adding crabs

[crably]

Hello, my daughter and I are new to this forum as we have just found it, and we had a few questions that we could not find answers to in the crab care section. First, are there any live plants that we should not put in our crabs tank? Second, we currently have 3 crabs in a 55 gallon tank (overkill we know) and we want to add a few more. Should we be concerned about fights, or anything territorial? We have had our current ones for 8 months now. We have also had very little luck finding shells to add to the tank. The ones in the pet store are kinda crappy looking for what they ask for them. Any help/advice is much appreciated.

[Gizaroo]

Other members will have advice for your other questions I'm sure, but I figured I'd attempt to give some advice on shell finding.

I'm not sure where you are located, but I have had great luck finding shells at Walmart, back in the crafts section near the vases, as vase fillers. They have several size bags, all with different stuff in them. (The bags are usually between 4-10 dollars depending on the size bag you get. I've been able to use over half of the shells in the bags I've gotten, which is well worth the money. -at least 20 shells are usually usable in the bags-)

I've also had quite a bit of luck on Ebay too. Both of these places you can find stuff very cheap...unlike the pet stores!

Just make sure you boil them in dechlorinated water for 5 minutes and let cool before offering to your hermies.

[CrabbyJo]

Hi and Welcome to the forum Crably!
I agree with Gizartoo, I've had great luck on ebay. If you look for the SMALL lots of 3 or 4 shells, you can often get a good deal and if you purchase more than one lot from a seller, they usually combine the shipping. My favorite seller is Glassreign. She has small, inexpensive lots and cheap shipping!

So you think you want to add a few more crabs - I highly recommend reading this article: http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... toryid=165

You'll want to isolate the new crabs per the reasons in the article.

When it's time to let everyone meet, it's a good idea to give all the crabs a dip in the present fresh water pond. This helps give them the "same smell" as the rest of the other crabs. It doesn't fool them completely, but can help reduce initial aggression from their new tank mates.
Some like to create a neutral area for the crabs to meet, so there is no territory issue, such as a play area (some like to use a kiddie pool and put climbing toys inside for an exercise playground).

As for territory issues, once you've introduced the new crabs to the tank, you may see some posturing and pushing around. You'll notice larger crabs shoving smaller crabs away with their big pincer, or walking legs. Generally they are just asserting their dominance. There's no real reason for concern unless you have one crab seriously grabbing another crab (and that means open pincer action) and possibly trying to remove them from their shell. This is a shell fight, and you don't want to let those continue, because you can end up with a dead crab. Make sure you've got at least 3 shells per crab, that means 3 that each crab can possibly wear, close to the size of their current shell.
If one crab seems particularly aggressive, you can remove him to isolation for a few days, to give him time to chill out. Sometimes you'll see agressive behavior when a crab is pre-molt, or post-molt. It seems there may be hormonal changes that affect the personality of the crabs, and they can be really grumpy, or just extra gregarious (friendly)! Chilling out in iso can help.

welcome to the addicting world of crabbing!

[ZuZu]

where I have had luck is in craft stores just make sure to declorinate the shells cause you may not want to know WHAT exactly they may have done to those shells to "clean" them ...
anyways, welcome!

[crably]

thank you everyone for the advice. I did check Walmart, but actually checked in the pet section and that was a few months ago, so I will try again, but in the craft section like it was suggested. None of my current crabs seem too aggressive, they just kind of climb over each other to get where they are going, which I find silly considering how much room they have. Of course, I could have missed something that says that is a sign of aggression so... Unfortunately my daughter talked me into the crabs at the pet store and I didn't know anything about them at that time, after hers died 2 days later, I started cracking down so the others did not suffer the same fate. Lately we hae decided we want to decorate the tank better, and then add a couple more crabs since we have done so well with our 3, but we need some decorating ideas first. We thought we would get our decorations, plan it out, decorate, and then maybe introduce all the crabs at the same time to the "new" aquarium.

[ZuZu]

well about climbing over each other is compeletly the norm, I think the only thing they are consentrating on is the destination, not the route to get there

[CrabbyJo]

There are some great ideas here in the decoration section, as well as the other sections related to tank paraphernalia.

It's completely normal for the crabs to climb over each other. They are completely silly, and will climb over each other or even dig under things rather than go around in some cases. You'll know aggression when you see it!