Fiddler Crab Care?

JeffCrab · Post by **JeffCrab** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:13 pm

I am not sure if this should go here, if it doesn't-please move it.
Anyway,
I have been seriously concidering getting a few fiddler hermit crabs. I am going to have a seprate tank for them. I have lots of questions so bare with me. if you have had great luck with fiddlers, please reply *cough Cough NarNar Cough Cough* lol
so here they are,
What temp do they like to be at
Water temp?
Humidity?
Can i use eco-earth?
Do they eat algea wafers?
How often do they molt?
I am going to use a 20 gallon long, how many should I get?
How many Males?
How Many Females?
Okay thats all of them.
Thank you everyone that reply's soooooo much

Jeff

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:41 pm

I am not nar, but here's my answers:

Water temp? if you get a water temp guage that has a safe zone for tropical fish, try to keep it in that range.
Humidity? 70's
Can i use eco-earth? this depends on the type of setup you plan to use... if you want to have the whole tank eco earth and then have large water dishes, eco earth should work (although they seem to like burrowing in sand, don't know if they can dig in eco earth)

OR - there is a setup that is mainly water, with a shorelie of either sand or a rock or something... you will need a filter with this setup.
Do they eat algea wafers? yep! they love 'em.
How often do they molt? that I am not sure about... but they don't take as long as hermies. sometimes they eat their exo, sometimes not.
I am going to use a 20 gallon long, how many should I get? four to five.... you get them fairly small but they become bigger!
How many Males? however many you want... the males look cooler than the females.
How Many Females? doesn't really matter...

you know they need to live in salt water, right? if they come from a pet store with fresh water, you will have to be careful....if they are in fresh water for more than two weeks they die.

I would use lighting as a heat source, and a small filter if you have a mainly water setup. all set ups need land, fresh water, and salt water.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:54 pm

Jeff, I haven't seen narnar online but she is the guru of fiddlers.. I have a fiddler and yes layne is right what they really want is brackish water.. narnar has a pick of hers in our pic archive and its so cool. actually i think its under chitchat in here too.. i will see if i can send you the link. I actually only have a male.. I have yet to find him a mate because my female died cause of how the petstore told me to keep them.. they can use the same salt water as the hermies and they do like sand. narnar has a very cool set up.. she created like an ocean beach scene.. She just sloped the sand. they do like to be out of water as much as in water.. and they will burrow in the sand.. she put stuff out in the water that they could rest on that sits out of the water but also they have a sand beach.. she feeds them in shell dishes.. they like to bask in the light. i have a moonglo over mine and they do like it.. i also have a normal aquarium light to simultate sunlight. and i have had one molt.. in the water.. he did't eat his exo at all. he litterly did it over night and was fine the next day.. i've had him since novermber. hope this helps.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:53 pm

Jeff, I just got 4 fiddlers last Friday and I have mine set up kinda like NarNars. I have a sand beach and I keep their water at appr. 1.014 salinity. Their water temp is about 75 degrees without a heater, and I try to keep their temps in the high 70s. Humidity runs in the 70s. I havent seen mine much since I brought them home as they dug down to destress and seem to only come up after I go to sleep. I always see the large female in the morning and I seen the large male this morning also. I do use the same kind of filter that Layne and Nar use. So far they seem to be doing ok, but I sure dont see them much, lol. Ill be glad when they get more comfortable. Oh and they can move at the speed of light also, heheheheh.

Angela

kayla_d · Post by **kayla_d** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:26 pm

What temp do they like to be at
I keep mine at 85
Water temp? 80
Humidity? 75-80
Do they eat algea wafers?
Yes and also foods the hermits eat.
How often do they molt?
From what I have read 2 times a year. Mine has molted once in the water over night and did not eat the exo.
I am going to use a 20 gallon long, how many should I get?
Im going to say a higher amount then Sara I think you could safely put 10 in the a 20 gallon.

Males are known to fight but they do not fight to the death. I would try to buy fiddlers about the same size. I had 2 males and the bigger male did injure the little male I could see something seeping from his arm where the large male had grabbed and shaken him. He died from either that or the petstore conditions I didnt have him long.

