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I recently picked up 2 of these intresting little guys and I have 2 quick Q's about them since I can't find any definate answers.
1) Do these crabs need a way to get out of the water?
2)Can they survive in totally freshwater or do they need aquarium salt?
I have tried to find a good info page on these but every other site says something different.1 site will say they are totally aquatic and the next site will say they need a way to get above the water line.Also 1 site will say they are totally freshwater and the next will say they need salt.Any info would help me greatly!!!

I have 2 also and I've found out that if they want out of the water they will find a out. Both love to hide out in the filter for days at time.

As for water mine are in fresh, but I've heard that they are brackish.

true red clawed crabs to not need access to the atmosphere to breathe. however, they will happily escape your tank if given the chance. they can tolerate being out of water for awhile, but it is not because they need to.

as for the brackish requirements- i have always kept mine in freshwater with zero problems. from what little i could gather, i assume they require some salt in their water to breed, but i am not certain. mine molt and grow normally in pure freshwater.

I have a red-claw crab which has been doing well for a while now. I keep it in a freshwater tank with two texas cichlids and a plec.
I did keep it with some neon tetra and glowlights but given half a chance it'll give them a good nip and i did have some mysterious overnight disapperances.
I've found that puttin an object into the water which can hold air and prevent it from escaping (in my case a large shell), makes an ideal home for a crab as it can get out of the water inside the shell.
Other than that it'll jus climb up whatever it can n sit on top of the filter or heater.

Well I am down to 1 now.They had a huge war costing both crabs a leg and 1 his life.Pretty good display of aggression.Anyway before that both hardly ever moved.After the death of the 1 I put a small airstone into the tank and now the surviving crab is really active.I don't know if i'll replace the 1 that died or not.I might just move my 1 crab to a empty 5 gal that I have.BTW do there legs grow back????

The missing leg might grow back when it molts

I would recommend the addition of a small amount of marine salt (distinct from medicinal 'aquarium salt') to the water, as I have found that they do noticably better under such conditions than in freshwater. The fact that they may have molted or outwardly appear to thrive in freshwater belies the fact that they hail from marginal-estuarine habitat in nature. I would also suggest that they receive occasional access to a "land" region above the waterline; if one or both parameters are satisfied, the crabs are markedly less susceptible to "creeping disease" and display a more natural level of activity. See http://wrongcrowd.com/aquaria/crab/ for further information.

Last edited by Veneer at 28-Dec-2004 11:26