• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Wild caught crabs?

Tommycs

Wonderpus
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Sep 14, 2008
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Well I have had a small 3 gallon tank for a little while now (empty). I along with my cousin were at the beach searching through the jetty's (New Jersey) . We lifted up a rock and saw tons of crabs (at least 100) so we came back with gardening gloves and caught about ten, Setup the tank so it is half in, and half out of water, setup a filter and put a lid on it, and I have been feeding them and things have gone good for the past two days. I caught these as a sort of test to make sure that I am doing everything right to keep crabs. What I really want to know is will the octopus I get in a few months eat these, Is it a good Idea to feed an octopus wild crabs (Of course monitored for disease for at least 3 days)? I am almost positive that I will be getting a Hummelincki. Thanks
 
There is always still the chance of infecting your tank when you bring stuff in from the wild. The octopus would probably eat the crabs but I would recommend maybe freezing them before using them as food to prevent any possible diseases
 
Is there different medications that I could put in the crab tank, Because it would be great If I could feed these crabs to the octopus alive because I know that they need their live foods in addition the frozen stuff.
 
The real danger is probably not from disease but from contaminants such as pcb's and heavy metals. Roland and I have both shown that feeding octopus local inshore prey can subject them to dangerous compounds.

Roy
 
Thanks a lot for the information. I have a few additional questions. What about offshore crabs? What is the best kind of crab to feed an octopus? what is a good source for live crabs? What do they eat? On average how long do they live in a tank?
Sorry for kind of bombarding you with questions, Thanks

Tommy
 
Crabs are a highly accepted food. Most of our keepers that live near the shore do collect much of their own food. Those of us that are inland, usually buy fiddlers from the FL coast but any small crab is usually accepted (Paul Sachs is a common and reliable supplier). I disable the claws on the ones I feed but others leave them functional. Roy's post is a warning about knowing something about where they are collected because they are scavengers and will contain the pollutants of the environment.

Fresh seafood market shrimp is another staple once a captive octopus learns to accept dead food. Often grocery store shrimp is freshwater raised and has been frozen but will still be accepted. Supplementation with live food and variety is encouraged. Some octos can open clams and other mollasks but I have found that opening the clams just before offering is a better choice.

Octopuses are short lived animals. The sizes we keep in an aquarium usually have a natural life span of 12-18 months and they can live a full life span in an aquarium. Knowing the age at acquisition, however, is not viable for a wild caught animal and size is unreliable because of the natural variation in size in the wild.
 
Thanks D for all of the helpful info. Because I won't be getting my octo for about 2 months I'll probably let these ones go and then catch more once I get him. Or maybe Ill just buy some fiddlers, but I kind of like the adventure of climbing on the jettys and in the caves in the jettys to catch them. Thanks again, Roy and Denise.
 

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