Straws and PP's...Do you have to keep them seperate?

[Guest]

And why?

[MudCrabDude]

Assuming space is not an issue, personally I would try to keep different species separate just to reduce aggression and fights. However, there are some keepers here who have managed to keep different crabs together successfully for long periods.

It may have to do with different crab personalities as well.

As for PP's (C. clypeatus) and Straws (C. perlatus), I would keep them separate since they are from different ends of the globe, though individual personalites do vary. Usually I would do this to try to keep captive conditions "as natural as possible"...oh well... :roll:

In the wild, there are territorial overlaps for other species, however, and I have seen on videos and personally on certain beaches where Straws mingle and feed with Indos (C. brevimanus) or Indos with Cav's (C. cavipes) and Ruggies (C. rugosus). On a side note, I thought the Cav's were "C. spinosa" since they were so hairy...

So I suppose mixing Indos with Straws or Cavs or Rugs would pose less of a problem than mixing Straws with PP's.

Birgus latro also have overlap with most Pacific treecrab species. So in case you come across one, I would also avoid mixing a PP or an Ecuadorian (C. compressus) with a Birgus latro....


...

[Guest]

I have had my straws with my pps for over a year and have never seen any aggression. But I have alot of room in my tank. It seems like everyone has their favorite sleeping/ hanging out areas, although sometimes I find them all together in a corner peacefully sleeping. I think aggression happens mostly when there are not enough shells, food, or the tank is overcrowded.

[Dawn]

When I did have my pps and straws in the tank together there wasn't any agressive behavior. I had 15 medium to large crabs in a 95 gallon plexi tank. I introduced a couple more, including a couple more straws, an ecudarian and all heck broke loose...The one ecuadorian attacked my large strawberry and several straws died in the attacks.

It seems to come from the ecuadorians mainly so I've put the 15 remaining e's, ruggies and purple pinchers (along with possibly an indio or two) into a 85 gallon tall penthouse tank. Lots of climbing and hiding area. There seems to be no agressive behavior at all.

I have the five new strawberries in their own tank (the 95 gallon plexi-tank). At first I thought I would do this to keep them isolated until they adapted to the household but it seems so much more peaceful to keep them in their own tank...

I have a tank with 21 small pp's, ecudorians, ruggies and violas by themselves.. 65 gallon with a penthouse too. Those ecuadorians are tank trashers and escape artists...They can cling to the smallest piece of aquarium sealant and make it to a screened top before you even notice...Crabs on steroids.

[Guest]

I have them together.....no problems yet

~tess

[Guest]

I've had one instance of aggression, and that was Nixon's mid-molt attack. I don't think straws pick particularly safe spots to molt, I guess, and the PPs smell them out. Other than that, I haven't had problems with keeping both together. Most of the head on encounters between them have gone pretty much like the first meeting of Lrrr and my late Tiny. They ran into each other, pushed a bit, and Lrrr flicked Tiny away like an annoying gnat, (which happened to be the same size as him). Tiny pretty much gave in after that, I didn't see any further pushing matches.

Even if you do have an attack, they're not always fatal affairs. Straws can actually be pretty tough if the crabitat conditions are good and they've been eating well. Right now I have a 5 legged crab with only half a BP, a partially crushed LP, and just 1 toe who is happily re-molting in ISO. This is after numerous demolitions of the ISO tank to get it the way she likes it.

[Dawn]

Straws and molting are such peaceful things...that I have to relate:

I have a moss pond in the Strawberry tank. It's a shoebox size plastic box with reptile moss in it, moist, of course. Flipper was down in the moss and I hadn't seen him in a bit so I was going to turn the moss and moisten it (by misting the surface and turning the surface moss over the just moistened area is in the middle of the moss and you can moisten the dry upper portion...Pretty much getting the moisture down into the rest of the moss and keeping it fresher). And I grabbed a clump of moss and found Flipper's shell and what looked like his dead body in front of it. It wasn't his dead body but his molted exo. Right next to him was Ragu. Not going after either the molted exo or Flipper. Just sitting there. Ragu was about a week away from his own molt (I found out later because I found him also a week later, same spot, molted). I took Ragu out of the moss and away from Flipper but he would be right back in there near him...It seemed pointless to keep moving him. Flipper wasn't stressed over it and Ragu wasn't interested in Flipper at all...

They don't seem to be agressive to each other even during a molt. Has anyone ever witnessed a strawberry attacking, even in molt another crab species or another strawberry? I would think, no.

[Willow]

No, I've never seen or even heard of a Straw being aggressive. They're very peaceful. In my experience, Es can be little terrorists, Indos can get territorial sometimes, and even PPs can get cranky, especially when in pre-moult. But Straws are really mellow. I've never had any trouble from my Ruggies, either, although they're not as mellow as the Straws. I have all these species in my tank, plus a couple of Violas (they're not aggressive, either) and everybody gets along most of the time.

[Hermit_of_Hermit_Crabs]

I got my first Straws nearly 2 weeks ago and put them in my 75G with all of my other crabs. They actually seem to get along with both my PPs and my Es. The Es actually spend a lot of time around the Straws and they seem to enjoy the attention.

[breezeetew]

My straws are very peaceful as well.

I have Straws, PP and Es all together in my tank, but they have loads of room to choose a space.