Vietnamese crabs

[frannyscho]

My husband came with me to the LFS and chose himself a Vietnamese crab to go in my nice peaceful community tank. In the morning we couldn't find the black balloon Molly...eventually we did, she had died of being disemboweled by Edward Scissorhands as he is now known.

I wanted to take it back to the LFS and although they said I could swap it, they assured me this was unusual, although not to put it in with long finned varieties. (Dispite I may add, having it in the shop with guppies, hence why we didn't think twice about getting it).

Firstly he has hidden anyway, so not a very interesting pet, but how likely is he to sabotage our peaceful set-up.

Should we swap him or forgive him?

 

[lady_tanksalot]

i'd definatly get rid of him, my friend had one in her community tank and i came out at night and cut up loads of her little peaceful fish while they slept

 

[frannyscho]

Meany...he's not my friend anymore, so I will. I was trying to give the Mollys a new and wonderful life. We only upgraded the tank because the LFS sold us Mollys in a too-small kids tank, I wanted them to be gloriously happy....I hope fishy heaven is nice....

The crab's not much fun anyway if he just hides. It's a bit too nature-like to have a gremlin in a peaceful tank. I'll swap him for prawns.

 

[Teelie]

Crabs, crayfish, "lobsters," anything that has a exoskeletal shell and isn't a shrimp s probably a bad idea for a community tank. They're scavengers and oppurtunists. Any chance they get to snag a meal, alive, dead, or dying, they will. Some LFS will b.s. you saying the crab or cray won't attack your fish, and it might not until it's larger, or gets too hungry to wait on food.

I'd love to get a Blue "Lobster" (Cherax cray) but they get too large and are definitely predatory scavengers like every other crayfish.