Vivariums-Inverts-Land Crabs 2

This small Halloween crab had no difficulty scuttling out of his container.

Other Land Crabs species .. ..

Keeping Land Crabs As Pets

courtesy to : www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/keeping-land-crabs-as-pets

One relatively easy to keep and yet often overlooked pet invertebrate type is the land crab, a type of crustacean that lives mainly on the edges of the water rather than in the seas and rivers themselves.

Land crabs of certain types can be kept as pets within the home, and make for incredibly interesting and educational pets that are relatively low maintenance.

Land crabs require their own tank and equipment setup and cannot be kept in an aquarium with fish, but nevertheless, providing for their needs and looking after them is fairly simple, and requires a time commitment equivalent to that of keeping an aquarium rather than that of a caged animal.

If you think you might be able to offer a home to some of the smaller species of land crab, read on to learn more!

What types of land crabs make good pets?

The two most readily available and commonly kept land crab species in the UK are the Rainbow Land Crab and the Halloween Land Crab. Both of these species of crab are relatively hardy, do not grow too large, and live mainly on the land. However, as with all crabs, they do require access to water, and so their tank should consist of a split between a land area and water that they can use freely as well.

The rainbow land crab is brightly coloured in hues of purple, blue, orange and cream, while the Halloween land crab usually has a black body and orange legs with purple markings on the claws. Both species of land crab are brightly coloured and visually very pretty!

Housing and accommodation for land crabs

Land crabs do not need an enormous tank to be happy, as they are territorial animals that in the wild, restrict themselves to a set area rather than roaming nomadically. Land crabs are best kept in pairs rather than colonies unless you have a particularly large tank with plenty of room for separate territories, as overcrowding can lead to fighting. In order to keep a couple of land crabs, a tank of around two feet long by a food deep and wide is fine.

In order to provide the perfect environment for land crabs, your tank should contain both a beach, and an area of water. Using an appropriate aquarium or reptile sand is the easiest way to do this, building up the sand on one side of the tank to form a bank, which slopes into water that is three to four inches deep. Land crabs will create burrows within the sand bank, and using an appropriate sand that will retain its shape when wet and not collapse inwards onto these burrows is vitally important.

Over time, the water side of the bank or beach will gradually wash into the water area, and so you will need to make provision to support the bank by means of forming dams with aquarium furniture or driftwood in order to help the beach area to retain its shape.

Even though the water area will be small and relatively shallow, you should still provide some means of filtration for the water in order to keep it clean and avoid it from stagnating. A small aquarium filter that can fit underneath the water level is ideal.

Crabs will quite happily eat fish, and so aquarium fish should not be kept in the water part of a crab tank!

Some photos for Vivariums set ups :

Temperature and environment

The sand side of your crab’s tank should be kept moist at all times, and this will usually happen naturally due to contact with the water. If the sand is dry throughout it as well as on the top layer, the environment of the tank may be too dry, or the water area not large enough comparatively to the land area.

Both rainbow land crabs and Halloween land crabs are freshwater dwellers, and so do not require salt water. However, normal tap water should be de-chlorinated and treated in the same way that water for pet fish would be, prior to addition to the tank.

Rainbow crabs and Halloween crabs hail from hotter climates than the average UK house temperature, and so you will need to integrate a heat mat and thermometer into the tank in order to keep the temperature warm enough and constant. Place this under the water area of the tank, so that the heat will be drawn into the land area through the sand. Your thermostat should be set to around 22 degrees Celsius, as any hotter than this may prove too hot for your crabs.

What do they eat?

Crabs are omnivorous, and will eat more or less anything! Crabs are natural scavengers, and in the wild, consume a wide range of foodstuffs including plant matter, fish and anything else that they can find! Hermit crabs are also popular pets and a complete food designed for hermit crabs is also appropriate to feed to land crabs. You can also feed fish food, raw fish, small cubes of frozen and defrosted whole food such as you can buy for aquarium fish, and various vegetables such as potato or apple. Your crabs will also need supplemental calcium to support the growth and health of their shells, which can be provided in the form of a cuttlefish bone in the tank.

Where to buy land crabs

Some larger pet shops sell land crabs, although your best chance of purchasing them comes from buying at a specialist exotic pet or aquarium retailer, or through a private breeder or seller who is knowledgeable about land crabs and how to care for them.

HABITAT OF THE LAND CRAB

courtesy to : www.animals.mom.me/habitat-land-crab-1909

Land crabs are terrestrial crabs who live the majority of their lives on land. Unlike their red crustacean cousin, the lobster, land crabs can range in color from dark blue, in the case of the blue land crab, to the red, orange and black blackback land crab. Just as their coloring spans a rainbow, land crabs are found in a variety of locations and habitats.

