# Aquarium for British crabs?



## Ranubis (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi,

Does anyone have advice for setting up a coldwater marine tank for British crabs?

I'm not sure what size it would need to be to get proper filtration etc. and it would probably need cooled in Summer?

Thanks.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

you've found a breeder or are you planning on taking them from the wild, where they have all the space around the little island they call home, to put them in an aquarium, for your pleasure?

it would be easier to get a sample of british seawater i guess.. see what the water/s like in a few spaces.

you'll need a land area for sure and a good filter to clean up all the messy food they'll need


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## Ranubis (Apr 21, 2010)

Edible crabs being sold live at a supermarket as food.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

they probably won't live long.
wild caught animals are prone to parasites and don't pull the 'they would be eaten otherwise' argument, crab is gorgeous.
if you have to.. get them from the beach then.. don't encourage markets which are not catching sustainably bu buying from them 
tom


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## Ranubis (Apr 21, 2010)

I wouldn't take animals from the wild; just wondered whether it would be feasible to keep those ones. Maybe not.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

Ranubis said:


> I wouldn't take animals from the wild; just wondered whether it would be feasible to keep those ones. Maybe not.


where would they have come from?
either the 'wild' or a commercial breeder.. the first seems more likely


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## rum&coke (Apr 19, 2009)

I keep them in the fridge, yummy in a sandwich :mf_dribble:


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

For a serious reply...

Uk crabs are very hard to keep- they have high oxygen requirements and therefore need very low temps- cooler water holds more oxygen. I have heard of using beer coolers to chill the water, but I have no idea how that is made practical. Google a bloke called Brian F Cox; he wrote earlyish books on tropical marine aquaria, but if I remember rightly, European animals too.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

not an easy task i tryed and they died in days just noticed your in edinburgh is there somewhere in edinburgh selling live crabs pm if you want


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## gazz (Dec 9, 2006)

What about a Micro crab, Shrimp set up like so.
YouTube - ‪Micro crabs in with the shrimp www.shrimpking.co.uk‬‏

Try you local aquatic centers, See if they've got them in stock.

Ebay.
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=thai+micro+crab&_frs=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m359


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## Ranubis (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks for the info Ron, I will have a look for Brian F. Cox, though I think it may not be practical after all. The place selling them is in Manchester, I have family there and we were looking when I was down the other week...it gets pretty hot down there in the summer though so probably wouldn't be able to keep it cool enough for the oxygen levels.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

which i did say..
but after looking i was rather blunt :blush:

yeah.. maybe look into a temperate marine invert set up.
not a clue how though


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

I ran a coldwater marine tank in my fishmongers for a couple of years. It had a chiller and 2 large external filters on it. I also ran an airline through it. Mixed stone and sand base with a few rocks in it. I kept crabs and even a pet lobster in it. The main problem is keeping it cool enough as mentioned but as long as you have a decent chiller you should be fine.


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## rum&coke (Apr 19, 2009)

I saw an interesting documentary about crabs the other day and there world revolves round smells especially when it comes to breeding. I would think you would need to change the water quite alot as the pheromones the set off in the water when they breed and shed would get quite confusing for them if left to build up.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

I had a marine tank with crabs on the go for a few months just recently. They were doing fine but I had to dismantle as my work made maintanence impossible (time wise). 

I had a 2ft set up with several juvenile crabs (initially one, but had some tiny refugees come in on some seaweed that remained unnoticed initially). They will eat each other - especially shore crabs. Best to keep just a single specimen unless you can feed them often (read: constantly). 

In terms of set up, I collected around 40 gallons of seawater locally and used that (about 30 gal) to start with. The other 10 gal was in the fridge at 4C just in case. I collected some more every now and again to replenish stuff used in water changes (infrequent since the filtration worked well - water quality remained high enough to also keep anemones!). 

I ran an airstone and low power filter, with a small (5l rub size) mechanical filter sump. Substrate was sand/rocks. I'd suggest doing a semi-regular water change of about 20%. Keep an eye on salinity obviously, and temps. 

They are pretty easy to keep otherwise, and are aggressive - they will eat fish flakes off the end of tweezers, which is pretty hilarious.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

Contrary to popular opinion, I see no reason why you can't if you want to. Coldwater marine is a small but growing hobby and some crabs do not need land, my crab doesn't and I believe the crabs caught off british shores don't.
However, crabs caught for food are usually pretty big, and will need pond sized aquaria for proper keeping. They will also likely be cannibalistic.
I think the most important thing you can do is learn a little about crab identification and try to work out what you're seeing and what they need. Expect not to have your first few crabs survive, they are caught in highly stressful conditions which often brings on various illnesses that wouldn't show up normally.
If you were thinking of a smaller set up then I'd suggest a set up similar to rainbow crabs, but with chilled water and grab yourself some rock pool crabs.
Either that or go tropical, but that's easy, hehe.


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## spidersteve (Jan 25, 2010)

I'd use a native live rock set up with a chiller. Use a good protein skimmer and roughly 40 times tank turnover per hour with powerheads pushing as much water over the rock as possible...use algae to control phosphates and nitrate. Most important bit is the chiller, well worth the money. They wont like it warm at all. As stated before lower temps mean more oxygen! Good luck.


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