So I went into Walmart....

[Big MaC]

So I went into Walmart and I saw a thing that said they had fiddler crabs..... But they were in a tank filled with water???

Are they likely fiddlers? And should I try and save them if they are?

Thanks :/

[wodesorel]

They should be in little cups filled with stones so that they are above the water line. Contact the store (I found that e-mail works best for my local store) and inform them that the way they're shipped is the way they're supposed to be sold, just like with the bettas. It's not safe for them to be submerged constantly, and they should not be in freshwater either. (Though the water battle is impossible to win seeing as how they aren't set up for non-freshwater animals.)

Yes, they are fids. I've got a post just a couple down from this one, and I got nearly all but one of my fids from the local Walmart. They require brackish water and a land/water section. They will spend nearly all their time in water. And they are awesome.

[Big MaC]

I am considering buying all of those poor babies for brackish water.... How do you make brackish water?

[wodesorel]

It's half to quarter strength sea water, so you would use the same marine mix for the hermits. I actually don't know how much salt that entails since I use a refractometer. (About $10 in the marine fish section - http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4952 ) I think it's something like 2 teaspoons or 1 Tablespoon per gallon for a salinity of 1.005. Fids should be between 1.005 and 1.015 SG (specific gravity). I keep mine at the strong end of 1.010 since I have guppies in there as well which is 2.5 to 3 Tablespoons per bucket.

Salt fluctuation is actually a good think for them since in nature it would vary throughout the day with the tides. It never has to be an exact measurement as long as it's not too strong or too weak. I only measure the salinity of the tank and the replacement water about every third water change and instead eyeball the salt amount the rest of the time.

They are like fish, so they need a tank with a filter that has been cycled or the ammonia and nitrites will kill them fairly quickly.

There's also a three month "magic" number where if they make it past that (which might be their first molt period, it's hard to track) then they'll likely live a full life. I've seen this mentioned many places and it does hold true for mine as well. I imagine it's the fiddler's version of PPS and that the first molt is the key to long term survival. I have one female that has been with me for just over a year, and a male who is at ten months. The others are harder to track since they are so much smaller, but I imagine that some of the females have been there for at least ten months as well. They have lifespans of around 2 to 3 years total and since they are wild caught there's no knowing how old they are.

[fluffy]

I was so mad when I saw About 15 fiddlers all in a tank with no way of getting air. So I'll be emailing them very soon. All the tanks were in horrible shape. The water was dirty and the tank walls had algae. In one fish tank almost all the fish were either dead or dying. Luckily they had no hermit crabs.
The betas looked super weak. I had to walk away fast before I got really angry.

[fishbone]

Glad to see well informed people spreading the true care requirements for fiddler crabs. Same applies to red claw crabs also often sold in pet stores.
I've had fiddlers and they've exceeded their expected average lifespan in my care. One lived to be older than 5.

[wodesorel]

One lived to be older than 5.

Wow wow wow wow wow!!!!!!!!
Can you share the way you cared for them?! I've heard that two to three years is great, so for me to hear of someone who had one for five is like WOW! My oldest have been with me for a little over a year now, and I would love for them to keep going!

[CallaLily]

Can any of you share links with accurate care info on fiddler crabs? My oldest son (13) has been asking about them but I'm having trouble finding good information on housing and diet. Thanks!

[wodesorel]

I cobbled together what I could for mine and guessed at a lot. So far it seems to be working.

Does he know what species he wants? There are three common species sold in the US that are native, and each has a slightly different geographic range. I based my tank temps off of where they came from:
http://fiddlercrab.info/u_pugnax.html
http://fiddlercrab.info/u_pugilator.html
http://fiddlercrab.info/u_minax.html
If you can tell what the difference is between pugnax and minax, more power to you!! I've been trying since I got them. The internet is not a good resource for making an ID as all the people out there have no idea what they're looking at either. :roll:


I also went with information found on:

WetWebMedia: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FiddlerCrabF.htm
And also asked for help on FishForums.net since Neale is a member there is a brackish guru.

Badman's: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/fiddler.html

And just reading up on anything I could find on Google.

There were also two sites where keepers shared their care and who had also gotten babies, but I'm having trouble finding the links! I bookmarked them on my old computer and forgot to transfer them when I got the new laptop. If I can find them I'll post them.



What I can recommend is an SG of between 1.005 and 1.010 using a marine salt like Instant Ocean. Supplemental calcium and iodide might be helpful as well with molts, and I've just started using that in the past month. Temperatures based off of where they came from and not too high - I won't let my tanks get above 76 degrees as I've experienced more deaths when that happened. They are climbers and escapers and have to be screened or taped into the tank.

They need some way out of the water but they don't need a ton of land. They will create deep burrows if given the chance to dig in a sand/EE mixture. I would not recommend the slanted substrate bank option as just like with over saturated hermit crab substrate it will grow anaerobic bacteria if it's allowed to sit in water undisturbed, and it has to be stirred up several times a week to prevent this which is messy and a pain to do.

They should have lots of hiding areas above and below the water line. Driftwood is known to mess up the pH of brackish so corals, plastics, and resins are probably a better option. I have a cocohut on my land area that the male has claimed as his!

Filtered water is key unless you want to do continuous water changes. The tank should be cycled just like with fish since they do spend so much time underwater. And in-tank filter or a canaster filter is ideal since they're made to work with low water levels. A hang-on-the-back type filter is usually useless since it needs the water level to be at the rim of the tank to work. Brackish cycling is just like fresh, so there's no special things you need other than the salt and the hydrometer to measure the SG.

Try to provide a lot of mid-range half-in, half-out climbing options so they can stay half submerged. Floating plants are perfect for this. They like to just have their eyes out if the water or just their legs in the water, I've noticed. I have a rigged filter system using an intake powerhead that forces water into a HOB filter basket that has no motor, and I find a half-dozen fiddlers buried into the filter media every time I have to do something with the filter. It's kind of freaky grabbing a hand full of fiber fill and having all these fiddlers burst out of it.

Tank size can be kind of small. A longer tank would be better since they don't swim and don't need it to be very deep. You could probably keep one male and two to four females (or all females) in a 10 gallon tank with no issues, but a bigger tank allows you to have a larger colony. Only have one male in a tank less than 30 gallons though! If both males are breeding size they will fight and one will die. The ladies can be really crammed in there and they seriously don't care! (Not that I'm saying overcrowd, but my tank has never been overcrowded, even with 2 dozen of them.) Like hermits you'll only see a portion of them at once so the tank sort of looks empty most of the time.

Tank mates should be chosen based on tank size, if you even want any. There are several species of brackish fish that would be safe to have, but most need a 30 to 55 gallon tank to be really happy. My guppies are doing great in the 29G, and I've never seen the crabs eating them. (The guppies mainly just eat each other. :roll: ) You should also look at the fish's diet that you're considering as some will eat fiddlers and others may require live foods to thrive.

Honestly, they're as easy as bettas. They just need a bit more room.

[Edit: Once they're past the PPS stage and molted for the first time. Just like hermits, it's an unpreventable killer! ]

[CallaLily]

Wow! Thanks Wode!