# Rainbow Crab Carsheet Please



## A7X (May 9, 2011)

Could I have a caresheet on rainbow crabs please? 
I've got room for upto a 3ft tank. Ive been looking on YouTube for design ideas but none seem to have anything decent and was wondering if this was because they don't like much. I'd be looking at making it natrual so been a crab I'm guessing they like sand, some what heated water?

So any advice would be great. 

Sent from HTC


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## FeralWild (May 9, 2011)

*Rainbow Crab Care*

The rainbow crab, Gercarcinus sp, is a bit of a misconception in the tropical fish world as they are sold as tankmates for tropical communities but are actually a species of land crab.

They are also known in the pet trade as soapdish crabs, rainbow land crab and halloween crab. At full grown, they can be 8 inch leg span.

They originate from central and northern South America. They are like most species an omnivore and will eat practically anything.
The problem with keeping them in a tropical fish tank is that they either wander about on the bottom until they die, or they climb up the filter or heater wire and escape, usually being found behind the tank a week later, dried up and smelling like sewage.

To keep them as pets however you need a fish tank of at least 20 gallons for a single crab, though 60 gallons could safely house 3-4 crabs. They can turn cannibal however unless well fed.

To decorate the tank, you need to use either sand, or fine grade pea gravel. Either used should be damp and approximately 1-2 inch thick. Spread over the bottom of the tank. They need a small pool of water, so use a plastic dish and sink it into the substrate so that it is level with the sand. Place a rock in the water to allow them to clamber in and out. Alternatively bank the sand up over two thirds of the tank space and have one third as water using a siliconed in piece of glass as a dam for the sand. There is a misconception that they need brackish water to live in. They actually need freshwater as they tend to spend less time in water than out of it.

Use bogwood and plastic plants to decorate the land section of the tank, and provide one or two small hides for them although they tend to climb up and hang underneath the wood.

You can use lighting but it is not essential but heating wise, they like to be kept between 75 0 Farenheit and 85 0 Farenheit so sub tropical to tropical and extremely humid. The pool or beach water should take care of the humidity.

To feed them, they will take anything offered but do need a variable and balanced diet. You can feed hermit crab pellets or fish pellets, soaked in a little water and fed in a dish, but they will also take banana, apple, and carrot mash, krill, bloodworm and daphnia, and raw oily fish. Always feed in a dish as it makes cleaning up easier, but anything carried away from the dish should be gathered up after it is finished with. They also need an additional calcium supplement, either as a powder added to the food or by crumbling cuttlefish up into a small dish and mixing with water to make a thick paste.

If well cared for they can live up to anything between 10 and 15 years.


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## Moogloo (Mar 15, 2010)

I'd be more tempted to get a bit of glass cut about 3"-4"high and the depth of tank and silicone it in place with 1/4 to 1/3 of the tank as water and fill the rest of it with sand and use pebbles in the water for the crab to use as a ladder to get out. Plastic plants, maybe some corkbark or just bogwood.


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## Colosseum (Aug 8, 2008)

Mine


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