acquisition. Is this crab mostly aquatic? What kind of food do you feed it? Obviously your crab molted, did you find an exoskeleton? Of my three crabs, two of them have nice vibrant colors, but one is somewhat smaller and not very colorful. I'm guessing that she has never molted while I've had her. I've never found evidence of molting from any of my crabs. I don't know if I should be worried about this or not (ignorance IS truly blissful!).

[shrimpthing]

red claws have been bred in captivity...using a 29 gallon tank(google it up or I can send you the link).

I suspect some of the other smaller brackish crabs(such as the tomato crab) would also be relatively easy to breed in that manner. He basically tried to stimulate the differences in salinity during different stages of the lifecycle while providing alot of natural food.