CtryLuv's Crabbie Cove Red Claw Crab Care
My hubby stopped at Petsmart last night and seen the Red Clawed crabs in with the Fiddlers so he decided to buy me two of them!! I dont know much about them and I dont know how well they will get along with the Fiddlers but I am creating a page with info I have found on the web and will update with my own experiences. They are cute little guys. From what Ive read, the hubby did well and got one female and one male.
The basics I am listing here will be things I have learned from forums and web sites on these little guys until I get a little experience under my belt. If anyone sees anything that they know to be incorrect, please, email me immediately!!
- General Care Red Claws seem to be very similar to Fiddlers. They need a half water half land environment. They need sand to burrow in, but they must have water to live in also. Their humidity needs to be like hermits, between 70-80, and they prefer the higher end temps between 78-85. They like having things to hid in and things to climb on. The best tanks for them would range from a 5 gallon to maybe a 20 gallon, probably a long. To set it up you pour about 4-5 inches of sand into the aquarium and smooth it out, then start adding your water. When you have added the amount of water you want, (I believe it should be at least a few inches deep, maybe a bit more, then start sloping your sand up so that half of the tank has a beach. This is were you can put their fresh water dish, a hidey hut, or whatever you dont want under the water. Crabbies like to climb and bask, so have a climbing rock in the water where they can crawl out and sit. Make sure you have a lid on your tank! From what Ive read, these guys are better escape artists than the fiddlers. They will climb anything and squeeze out of tiny holes.
- Molting - Red Claws molt just like hermies and fiddlers. I do not know yet whether they molt underwater like the fiddlers or above ground like the hermits. I believe they molt like the Fiddlers and are done with it pretty quickly with only a day or two of rest needed. From what I have read, they usually do not eat the exo. If its still in there in 2 weeks, I would remove it.
- Food and Water - The Red Claws need brackish water for their main source just like the fiddlers. This is a weak salt water. Ive read a few different things about their water. Of course, first of all, it needs to be dechlorinated. As far as the salinity, they seem to be basically the same as the fiddlers. The site I have found says to keep the salinity in 5-15 ppt range which is 1/6 to 1/2 the salinity of seawater. The PH should be right around 7.5 - 8.2, so if you get a ph tester, you need to get one for higher end aquariums.
You must also have a small dish of fresh dechlorinated water for them.
As far as food goes, Red claws root around in the sand and get microscopic organisms and such from the sand just like the fiddlers. The also like algae, so I make sure I always have an algae wafer in there for them. I have also given them freeze dried shrimp and will try other foods also. Since Ive only had them for one day they havent had a chance to sample much. I have read that they like things such as bloodworms, ect, and will eat veggies.
- Aggression - From what I have read, they will live with other life forms, such as fiddlers and fish but I will go by my own experiences on this. I have read that males will be aggressive to other males so its best to get one of each. So far I have not witnessed any aggression between the Red Claws and/or the Fiddlers.
UPDATE: THE RED CLAWS ENDED UP KILLING 2 OF MY FIDDLERS SO UNFORTUNATELY THEY HAD TO GO BACK TO THE STORE. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE KEPT THEM BUT WE ARE OUT OF ROOM FOR EXTRA TANKS AND THEY NEEDED ONE OF THEIR OWN. I HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER THEY CAN LIVE WITH FISH (THEY WOULD HAVE TO BE ABLE TO GET OUT OF THE WATER), BUT THEY CANNOT COHABITATE WITH THE FIDDLERS!!!
- Sexing - To tell your Red Claw crabs sex, look at thier claws. The males have larger and more pronounced claws than the females.
- Tank size - From what I have read you should only have 2 per 10 gallons. Unfortunately, my fiddlers are in a 10 gallon (4 of them) so with the Red Claws I have 6 crabbies in the 10. I am going to watch very carefully and will probably upgrade to a 20long for them if things seem to go well.
- Tank Cycling - Your tank will need to be cycled. Cycling is getting rid of all of the bad bacteria and replacing it with good. You can buy little testers that suction cup onto the side of the tank that will tell you where you tank is as far as cycling. In ideal circumstances, you tank should be cycled before adding the fiddlers. The bad thing about that is it is extremely hard and takes extremely long to cycle a tank that doesnt have anything live in it. You can add live sand or live rock, but you will have to have the salinity up to where a reef tank would need to be. Brackish water is not sufficient to sustain live rock or sand and it will die. I do not yet know if the Red Claws can sustain salinity at the levels of a reef tank.
- Breeding - Red claws will also breed in captivity but the young will not survive. The female must lay the eggs in the ocean, and they hatch and survive there. We cannot reproduce the tidal flows and such that the female needs to lay the eggs, and the tiny water life the babies need to survive after they hatch.
- Hands on or hands off - Right now I have no idea. I have read different things on them. Some say they are too quick to be handled and others have had no problems. I just tipped their bowl over and let them go in the tank so I have not yet handled them. I did nudge the little female to get her out of the bowl and there was no aggression shown when I did it.
I was able to get a few pictures of them, so introducing Frick and Frack!! I believe Frick is a female and Frack is a male.
Most of the info I have obtained came from the following page: http://wrongcrowd.com/staticpages/index.php?page=crab Thanks to this site for all of the great information!!!
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