I was in the LFS the other day and saw some very attractive purple and yellow crabs and looking on snailshop.co.uk yesterday i saw them again listed as vampire crabs does anybody know anything about these i understand that they are not a truse water crab spending lots of time out of the water and can get to aprox 1.5" in size but other than that???

Dazzler

Its funny you should mention them, as they are in the current copy of PFK, which I happen to have on my desk. Might be information on them on PFK's website even.

They are nocturnal crabs also and grow to 2-3cm, states not a lot on information is available at present due to it being so new still

could be a little intresting side project to start wi'll have to look more indepth.

but intill then can anybody tell me about caring for fresh water crabs in general? food temp tank mates etc???

Arnt alot of 'freshwater' crabs available in the trade actualy better suited to brackish water?

I think they are likely to take small fish too so be careful of tank mates.



(I'm being realy decisive today )

that makes a change flappy

Information on this specific type of crab is till sketchy but it is said that they are succesful in terrestrial and freshwater habitats and are now totally independant of the sea.

They should be kept in 22-28 degrees C and amid high humid conditions.

It does say they can eat earth worms and springtails, due to its size I am not sure if it would be able to take a small fish, but then again maybe not tempt this.

Thats pretty much what i have been able to find SEarl there is not much info available about these critters yet i supose that there are not enough keepers with experiance to beable to give an informed opinion of these

Hi daz,

I was going to setup crab tank at sometime, so i did look into it, if you do a search on the FK mayb it will come up with some topics.

Some things I did find out tho that yes most crabs that are sold as freshwater are in fact usually better suited to brackish, if you think about it that is just common sense because as we all know many crabs live in harbour mouths and the areas where brackish water is present.

They are very messy apparantly also much as goldfish are but of course they can poo on land which is something that needs cleaning as well as the water.
They need a dry area such as a beach or rocky outcrop that sits out of the water.

The tanks also need to be fully sealed, because the crabs are very good escape artists and will make every attempt to climb out and go on the run.