Food Quantity?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:59 am

Ok, been crabbing for about 10 days, and now have 20L set up with 2 med(1 has tunneled) & 3 small.
They never empty their food dish. I have gotten to see a couple of them eating, but I think I'm giving them too much. I don't know how to quantify the amount in oz. or mg. I can only say they have about 12 pinky-nail-sized pieces of different foods in there dish most of the time. So - in terms of pinky-nail-sized pieces,

what's an appropriate amount to keep in the dish regularly for 5 crabs? Should I replenish daily, or is it ok to leave the leftovers?

And water... how often should I change it out?

Please advise

ElinaGrace · Post by **ElinaGrace** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:24 am

I always put way more food in then necessary...Because it's hard for me to control the size of the fresh food...

Each crab eats a different amount, so you'll have to use the trial-and-error method..See how much they eat and if you have leftover from when you made it just freeze it.

As a rule I only leave fresh food in the tat' for about a day, so I don't get fruit flies and other bugs.

Water should be changed every day or two in my opinion, although I'm sure they'll survive if you're away and can't manage.

On a side note welcome to the addiction! The HCA is a GREAT place and I'm sure you'll love it here!

NaRnAR · Post by **NaRnAR** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:12 am

Welcome!

In terms of pinky-nail size

for 5 crabbies I would go with 6-7 pieces, to start off with. If they eat all of that, go ahead and offer more next time, if they dont you can go to 5-6 pieces. Some days they will be more hungry than others, so youll have to watch and see what they do.

You dont have to give them new food every day, mine dont eat every day. Ill offer food and then wait 2-3 sometimes 4 days depending on what is left and if I see them out foraging..then I will put in a new dish of food. Feel free to leave the food for 2-3 days, or until it molds--then you want to remove it and replace it with new.

Water you can change when ever you want, I have deeper dishes so I just refill mine unless there is a ton of dirt in them, thenI just scoop out the dirt and fill it with water. But as long as they have water and its not rotten/nasty smelling/looking (mine like to add all sorts of things like food to their water sometimes..which makes it a bit raunchy and then I will do a full wash the dish refill water change), its all good

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:31 am

Thank you! I feel better now

Are there mini-nets you can use to scoop the sand out of the water?