How about...

camerafreak · 04-18-2011, 03:14 AM

I went to walmart today and saw the cutest little crabs! I was wondering if they would harm Ace or anything? They are freshwater too suprising enough.

Kestrel · 04-18-2011, 03:46 AM

Unfortunately they probably would. Any crustacean will catch and eat fish if it can, so even if your fish are fast and healthy there's still always a chance to find it eating them, and betta are slow and have a lot of fin to grab. Even if they don't catch the fish and kill it they will probably rip fins and other things.

I also wish this wasn't so because crabs are just so darn cute. Also on a side note, I believe most crabs actually need to be able to get out of the water and get air in some way, at least this is true for fiddler crabs. Also even though people keep fiddlers in freshwater they live longer in/prefer brackish water. There might be freshwater crabs though, I'm not sure.

PS. I would not buy fish/animals at Walmart because I don't want to support them keeping and selling them.

jesstanner · 04-19-2011, 01:28 PM

Don't buy the walmart crabs! Those are actually fiddler crabs! I bought one, and put him in my freshwater community aquarium and fell in love with him! He was so great! I even followed the guys directions and took him out for about 4 hours every week to let his shell harden! Yea, well because he was a fiddler crab, but walmart didn't call them that, and I had no area for my crab to crawl out of the water (because he was sold to me as being able to live in water) he died two weeks later. Fiddler crabs need to be able to crawl out of the water whenever they want, so species tanks are easier to do with them. I did a lot of research after little altoid died :( This was last year, and I impulse bought so it was my own fault. *Sigh. Anyway, I thought you should know that the walmart cuties are fiddler crabs.

camerafreak · 04-19-2011, 01:51 PM

Wow! Thank you so much for telling me! They had them completely covered in water with absolutely no way to get out of the water either.. poor guys. It honestly makes me want to tell someone that they're not taking proper care of their crabs. They are absolutely adorable though. It almost makes me want to find them at petco or my local fish store and just get a tank set up for the little guys =P

jesstanner · 04-19-2011, 01:59 PM

I know, I was so excited when I bought them, and then when altoid started getting sick I began doing a lot of research and that's when I found out. The guy at my walmart did at least tell me to take him out for around 2-3 hours a week to let his shell harden, (wich I did but it wasn't enough) so I do hope that maybe they take them out of the tank at night for a while...uhg makes me so mad. petsmart has at least a good setup where they can crawl out the water (at least mine does) and I know... I wanted to start a fiddler community really badly...but I got another guppy instead for my community tank.