Fiddler crabs?

[xswornxoffxjello]

I've been seeing fiddler crabs at Wal-Mart lately. My first reaction was: They're adorable, but I wouldn't trust them with fish. However, the employees who work there insist that they will be fine. Just to clarify, I'm not planning to get one, but I was curious if the employees knew what they were talking about (doubtful) . Does anyone know about crabs?

[Amour]

I bought one of those fiddler crabs myself. *points to siggy* And here's some facts about them:

1. They have to live in shallow water, or have some place that they can come up for air. They prefer land over being in the water. Without this they will die. My husband built a little ladder and a little platform in my tank for him that he liked.

2. They love to climb and you have to take great measures to make sure they don't climb out of your tank.

3. They are scavengers and will eat off the bottom. (I feed mine freeze dried shrimp and he likes it just fine.)

4. They can get defensive if a fish gets to close to them, but while mine was in with my two boys, he did not nip at their fins any. He did however have an encounter with my poor dwarf lobster and now that guy only has one claw. ):

5. They need aquarium salt in their water, so if you don't like having aquarium salt in with your fish, I wouldn't suggest putting him in the tank. I keep aquarium salt in my tank so that wasn't a problem. But now that he's out of that tank I give him more salt than I had in the tank.

6. Most importantly, they poop A LOT. They poop everywhere and get your water gross really fast, which is why I had to take mine out of my tank and put him in his own little house.

They are extremely cute though and I love mine to death. I named him Crab People. He likes moving his claws everywhere like a rapper does in their rap videos with their fingers all crossed and stuff. So I call him my Homie sometimes. But that's actually just him showing his dominance and looking for some girl crabs to have a good time with. (Here's a video of one dancing to rap, it's cute. Clicky.)

Also, the people at Walmart were very wrong and just trying to sell you a crab. It's actually very difficult to keep a fiddler crab in with fish. They usually die because people don't know how to care for them.

I'm glad you didn't buy one if you weren't prepared to take care of him. They are really fun though. Mine seems to have some emotional problems or something because he's always scared to death of everything. Maybe it's from being in that tiny cup for so long.

[TheJadeBetta]

Originally Posted by Amour

5. They need aquarium salt in their water, so if you don't like having aquarium salt in with your fish, I wouldn't suggest putting him in the tank. I keep aquarium salt in my tank so that wasn't a problem. But now that he's out of that tank I give him more salt than I had in the tank..

I thought they are brackish, meaning they need Marine salt?

[Adastra]

Jade Betta is right--unfortunately fiddler crabs require marine salt, not aquarium salt. They shouldn't be kept with tropical fish like bettas, but could feasibly be kept with mollies, platies, guppies and the like. They are also semi-terrestrial, this means they need some land to crawl over. The fact that pet stores put them in freshwater tanks is very misleading and undoubtedly has led to the death of many crabs.

[Amour]

Actually, Fiddler Crabs can have marine salt or aquarium salt.

[greg6585]

All those crabs...red-clawed or fiddler's....are cool but you are going to spend a lot of time chasing them or looking for them. They used to get out of my tank a lot. Can you imaging chasing a crab around you house for a day?

They also used to hide in my HOB filter as they do love to climb. I would take off the cover and there he was, just lounging out on the filter.....crazy

[betta99]

the wal mart people are dead wrong. fiddler crabs need shallow water, marine salt, and would probably pinch the crap out of the fish if it got too close.