# Anyone else keep crabs? (I have questions regarding feeding and housing)



## RussianRoulette (Aug 31, 2014)

Specifically rainbow crabs, although I'd appreciate input from any former, current or potential crab keepers and enthusiasts.

I've recently a acquired a rainbow crab to my menagerie and he's settling in nicely. 
I did a fair amount of reading before getting him on forums and care sheets but there seems to be limited resources on the subject and personal experience really is invaluable so if you could share yours that would help a lot.

Is there anything in the meat, fish, veg, fruit catagories that is toxic or should be avoided for other reasons? (please state reasons if possible)

How often do you feed your crabs?

How much do you feed them?

How often do you change the water and do you just change a percentage or all of it? 

Do you keep your crab in salt water or freshwater?

Have you set your crab up with a UV light?

What land have you provided (rocks, sand, branches etc)?



Thanks for reading, they are all the questions I can think of right now. I'll post a pic of the little guy later.


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## (r.t) (Aug 31, 2014)

Well sorry to say I don't keep crabs and doesn't know anyone that doese, I can just offer you some help in reaserching and see if I find out anything.


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## CourtneyG (Aug 31, 2014)

My Halloween lives in a small tank that only has room for his one fresh water bowl. The other side is decorated with things for him to climb on. He gets a mix of hermit crab food and fruit and a cuttle fish bone. About every other week he gets a salt spray down. His medium is coconut coir and bark. His fresh water bowl gets changed daily and I leave him his food till the left over gets moldy (which is quick since humidity in his tank is high. He gets natural sun from my window that I open for him. For toxic things I cannot offer any advice on that.


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## RussianRoulette (Sep 1, 2014)

Thanks for the replies it seems they are very versatile creatures and I haven't yet found a uniform way to keep them, so at least I'm not doing anything wrong! 
Mines set up in a tank with about 3" of water and plenty of rocks and a turtle dock to lounge around on. 
He seems to spend most of his time out of the water though so I'm thinking of changing it to a tank of sand with a water bowl.
I also leave his food in there until it starts to turn, so far he's mainly eaten shrimp and vegetables but my reason for asking about toxicity was I could just as easily give him a spoonful of my dinner meat/veg. 

What temperatures do you maintain? And how do you heat it?

I have a water heater set to 26 which works well for mine although I've heard of people using heat mats and bulbs too.


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## CourtneyG (Sep 2, 2014)

I am assuming your crab is a terrestrial species. If so they just need enough water that they can go soak in and wet their gills. You should leave a small fresh water pond for him or her and also give a salt water bowl as well to help with moulting. For heating the ambient temp of the room he stays in is high 70s to low 80s, he lives in the same room as all the other reptiles. Also for the most part I have been told you can just give him the scraps off your plate as well and it has no negative effect. My fella loves fruit more than anything else.


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