Fidler Feeding Tank?

[squall7733]

I heard someone made a faq on this subject but I cant seem to find it so I'm just going to ask my questions

To my understanding fidlers like shallow water and a beach. I plan on using a long 29 gallon with an airpump filter for the water. Temperature in my room is usualy around 70.

Do I have to worry about them trying to escape the tank? Can I use crappy sand(I have alot of all purpose sand laying around). Do their water have to be to certain specs? What do they eat?

 

[cthulhu77]

Fiddler crabs

Are you trying to just maintain the crabs ? A simple shallow water salt tank should work out fine, but I would use well washed sand. Instead of attempting to filter the water, you might want to just do water changes, as you are talking about two gallons or so...
Food? They might be hard to keep without live sand.

best,
greg

 

[i got crabs]

hey squall7733, im still lookin into how best to keep them but so far have done ok with a 50 gal tote(plastic bin) with flat rocks stacked across the bottom. i filled the cracks with fine gravel to create a beach and in he corner is a graduall slope to a depth of about 3 inchs where i run a very small submersible. to the best of my knowledge they cant scale glass or smooth plastic but they were all over the sides of the styrofoam cooler they came home in. about sand: i think all purpose sand may be treated with pesticides and herbiscides but i could be wrong. better to buy the aqaurium sand from the pet store. water should be brackish but they can withstand varying degrees of salinity as long as it dosent go all the way to sea water or all the way to fresh water for too long. nancy had responded to a question from clownfish some time ago and this is where im getting most of my info from as well as searches on the web. if i can figure out how ill make a direct link to that post.

 

[squall7733]

Ah, that sounds good, maybe I'll just get one of those big plastic bins from wallmart with a top to it, and drill some holes... I'll go with normal sand a bunch of crappy rocks. Really dont want to put much money into keeping the food.

But still what do these crabs eat? If I buy 10, thats 10 days I have to keep them alive, I dont want them starving when I feed them to octo, then I'd just be feeding the poor octopus bones.

 

[Feelers]

Hey squall from what I can figure crabs ect. are pretty easy to keep alive and feed.
You could just use an undergravel filter or any other cheap filter, it will help but isnt completly essential. Remember that crabs ect live in places where they become exposed to the elements or high salinity from evapouration (in rock pools) and they survive fine.
I dont know if they have live mussels in the supermarkets in america, but here they just circulate water and spray it over them, and they live for ages.
Temperature shocks will kill lots of things though, however many shrimps found in rock pools here in 14C water can aclimatise to 28C tropical reef tanks if they are introduced very slowly.

You will be surprised how tough crabs are.

 

[Feelers]

Can anyone post the link to the FAQ about keeping crabs ect - possibly by nancy? not sure.

The crabs you are talking about might be different from the crabs I would find here (NZ) on the rocky shore, I know the ones here are very tough.

 

[Munkybutt]

I'd do it like this:
You've already got the tank, that's the hard part. I assume there's a Home Depot in your area (if not any hardware store should do). Go and buy a clamp-on shop light that accepts standard bulbs. It shouldn't cost more than about 10 bucks. That'll be your heat source. Just clamp it onto the side of the tank.
Now it's time for a trip to the local pet store. Buy a reptile heat lamp. A red one. The red will keep the tank warm enough but not be so bright as to keep you up all night and it'll be invisible to the crabs. Ambient light should be all they need during the day. While you're there, ask for a small bag of filter media. That's the cheap brown gravel that's used in fresh water tanks. You can use this to make a rise on one side of the tank so they can be outta the water,and slope gradually into a flat bottom across the tank. Make sure you rinse it GOOD 'cause it'll be real dusty (that's why it's cheap). Crappy sand is a bad option because you never know what's in it.
While your there, you'll need two more things. A cheap air pump and airstone to keep the water from becoming stagnant. And either sinking crab pellets or shrimp pellets to feed them
And, viola! One fiddler crab tank on the cheap!