A few pictures of my rainbow crab, hes kept in standard fresh water, a heat mat used to maintain a temperature of 22*c, sand is used as substrate, and bogwood so he can easily get out of the water and he can eat food more easily above the surface on the bogwood. He eats pretty much anything you give him, grapes, cucumber, flakes, frozen and live food.

Had him for almost a year, i think hes almost 2 yrs old.

Any other questions feel free to ask.





This post has been edited by Ricky: Dec 19 2006, 05:29 PM

Nice crab, something else i would love to be able to keep .
Although if there are no other fish in the tank, wouldn't it be better to add a little salt? You don't need to make it fully brackish, but it will benefit the crab.
I've never kept a crab, but thats just what i've read all over the place .

This post has been edited by three-fingers: Dec 19 2006, 05:31 PM

lol he looks a bit sad and lonely haha.. how big is he roughly

mmmm he'd be good with butter... lol j/k

Thanks

It is actually recommended to keep these as fresh water, i am friends with a fish whole saler, he keeps all of his crabs in fresh water, lol he seems to be fine in fresh water anyways!



Hes about 2 and a half inches wide (just his actual body), with his legs spread, hes about 5 inches wide... his pincers can fit around my finger, yeh, my finger haha, hes kept in his own tank, no other living creatures in it, they wouldnt be living for very long if i did put anything in there lol. These beasts will kill another crab, and eat it for the pure sake of it! Good with butter, haha Nice tank by the way.

This post has been edited by Ricky: Dec 19 2006, 05:43 PM

Thats cool . It just depends, with rainbow crabs, some need salt water and some need freshwater. Its down to what they were acclimatised to when very young by the wholesaler (alot seem to use brackish water for the simplicity), though they need saltwater to breed. Its just when you buy them in shops they virtually never know what kind of water they were kept in prior. But since you actually KNOW the whole saler thats no problem!


This post has been edited by three-fingers: Dec 19 2006, 05:55 PM

I've always heard that they should kept in fresh water, but to induce breeding, brackish water is required... yes

But yeh eithers fine, but overall it wont make the crab live any healthier or make his life longer so you may aswell use fresh water, less hassle lol

This post has been edited by Ricky: Dec 19 2006, 06:10 PM

what a hansome devil

Eeek! I don't like it! My sister would flip! She was so scared of my hermit crabs she would never come into my room when I had them!

Full salinity salt water is required for breeding, since the larvae develop as plankton(i watch too much animal planet ). In the wild to the crabs don't live in freshwater for too long, they do make frequent journeys back to the sea .
Freshwater can be just as good for keeping them in, as long as it contains enough essential elements. I think hard alkaline is necessary, or at least helps .

I think you do watch a wee bit to much animal planet yes lol