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I shot a very short video of my crab eating this morning and put it on youtube. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1BW18bosNw

(I used my digital camera to make it, and Kino in Ubuntu to chop it and export it to flash for uploading--my first time at that)

What kind of crab is this. He is really cool. What was that you fed him?

Nice!
What are the fish you have with it?

Yup. I'm that crazy Twilight/animal/music girl

Sorry for the slow reply. He is a rainbow crab, eating lettuce there. Those are plain guppies.

He moulted again. Here are two nice pictures: http://members.shaw.ca/pizpot/crab3

His old shell is 2-1/4 inches across. Getting big!

wow he is pretty cool! does he eat the guppies? I have a red claw crab (dont know the scientific name if i ever get a pic of him illpost it up here) and he is rarely out at all in the tank.. mostly hides under decorateions, but i see him at "dusk." must be a noctural... your crab is much prettier though.. howlong have ou had him? how big will he get?

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

http://members.shaw.ca/pizpot/crab3/

There, I added another picture. We got him almost 3 years ago in the summer of 2005.

Those are all his moulted shells. The smallest is 1-1/2 inches across. I think he is about half grown now. If you look at the picture of his shells in the box, notice the big one (top right) has a broken claw tip--it is black. He broke his claw by climbing to the top, hanging and rotating like an idiot. It grew back perfect. I was scared he would loose the whole claw limb moulting, because the scab can get stuck. Whew.

http://members.shaw.ca/pizpot/crab3/4.jpg This picture shows his big claw tip that came back upon moulting. At the top of the photo, is a leg from his first moult 2-1/2 years ago. Notice the black tip on the leg, that moult resulted in a lost leg, which he regenerated internally and it appeared after moult.

When he is hungry he comes to his feeding spot and does a dance. Then I talk softly and rub my finger on the glass. If he is actually hungry, he will attack my finger. If he just sits there I don't bother as he is not hungry.

He doesn't touch the guppies for some reason. We feed him every day usually, and pick out uneaten food. He eats about once a week while fasting to moult.

what size tank is he in?
what do you feed him?
how much water is in there?
is it brackish?

hmm sorry for all the questions hes just really col and it would be cool to get one!!!!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

what size tank is he in?
-20G with 2/5ths full of water, with lots of gravel and big rocks--he burrows. If I was humane I would get him a 90G tank and build him a sand beach and heat it somehow. I tried but had technical problems. How would I heat a dry tank at night?

what do you feed him?
http://members.shaw.ca/pizpot/crab3/food.jpg
-krill, crab food, lettuce, nuts, raw sunflower seeds, apple, banana, whatever he likes actually. Feed once a day or two. He fasts for almost a month before moulting, but does eat a little weekly. I guess they fast to shrink so they fit out the trap door lid.

how much water is in there?
-doesn't matter, BUT he must have an island to dry out on. He won't moult until he dries out I think. Well, it does matter, if the food floats and he can't reach it.

is it brackish?
-no just regular guppy water, 1 tablespoon per 5 gals water. Ask at the store and match what they have.

I do 75% water changes every couple of weeks. The baby guppies are fine with that.

I just built a wood tray and am going to try to give him a little beach area. I hope it works. Check out this site that explains that they are land crabs: http://www.freewebs.com/rainbowcrab/info.html Nice site, but the author is kind of nuts I think. For example: "Loosing limbs: your crab will loose his limbs if he doesn't escape from his shell before he hardens, while moulting." Hmmm, if my crab lost 5 legs I maybe would consider that I am not such a pro.

Pro tip of the day:

http://members.shaw.ca/pizpot/crab3/cords.jpg

Cover the heater/filter cords with a slit plastic tube. Otherwise, he will try to zap himself, or climb it and get hurt. I recommend a underwater Fluval filter. I use the smallest version for this tank, and water quality measures excellent. In fact, I wonder why bother with any other type now that I see how good the underwater Fluval works. Silent too. (you must clean the impeller every two months, and wring out the sponge)

He seems to like regularly timed bright lights during the day, I've noticed... unlike fish who might not care.

Those Purple Moon Crabs are pretty cool, one of the few species in the hobby that seems to be able to live in freshwater on a long-term basis (though I always reacommend the addition of some salt). How much time does yours spend out of the water? I've always read that they are primarily terrestrial, but in my experience, when they are given access to large volumes of water, they tend to spend most of their time in it (even when also given large areas out of the water). It seems that yours prefers to live underwater as well.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

He sits out of the water a lot. Maybe 30% dry, 70% wet perhaps. Last time I had a beach set up, he liked it. Wouldn't it be fun to take him to a real beach on a hot day! Probably stupid for many reasons though.