fiddler crab journal - 10-jan

[jibran_shariff]

my previous encounter with a brackish environment was almost 4 years ago, and worked well, but for a short period of time, my impatience and fidgety fingers, killed the tank

this time i have started with a much simpler brackish setup
fidler crabs

saw 'em at the store and i simply bagged and got 5 of them, 3 males and 2 females
heres a pic of the male

IMAG0118-1-1.jpg

PS: sorry for the bad image, took a quick phone cam image

now came the setting up of the tank
to begin with picked up a
- plastic tub, with dimensions 22" x 16" x 6",
- construction sand (fine sand)
- a small driftwood
- non iodised salt

the plastic tub is good because it is not very tall and hence easy to view the crabs, and the crabs cannot crawl the sides

spread the sand in such a way that 2 sides has a sandy beach and the rest is water( salt added, to get brackish conditions)

added the driftwood as a hide as well as something for the crabs to sit and bask on

right now the sand is not very deep, but after looking at their burrows, i feel that they would prefer sand beack as deep as possible

they tend to be quite active most of the time during dawn and dusk and search for food on the sand beach

currently i just drop a mix of pellets onto the sand beach, not in the water

i want this thread to be more of a journal rather than just a topic, hence will update with further findings and learnings

currently the crabs are pretty shy and hide most of the time, thus not many pics, as time goes and if i am successful in keeping them alive, will add more images

[SCORPIO]

Nice.
In starting days, they will hide but after a few days, they crawl without shying. I am also keeping four crabs from last one year. Seeing these creatures is very good experience.

[Abhishek]

Nice Jibran bhai,

Some questions -
1. How aggressive they are to their own species?
2. How much is the water level in the tank?
3. Do you have to maintain humidity there?

[aquadream]

Great....

[parthapratim22]

lovely, someday will keep them.

[devchitra]

a very nice animal

[jibran_shariff]

update time

i am not sure what went wrong
very slowly these crabs used to get into the water area, stay put for some time and then lose their claws and then simply flip over and die

and i tried searching as to why this might be happening, but alas i couldn't find
could be the cold wave they were experiencing here in bangalore, other than that i am not sure what happened

[Abhishek]

Oh no thats bad
Can brakish/ fresh water may be a reason?

[apuda2010]

Did the crabs molt even once when they were alive ? If not, that is the reason they did not survive.

[jibran_shariff]

water was kept brackish, the measurement was 2 tablespoon salt for every 5 gallons

no the crabs hadn't molted, but how is that relevant