29G Brackish

[wodesorel]

When we did our shopping earlier tonight we found out our Walmart got a small shipment of Fiddler crabs in by mistake. Poor things - been there three days and no one even knew what they cost. I was all excited when I saw them and two of the employees starting asking questions, like what to feed them, since they hadn't been trained on them and had been given no information since they were mis-shipped. All I could think to do was to point out the small bottle of "Hermit Crab Food" they had for sale with the fish flakes. The employee immediately grabbed it and started feeding the crabs.

Hubby and I are thinking of going back for some of them (There's 10, so we wouldn't be able to take all). I've got an empty 10 gallon, but I could also do some rearranging and use the 20 long upstairs. I have in-tank filters, and a small heater, and of course sand.

Trying to find a lot of information on them is hard. I think it's basically the same as hermits, but with a tank that's filled partially with brackish water and has the sand hilled up so they are dry. Food would be roughly the same as well minus the fruits.

I'd like to try and find out how many would be good for a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon, and what mix of genders is best. For some reason 3 females to 1 male comes to mind, but I don't know why! I saw one male and the rest I'm pretty sure were females - would an all female tank be alright or would they fight in the end? We won't be back again until probably Sunday night, so who knows what will be left.

[samurai_crab]

Are you sure its a mistake, because I've seen our Walmart around here have them. THey keep them in soap dishes, the kind you can break apart, they flip the piece that the soap sits on upside down making a small container/cage. They usually put a small piece of sponge in there. At least I think those are fiddler crabs. They don't get them often, its rather sick to see them kept that way because they have absolutely no room to move.

[wodesorel]

I've heard that some of the stores do have them, but ours never has before and the employees were saying that their manager was completely lost when they arrived and didn't know what to do with them. They couldn't send them back though since they were a live animal.

They're in the same pint-sized cups that the bettas are in, with a thin layer of gravel and water just covering that. Not perfect by far (not sure if the water is brackish or fresh, either), but I've seen much much worse. The poor bettas all had to be moved over to the fish supplies because there was no room for them! Very active but tiny little things with bright colors and all their legs.

I think we're going to go for it. We had all these wonderful plans for today and they're pretty much shot, so I can get the tank set up at least and we can always go late tonight.

[jayjay]

I think I might try a couple next time I see them on sale. I know nothing about their setup tho....
Keep us posted. We'll need pics! Haha.

[wodesorel]

Okay... so..... I should have known better... :roll:

They fed the crabs alright - they gave them each multiple whole krill!!! The water was completely fouled and we got sick from the stench on the ride home.

I felt guilty about it, so we took all ten. I don't think they are all going to make it - some are pretty weak, one dropped a claw, and three were bubbling. There are at least five very active ones though. Should have just taken them home last night.

We're heading over to the family's house for Father's Day, so I changed out the water in their cups for brackish and added a large rock so they have some land, and I'll set up the permanent tank when we get home. I'll be using the 20 long after all, so I have to do some moving around!

We're excited though!

[MudCrabDude]

Hubby and I are thinking of going back for some of them (There's 10, so we wouldn't be able to take all). I've got an empty 10 gallon, but I could also do some rearranging and use the 20 long upstairs. I have in-tank filters, and a small heater, and of course sand.

Trying to find a lot of information on them is hard. I think it's basically the same as hermits, but with a tank that's filled partially with brackish water and has the sand hilled up so they are dry. Food would be roughly the same as well minus the fruits.

I'd like to try and find out how many would be good for a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon, and what mix of genders is best. For some reason 3 females to 1 male comes to mind, but I don't know why! I saw one male and the rest I'm pretty sure were females - would an all female tank be alright or would they fight in the end? We won't be back again until probably Sunday night, so who knows what will be left.

Sounds good. Here might be some more tidbits of info you might find helpful, if you didn't know so already (scroll down to bottom):

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

[samurai_crab]

I doubt it was brackish, I highly even doubt they give their puffers brackish. Everytime I go by the fish at walmart I want to get a puffer (have to keep telling myself, someday). Hope they do well for you, fiddlers would definitely be an interesting change over hermits. Do they burrow to molt too?

[wodesorel]

I could really use some critiques since I have no idea what I'm doing!

EDIT 2014: This set up does NOT WORK long term. The sand grew harmful bacterial colonies, the filter died from getting clogged in sand, and it was a mess to try and clean. Please see here for my newest designs that work much better for my fiddler crabs! http://hermitcrabgarden.com/fiddler-crab-brackish-tank/

Is the water level okay, or is it too high?
How much dry sand do they need, cause everything is really wet?
Should I give them more land space?




I made the little deck out of quince branches from my backyard. It was hard but a lot of fun and I'm thinking of doing some more of these for the hermit tanks!




And here are the fiddies! (Can't call them crabbies or hubby will be confused. ) There are eight females and two males. The males will sit there waiving that big claw around. It's squealrific cuteness! I think all of them have made it, but they're hard to count and I don't want to chase them around to do it.














Any other advice anyone can give me on keeping them would be appreciated. I don't even know what species they are!

[SoulLonely]

adorable! thanks for the pics! I don't really know much about their care or setup, but I think it looks real kool. Especially since you have a dock area above the water, increases play area!

[tigermoon89]

I found this I hope it helps:
http://www.fiddlercrab.info/
and
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/rarespec ... rcrabs.htm
They are so cute!!!

[philingroovie]

i live near the bay and there are hundreds of those critters. never thought of keeping as a pet. I remember from when i was a kid, they bite with that big pincher and usually it would fall off only to keep pinching. they are scavengers so i would feed them seafood and sea veggies.

[Hermycrabitat21]

they are adorable!! my walmart doesn't sell fish anymore... its good cuzz they never took care of them anyways.

[MudCrabDude]

I could really use some critiques since I have no idea what I'm doing!

Is the water level okay, or is it too high?

The water level looks okay.

How much dry sand do they need, cause everything is really wet?

Actually, I've never seen them venture too much onto the dry areas in the wild (when I do get to see them in the wild, either in videos or up close and live). What you have seems adequate.

Should I give them more land space?



Any other advice anyone can give me on keeping them would be appreciated. I don't even know what species they are!

It looks good. I've had fiddlers in the past that killed each other (I found holes bored into their carapaces by the bigger ones - didn't actually see the process taking place) so I don't think you should put any more fiddlers into this tank for now.

I think they had them designated as Uca crassipes on that link I mentioned above.

Here's a fun fact: they are known to lighten in color during the nights and darken up during the daytime. I think - I read about this a long time ago and you can see it for yourself when you notice the carapaces lightening up a bit during the night and darkening during the day (or depending on the amount of UV they get).

[mindnova]

I just want to say that is the most amazing set up I've seen. You have some very creative bones in you.
I've seen then on the beach in North Carolina by the thousands. From what I saw they did not have much to do with the dry areas. Their tunnels were just on the edge of the high tide line. Good luck

[Jellybean!]

I agree, it looks nice My sand was always wet like that. Whenever mine molted, they would do it in the water. It's really cool, you just find like a whole body in the water but its hollow lol. Kinda creepy too XD Mine always ate shrimp, algae wafers and coconut... stuff that the hermies eat. Oh and this one time I fed them rice, they put it EVERYWHERE in the tank and it got lodged in the filter lol. I don't reccomend that. They say 3 to 1 ratio for a ten gallon tank but I always did 1 to 1. When I had two females, one of them got killed :/ But after that the male and female mated twice so that was pretty cool. I had little egglets!

Good luck! The setup looks nice