# so my friend just got a red claw crab....



## benh (Sep 12, 2011)

and now i have a question about it.

the shop that sold her it told her it was fully aquatic, and that she could simply pop it in her existing tank and feed it algae wafers. 

I have convinced her to see the error of the shops ways, and she now has a different tank for it, which she has split in the customary half sand half water fashion, and unsurprisingly the crab has spent as much time pottering around on land as it has in the water. so it seems happy enough. she is giving it a varied diet similar to that which i feed my crayfish, and it seems fine.

but, the question is, some of the care sheets say it prefers brackish water, and some say fully freshwater. which is correct, or rather, which is better for it? it is in fresh at the moment.

any help greatly appreciated, especially from people keeping these already.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

iirc they can live in freshwater but if your friend hopes to breed, a slight brackish water is needed


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## benh (Sep 12, 2011)

ok cool, i dont even think she had thought about breeding, let alone planning to, lol.

Anyone know if they are easy to breed, or even how you would go about sexing a crab? thats more for my own curiosity though to be honest, as i find invertebrates fascinating. my wife just wont let me have a crab tank, apparently a crayfish is enough.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

benh said:


> ok cool, i dont even think she had thought about breeding, let alone planning to, lol.
> 
> Anyone know if they are easy to breed, or even how you would go about sexing a crab? thats more for my own curiosity though to be honest, as i find invertebrates fascinating. my wife just wont let me have a crab tank, apparently a crayfish is enough.


do you keep spiders, scorpions and the like ?

not a clue on sexing, would imagine it's to do with claw sizes


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## benh (Sep 12, 2011)

i find them fascinating from afar, if i brought any spiders into the house the wife would serve divorce papers so fast its unreal, lol. 
I only have the crayfish because i told my brother in law to dump it in my tank, (it was rescued) knowing she wouldnt get it out. 

i'm getting a beardy soon, so will blag breeding my own livefood in the cupboard under the stairs, and then i should be able to stash a few in their without her seeing them. got a real soft spot for mantids since i went to africa for my honeymoon and one climbed all over me in the bar.

used to spend a lot of time at a friends house, and his dad was a serious spider collector, so have spent a lot of time around them, but just not really been in the position to give them the proper care myself. that is slowly changing as my house gets sorted and i have less jobs demanding my time and my money.

my little girl is desperate for some insects, so we are slowly working on the wife, she will come round eventually. i even bought her a pig, thinking if she gets what she wants, i can get what i want, but it hasn't worked so far, lol.


just noticed your invert list, hell of a collection you have there. if only, lol


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

benh said:


> and now i have a question about it.
> 
> the shop that sold her it told her it was fully aquatic, and that she could simply pop it in her existing tank and feed it algae wafers.
> 
> ...


In short, they can live in freshwater, but to give the best chance at longevity, slightly brackish is best, like 1.010-1.015 or so I think. 

As you say, best kept separate from fish, though you might "get away" with it. 




benh said:


> ok cool, i dont even think she had thought about breeding, let alone planning to, lol.
> 
> Anyone know if they are easy to breed, or even how you would go about sexing a crab? thats more for my own curiosity though to be honest, as i find invertebrates fascinating. my wife just wont let me have a crab tank, apparently a crayfish is enough.


Difficult to breed due to tiny larval stages, in short. 



spinnin_tom said:


> not a clue on sexing, would imagine it's to do with claw sizes


Sexing is done by looking underneath them... females will have a wide/broad carapace/under-belly section (I've totally forgotten the name), males a thinner one. This is because the female uses this to hold onto the eggs 



benh said:


> I only have the crayfish because i told my brother in law to dump it in my tank, (it was rescued) knowing she wouldnt get it out.


There's only one legal species of crayfish in the UK, the blue-clawed crayfish. If it's not that one it's illegal to keep (even if the shop sold it to you!). Whatever you do don't release it (though I am sure you wouldn't).


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## benh (Sep 12, 2011)

AshMashMash said:


> There's only one legal species of crayfish in the UK, the blue-clawed crayfish. If it's not that one it's illegal to keep (even if the shop sold it to you!). Whatever you do don't release it (though I am sure you wouldn't).


Thanks for the crab info, i shall pass it on, she is just a little afraid of brackish, incase she gets it wrong. A local shop will mix water to spec, so i will just convince her to go there for the water. Out of interest, whats your source of this information, just in case she has more questions and i can point her to a reference.

my crayfish is a cherax quad, the australian red claw, aka blue lobster. see here 
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/fish-keeping/752295-my-cherax-quad.html

I'm guessing you were mixing up the red claw bit and the blue lobster bit when you said blue claw?

loving the hypnotoad by the way


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

benh said:


> Thanks for the crab info, i shall pass it on, she is just a little afraid of brackish, incase she gets it wrong. A local shop will mix water to spec, so i will just convince her to go there for the water. Out of interest, whats your source of this information, just in case she has more questions and i can point her to a reference.


No worries. Brackish is easy - buy a swing-needle style hydrometer and it's not hard (and some marine salt). Little by little is the way to go, over quite a few days. Source is jsut my brain, lol. If you google as you say some say fresh, some brackish. I had a tank with 11 of these a few years back... actually many years back! About 10 years ago. 



benh said:


> my crayfish is a cherax quad, the australian red claw, aka blue lobster. see here
> http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/fish-keeping/752295-my-cherax-quad.html
> 
> I'm guessing you were mixing up the red claw bit and the blue lobster bit when you said blue claw?
> ...


Yes that's totally the species I mean - it's just the ambiguity of common names. I like to call it the goggly-eyed-space-lobster, common names mean nothing (as you suggest!).


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## Paul B (Apr 16, 2008)

These crabs like all aquatic crabs breathe using gills that have to remain wet. They will not tolerate extended periods out of the water.

Once the gills begin to dry they will foam at the mouth. 

They are great clean up crew and I have never had a problem with them attacking other fish. Mine are as fully aquatic as they want but can often be seen wandering around the glass ledges at the top of the tank.

You must have an escape proof tight fitting lid or they will escape and dry out before you find them.

P


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## dyzasta (Oct 23, 2010)

Only two things i can recommend on the lil red claw crabs :-
1, they love crickets - mine used to hunt them with a passion.
2, dont put it in with your crayfish - mine got hunted by it with a passion.... what goes around comes around i guess.


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