Celebes Jungle Crabs

[Guba]

Today I received my Celebes Jungle crabs. They're also called Vampire crabs. They don't go through any larval stage as far as my research has turned up and they don't seem to need salt or brackish. They belong to the Geosesame speices. I've set up a tank for them that is 50% land (gravel)/water. The problem with the set up though is that the silicone sealant is still curing (vinegar smell). So, for now they're in a 2 1/5 gallon with some things in the tank to climb out of the water if they feel like. I've dropped in a cycled sponge filter. Now I wait until the tank is cured. I gotta say, they sure are quick little things.

[HamatoKameko]

Vampire crabs? Well, I guess if there are vampire bats and vampire squid, there can be vampire crabs. They sound interesting!

[Mustafa]

I love these guys. Take a picture of them if you have a chance so others can see what they look like.

[Guba]

I'm working on the photobucket thing at the present. When I get more familiar with it and uploading pics to the internet I'll try to post some.

[Mustafa]

I'm working on the photobucket thing at the present. When I get more familiar with it and uploading pics to the internet I'll try to post some.

You don't have to use photobucket...you can directly upload your pictures to this forum by using the "upload attachment" tab right next to the "options" tab when you write a message or reply to a message.

[Guba]

This is one of the females

DSC00694.JPG (152.83 KiB) Viewed 18945 times

This is the male

DSC00691.JPG (143.57 KiB) Viewed 18939 times

I finally managed to get some photo's. Just a footnote to my first post on this thread, I misspelled Geosesarma. It's spelled correctly on this post. Thanks for the tech input Mustafa. And thanks for pointing out the spelling error, I do try to spell specie names correctly. Somehow every once in a while when I get a new species, the poeple that I aquire them from will spell them wrong.

[Neonshrimp]

They really do look nice and colorful ( purple with orange eyes), thanks for sharing

[Mustafa]

I finally managed to get some photo's. Just a footnote to my first post on this thread, I misspelled Geosesarme. It's spelled correctly on this post. Thanks for the tech input Mustafa.

You're welcome! To set the record completely straight, it's actually spelled "Geosesarma". You almost got it right. You can edit your other posts to correct the spelling if you want. There should be an edit button on top of your posts. This way people using the search function for this term will be able to find it easier.

[TKD]

So theses crabs are freshwater and have an abbreviated larval stage?

[Mustafa]

So theses crabs are freshwater and have an abbreviated larval stage?

They are actually more terrestrial than anything. You'd need something like a terrarium with lots of humidity for them. I'm not even sure if they necessarily need a large body of water. The young hatch on dry land and start walking around on everything like little spiders.

[Guba]

They are actually more terrestrial than anything. You'd need something like a terrarium with lots of humidity for them. I'm not even sure if they necessarily need a large body of water. The young hatch on dry land and start walking around on everything like little spiders.

So far they have been out of water maybe 90% of the time? As for feeding- shredded carrot, more of it rotted. fish food, couldn't tell if they ate any. fruitfly culture, I did witness the male scoop one up and eat it and a female made several attempts to get one with her claws (sounded pretty funny "click, click, click, click,ect.") but more fruitflys died in the water from drowning than getting eaten. Slices of apple, the fruitflies sure like it. Yesturday I may have hit gold. I put a pellet of cat food in, next to a female. She pulled it under a hiding spot and started eating. Later that night I saw the male in the same spot eating on it. There was still a lot left when I turned the lights out and I thought for sure that I'd be cleaning out mushy cat food the next day, but the next morning there wasn't a thing to be found! I'm still experimenting with food offerings, and with summer almost here I'll be giving live caught food from the back yard. I've also noticed that they are coming out of hiding more often, maybe they're getting used to their surroundings. Sort of the way tropical fish do. I've been trying to "google" these guys and I'm not coming up with much info, I don't think that they are listed taxonomiclly as anything except Geosesarma Sp. sulawese.

[mikedmatthews]

i was really tempted to get some of these but was afraid they would die in the mail and then i would have a hard time replacing them. one's i saw were pretty expensive too.

[Guba]

They are expensive, at the moment. When more are available the price will come down. I've never kept crabs, but they always facinated me. So , when "fresh water crabs" became available, I had to get them. As for shipping, mine arrived in "deli" containers with a couple of holes punched in it and wet foam pieces stapled to the side. The crabs cling them pretty good. The male had his own container, I don't know if that was for aggressive precautions or not. So far, I haven't seen any aggressive behavior. Maybe nocturnal activities are different. If I were to remake my tank for them, I would do 75% land, 25% water. When I googled them I didn't come up with much info in english, and my german stops at kintergarden. Oh well. But, I'm still happy with what I bought, and that's all that matters!

[Guba]

Just another update on food offerings. Deer flies and horse flies seem to be good meals for them (minus a wing). Catapillars, both the hairy kind and not , are eaten. Aphids, I thought I heard the crabs saying "oh yeah baby". 3 grubs were put in, but one was missing when morning came. There was nowhere for it to burrow to because it would have drowned. The crabs need water in their enviroment, but I don't see them in water for very long at all. I would recommend even less than 25% volume for water. I have seen some agressive behavior in the male, but the female backed down after only a few seconds of wrestling. And one day I think I may have starteld the male, as he jumped into the water one morning. They're definately good climbers though! When there's not a fruit fly culture in the tank they seem to move about more.

[Neonshrimp]

Thanks for the update on these interesting and great looking crabs. You seem to be doing very well with keeping them happy and healthy