Species Diversity

Gecarcinidae, the family of crabs adapted to live on land, inhabit tropical areas throughout the world. A widely distributed and diverse family of crustaceans, eight distinct species of land crab live in the Americas alone.

Location and Range

Oceanic land crabs occupy nearly all tropical islands on earth. In the United States, the majority of land crabs are spotted in Florida and Hawaii, as well as the Eastern Atlantic coastline as they prefer brackish or saltwater shores near the sea. The Blue land crab, commonly referred to as the giant land crab, inhabits the coastlines of Bermuda, the Caribbean Islands, Texas and southern Florida. They rarely are found more than five miles from the shoreline, though some homeowners in low-lying, coastal areas have been known to encounter a blue crab or two in their living rooms. Though they spend a large portion of their lives on land, land crabs return to the ocean to breed, releasing their eggs into shallow waters.

Shelter

A land crab’s burrow is her sanctuary. Land crabs live in sand or soil burrows up to several feet deep. These burrows are close enough to the ocean to allow water to seep in for moisture, yet deep enough to protect them from any predators or the accidental human foot. Mangroves, marshes and, of course, the oceanic coastline are prime real estate for land crab burrows.

Food

Land crab diets vary slightly from species to species, but generally include nesting sea birds, invertebrates and plants. Tender leaves, fruits, berries, flowers, beetles and other large insects are the blue land crab’s preferred diet, while the blackback land crab occasionally enjoys animal matter found near the burrows. Land crab diets are limited to the plants and animals near their burrows. They typically do not stray far from the burrow when foraging for food.

Land crabs species and care :

Halloween Crabs

How to Care for Your New Halloween Crabs :

courtesy to : aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug,%20Halloween

Halloween Crab Factoids :

Origin : Costa Rica

Temperament : Nocturnal scavenger that lives in burrows

Diet : Omnivore

Temperature : Flexible -- 75 to 85 works fine

Decor : Plastic plants, rocks, wood

Life Span : 8 to 10 years in captivity

Life Style : Scavenger. Likes to hide. Nocturnal

Threats : Other crabs. Copper. Long legged shore birds.

Substrate : Not too important. Wet sand easier to burrow in

Foods : Commercial crab food, fruit, dead fish

Supplements : Some people recommend a cuttlebone

Container : Needs a covered 10-gallon minimum

first batch of Halloween crabs.

Pre-Prologue. I'm a pretty good researcher. I can usually find out the basic needs of most critters with a little effort. In 2007 we got some Halloween crabs out of Chicago. I planned to build a page on them, but unfortunately, I accidentally caused their premature demise, i.e., I killed them overnight. I can't really write a page unless I have the actual critters to observe. I filed the starter page as an "in the works page." (I've got lots of pages in the works.) So three years later when I searched for Halloween crabs again, my barely started page came up as #3 on the Bing search. It just contained a few pictures and some basic factoids. Anyway, it's time to ramp it up.

Prologue. Mike ordered a couple of blue moon crabs because he liked the sound of their name. When Kathy saw them the next day, she said they were Halloween crabs. I said noway, the Halloweens are really little compared to these huge guys. Well, it turned out Kathy was right. I hadn't seen the Halloweens since 2007 (pictures below), so I was way off the mark on the new big guys.

Our first Halloween crabs arrived in a deli cup with air holes and moist peat moss on the bottom.

2007. We received these little guys back in 2007. We treated them like patriot crabs and managed to drown them overnight. The patriots are also land dwellers but have no problem surviving in deep water because they're strong enough and smart enough to climb to the surface for air. The Halloweens couldn't make the cut. Then, we couldn't get any more until January, 2010. Apparently they are sold under a variety of disparate appellations. They are a strikingly colored crab. We're glad to see them again under any name. When we opened their shipping container, every one said "whoa." They just barely fit into the same shippingcontainers as above. They looked formidable. Our first ones were just cute.

Very much on the cute side. The Jack 'o Lantern look earns them their Halloween name.

Not afraid to defend themselves against larger adversaries.

Temperament. Scrappy sums it up. Halloween crabs have those pincers and know how to use them. In the wild they prefer to hide in burrows and come out looking for food at night. They're more active during the rainy season. In captivity they learn to eat when the lunch bell rings -- day or night.

We put our first Halloween crabs in about six inches of water. Bad move. Don't do it.

Land Crabs. Halloween crabs do not live in the water. They live on land. However, they need access to water to keep their gills moist. You can give them a water dish or provide a 1/2 land, 1/2 water habitat. No strict rules on the fractions. But a body of water is easier to filter than a bowl of water. In the wild, they're also known to climb trees and eat leaves. This means they'd like something to climb on -- rocks, rough wood, plastic plants, or better yet a piece of cork bark.

The redder ones are likely males. The orange ones likely females.

