Freshwater crab help?

[SAChichlidLover]

Hey everyone,
finally got closure on one of the three tanks I'm ordering which as the title suggests is going to be for freshwater crabs such as red devil crabs, vampire crabs and if I can find a geosearma then I'll probably have a trio of them aswell, I need advice on how to setup the best scape for the aquarium (will need to incorperate beaches as crabs will come out of the water) and the best PH and shrimp species to go along with the crabs in a 200L or maybe even 250L aquarium
I do plan on setting up a colony of crabs and will probably sell a few of the offspring on here in the future as they are territorial and I could only support up to a certain amount lol.. so by next year if anyone wants any freshwater/brackish crabs then I will hopefully have quite a few ?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

BTW by geosearma I mean the original blood red vampire crab (sorry if you got confused as geosearma is a relative term for pretty much every vampire crab but it basically means true red vampire crab)

 

[SAChichlidLover]

In fact I might stick with a colony of golden eye vampire crabs

 

[Colin_T]

Don't keep crabs in tanks with fish. The crabs are nocturnal predators that will catch and eat small fish. Big fish will eat small crabs.

There are very few true freshwater crabs and most are brackish or require brackish conditions to breed. No idea what the crabs you are getting require as to water requirements, just letting you know they may not breed in fresh water.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Don't keep crabs in tanks with fish. The crabs are nocturnal predators that will catch and eat small fish. Big fish will eat small crabs.

There are very few true freshwater crabs and most are brackish or require brackish conditions to breed. No idea what the crabs you are getting require as to water requirements, just letting you know they may not breed in fresh water.

I won't be don't worry, I only planned on keeping them with larger shrimp colonies in a large tank

Do you have any idea of how to create brackish water? I've never really dived into the world of brackish..

 

[Colin_T]

Brackish water is simply water with some salt in. It is less than sea water but more than fresh water. Normally brackish water in aquarium is about half strength sea water.

To make brackish water, you add some salt to water. Marine salts are the best and you use a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the amount of salt in the water.

If you have access to sea water, you can mix that 50/50 with freshwater to get half strength sea water (aka brackish water).

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Thanks so much for you're help! I wish I had access to seawater but I live too far inland so I'll just have to create it myself I imagine.

How often would you reccomend adding the salt? Every water change or? Sorry I am very inexperienced with saltwater is there also a salt level to watch out for?

 

[Essjay]

Marine salts are the best

This is important, salt here does not mean the kind you put on your food.

Whenever water is changed in some way the new water at a water change needs to be mixed up before it's added to the tank.

The level of salt depends on what is being kept in the tank. Some creatures need only a bit of salt, some need more. Researching the crabs and shrimp should give you a specific gravity for each species and the hydrometer or refractometer will tell you when you've added the right amount.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

This is important, salt here does not mean the kind you put on your food.

Whenever water is changed in some way the new water at a water change needs to be mixed up before it's added to the tank.

The level of salt depends on what is being kept in the tank. Some creatures need only a bit of salt, some need more. Researching the crabs and shrimp should give you a specific gravity for each species and the hydrometer or refractometer will tell you when you've added the right amount.

Thanks so much for you're help! I needed it haha!