I use a 75 watt white heat light sitting on the screen top for heat and a 75 watt moonglo clamped above the tank at night for heat.

NaRnAR · Post by **NaRnAR** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:28 pm

heres the ongoing fiddler topic....ctryluv just added a question to it

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=29669

lol im no guru...Ive just learned from what I have seen and tried...there isnt much info out there on keeping them as "pets". I think im going to start a little fiddler crab forum soon...that way we can actually have a forum for all these wonderful questions!!

I definitely agree with Layne and ctryluv...they like the tropical waters (70-80)...im not exactly sure what my water is at, its usually around 75 I think....I got water on the strip and it peeled off

Humidity should be the same as the hermits (70-80). Its not hard to keep the high humidity with all their water.

A 20 gallon long...Id say 3-4 just b/c if you are going to have males and females there might be some territory fights...nothing violent, just pushing and shoving and lots of "dance-offs". But you can have whatever ratio you want of males and females. Just make sure they all have places to hide...plants, mine have mini-cocohuts and a rock cave thing and plastic aquarium plants.

I would recommend playsand over EE if you want to do the sloped beach. But it you want to do the dishes of water you can use the EE. The link up there has pics of both set ups.

They love algae wafers, as well as anything you feed the hermies. Fiddlers are mostly agae eaters but are scavengers as well...and will eat entire small silversides lol! I gave one to mine and I have NO idea where they drug it off to lol!!!

I do use a 75 watt Day-glo and a 75 watt Night-Glo to keep the water and tank temp as stable as possible. I have a 5 gallon tank with a screen lid and the open areas where the lamp doesnt cover are covered with plexiglass.

About the molting.. no they dont take as long as hermies and they usually dont eat their exo. During the spring and summer mine molted about once every 4 weeks, but now that its winter they havent molted yet. So theres no definite answer. But they molt in a matter of a day or two, under water and usually kind of hidded in the plants.

JeffCrab · Post by **JeffCrab** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:15 pm

Okay, after reading the post I have made my decision.

I am going to get Fiddler's!
I am so excited. I am going to get them March 3rd. I went to petsmart the other day, they have males and females. Now I need to decide which ones to get. lol. But anyway, nar do you use plain old playsand or another type of sand, how do you get the sand to sink to the bottom, wont it mix with the water? My mom told me if I want to get them, that I have to get gravel. Is this okay or not?
Thanks
Jeff

NaRnAR · Post by **NaRnAR** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:20 am

I do use the same playsand that I use for the hermit crabs. The only difference is I wash it...I run water thru it until the water that is poured out of the sand runs clean.

The sand that is in my tank right now, is not standard PlaySand, its a medium grain sand that I got at Lowes and its already been washed and cleaned and all the grains are the same size. It came in a brown bag. The fiddlers seem to enjoy it. They burry in it and make caves. The only reason Ihave this sand in there right now is b/c I had to empty the whole thing out when my hermies gave mites to my fiddler tank...that is the only sand I had b/c it was left over from the hermies ISO tanks.

All I do with the sand is (I have a 5 gallon tank) pour in the sand...how ever much I want (I think it was 25 lbs last time) and then pour in a gallon-gallon and a half of salt water and mix it all together. Then I slope the sand so that there is a beach and an "ocean".

You can use gravel, but I think it will be harder to keep clean. See the fiddlers have these nice little poops that will fall between the rocks, where as with sand, the poops stay on the surface and you can suck them out with a turkey baster.

Another reason to try and get sand is that they do like to burrow...they dig holes and make caves, much like what a hermie does when they are molting. If you cant get sand, im sure they will be fine with gravel...Ive seen lots of places on the internet where the owner has used gravel...and the fiddlers seem to be just fine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:44 am

are the fiddlers being kept in salt water? if not - you will want to get them when they are new - right after they are shipped in.

JeffCrab · Post by **JeffCrab** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:10 pm

Yes, when I asked PetSmart, they said they put in a quarter of a tablespoon in there water every week and a half so I hope the crabbies would be good.
I might go grave, maybe sand, not quite sure yet lol.