Sexing. Male Halloween crabs tend to be a little brighter (in color, not necessarily I.Q.). Males tend towards the red spectrum. Females tend toward the orange. The best way to sex them tho is to turn them over and discreetly examine their abdomens -- an easier said than done task.

Hefty size blue moon crab also known as the Halloween crab. Probable male.

Slightly smaller blue moon crab. Probable female.

The redder one.

The lighter colored one. They are darned hard to hold.

Sexing II. Both Halloween crabs looked about the same underneath. No good way to tell sexes. Of course, it's a moot point. Females release their half-zillion eggs into the foamy brine where they float in the planktonic soup and go thru a variety of instars which eventually turn into Halloween crabs. The ocean is tough to duplicate in your own home. You won't breed them

Home sweet crabitat.

Basic Container. Here we see a 10-gallon tank skillfully converted into a luxurious Halloween crabitat. They have land, filtered water, and a bit more land plus two pre-fab burrows (which may be a smidge small). You may want to add a food dish to help control food fights. I just gave them each a deceased goldfish to keep it simple. If you give them an occasional fish (any species), they shouldn't need a calcium supplement. Ditto commercial crab foods which will require a food dish.

Giving the pre-fab burrow a quick once over.

Two Halloween crabs crammed into their pre-fab burrows.

Last Word. Personally, I preferred the smaller Halloween crabs. They were cuter. However, these big guys are cute, too. But they are nearly impossible to pick up. As an accredited crab wrangler, I can certify to that. When you try to grab them, they're trying even harder to grab you. Anyway, I'm glad to see them again.

Some Videos :

Halloween Moon Crab Setup.

Halloween Moon Crabs

- Cardisoma :

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cardisoma is a genus of large land crabs. Three species formerly placed in this genus are now placed in Discoplax.[1] The four species that remain in Cardisoma are found in warm coastal regions where they live in burrows. Young individuals are often very colourful with a purple-blue carapace and orange-red legs (leading to a level of popularity in the pet trade), but as they grow older the colours tend to fade, and females may be duller than males. Although less extreme than in fiddler crabs, one claw is usually considerably larger than the other. They are omnivores, but primarily feed on plant material.[2]

Species:

The genus Cardisoma comprises these four species:

Cardisoma armatum Herklots, 1851 – (African) rainbow crab, (Nigerian) moon crab or patriot crab: found in east Atlantic coastal regions
Cardisoma carnifex (Herbst, 1794) – red-claw crab: found in Indo-Pacific coastal regions
Cardisoma crassum Smith, 1870 – mouthless crab: found in east Pacific coastal regions
Cardisoma guanhumi Latreille, 1825 – blue land crab or giant land crab: found in west Atlantic coastal regions

Cardisoma

Scientific classification :

Kingdom : Animalia

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Crustacea

Class : Malacostraca

Order : Decapoda

Infraorder : Brachyura

Family : Gecarcinidae

Genus : Cardisoma

Type species

Cardisoma guanhumi
Latreille, 1828

Latreille, 1828

Cardisoma carnifex

For refrences and external links click to read the original article on Wikipedia

Cardisoma guanhumi

Cardisoma need an Aqua - terrarium or Paludarium for more information click here to read the Paludarium section in this Website ..

Discoplax magna

Orange-legged crab

A revision of the D. hirtipes species-group using morphological and genetic data shows that the species can be divided into three distinct species; with the Indian Ocean population belonging to an undescribed taxon.

The examination of the taxa in the species-group has led carcinologists to formally describe the former “Discoplax aff. hirtipes” as a new species which they have named Discoplax magna.

Large crab up to 90mm wide carapace. Easily distinguished from blue crabs by their bright reddish-orange to cinnabar red claws with white fingers and purplish-brown to dark violet-black carapace. Legs vary from light orange brown to cinnabar red; are covered with short thick hairs. Juveniles carapaces are more bluish-violet and more angular and have lighter reddish-orange claws and legs.

Usually found in drier karstic habitats, often far from surface water or seepages, and their burrows are often dug next to rocks. On Christmas Island has been found at Waterfall Bay, Dolly Beach track and at The Dales within blue crab colonies.

- Gecarcoidea lalandii :

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gecarcoidea lalandii is a large species of terrestrial crab. It is dark purple in colour. It has long legs and short pincers. It is nocturnal, and spends most of the day hiding in burrows. Compared to the related G. natalis, G. lalandii is relatively widespread, being found in the Indo-Pacific from the Andaman Islands and eastwards.[1] Adults mainly occur in forest, but can sometimes be found in more open habitats.[1] When carrying eggs, females migrate to the coast, where they release the eggs in the tidal zone.[1] Small adults sometimes fall prey to the crab Geograpsus crinipes.[1]