Halloween Crabs (Gecarcinus quadratus)

[wodesorel]

My local pet shop lady only orders them in on demand. They're wild caught and have a high death rate after delivery. She got too upset over the amount she was loosing.

[purpletiger]

That's correct. From the first two that I ordered, one was dead-on-arrival and the other died within a day.

It would be cool if more people would get into raising them and trying to breed them in captivity so they don't need to be taken from the wild.

[IBlab crab]

My local pet shop lady only orders them in on demand. They're wild caught and have a high death rate after delivery. She got too upset over the amount she was loosing.

That is a shame,I thought they would be easier to care for than fiddler crabs and because the conditions are similar to hermit crabs.

[wodesorel]

The fiddler crabs for sale here are native to the US coastlines - so they have a really short travel time. Many species are also not tropical in the least (found well into New England) so cold temperatures don't bother them at all. Halloween crabs are all imported from the same regions as Es, so there's a lot more that can go wrong.

[Reptilian Feline]

That's correct. From the first two that I ordered, one was dead-on-arrival and the other died within a day.

It would be cool if more people would get into raising them and trying to breed them in captivity so they don't need to be taken from the wild.

The problem with breeding them in captivity is that they need the ocean when they are born as tiny larvae. I think the closst we could expect to get, are wildcaught babies that are then raised in captivity for a year or so.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

There is a petstores chain in Indy named Uncle Bills. There are only a few of them because it is a single owner. They carry these, vampire ones and the blue ones I can't remember the name of.

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[wodesorel]

Vampires are cool since they can be captive bred. Hard to track down since it's hobbyists who do it, but they are much hardier for it.

[rainbow_crab]

My friend has a trio of Halloween crabs, two ladies and a male. He can't keep there food in a dish and just scatters it on the substrate and puts some in the clay pots he uses for hides. I give him leaf litter I dehydrated for my crabs. They are beautiful but not easy to handle. He got them and they were about an inch and a half long with there legs and now have tripled in size, he has had them for a couple years. They are very spoiled, I wanted one and thought I was adopting one from Craigslist, that turned out to be a patriot crab I had for about a year before its bad molt that it died from. I think the males are handsome, females are pretty too but I prefer the males look

[Reptilian Feline]

I just bought a pair of halloween crabs, and hope they will be fine together. They have a house each in the crabitat, and sand to dig into. I just hope they will be fine when they molt. They're eating cuttlebone like crazy. I give some of their food in a dish and some in their houses, hoping they'll both get enough to eat. The male (Jack) is more forward. The female (Jill) is more shy. We're trainign both to be out and about with us.

[Orin]

My local pet shop lady only orders them in on demand. They're wild caught and have a high death rate after delivery. She got too upset over the amount she was loosing.

That is strange. I've kept Halloween crabs for a few decades and have been familiar with them longer. I've only seen specimens a few times at local pet stores, the rest at reptile shows. I have never heard of one dying in the first year or seen a dead or dying one in a display. I would think a Halloween crab would die if it had no water after a few days, but I've seen big cages of them without a water dish (temporary importer sales display).

[Apoplexic]

I have one of these beauties as well; unfortunately I couldn't get a pair, as my LFS only had three make it through delivery, and two had been a special order for months. But, I've also heard from various sources that these fellas can be extremely territorial with one another, to the point that lower members of the pecking order are prevented access to food/water dishes.

And I'll also second that they're far more of a "novelty" pet than most, with little regard for us owners, and gloves are absolutely required when handling.

This is my third; my first came 15+ years ago when I was sadly not responsible enough to care for it properly. My second refused (yes, refused) to eat anything but chicken, and wouldn't take it with Reptical. Lack of proper nutrition ended him. Fortunately this one seems to enjoy the same diet as my hermies, supplimented with some live feeder fish he'll catch out of his bowl!

[PinchersAndShells]

I'm in love, maybe one day... (Already has setup plan)

[kieagcarm]

How did you get them? Like, were they in your petstore, or did you have to visit somewhere else?

My local pet supplies plus store gets them in every year this time, Halloween

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