What do fiddler crabs eat

While these pets are quite hardy, they do require some unique conditions in order to thrive in captivity. To make things easy, we made sure to cover all the essentials of Fiddler Crab care in this guide.

These small crustaceans are energetic creatures with unique habitat needs. They all belong to the Ocypodidae family and have similar needs. Fiddler Crabs come from coastal regions all around the world. Many of the crabs in the pet trade today come from Florida, where they inhabit shores, lagoons, and swamps. You can usually find the crabs hiding in burrows along the shoreline or scavenging for food beneath the tide.

In captivity, Fiddler Crabs are very hardy and easy to care for. They make great pets for those wanting something a bit sturdy out of the box. The average Fiddler Crab lifespan is between two and three years in captivity.

Despite their hardy nature, Fiddler Crabs are not immune to health problems. In a poorly maintained environment, these crustaceans can suffer and die prematurely.

There are many different kinds of Fiddler Crabs out there. They come in a wide range of colors and a handful have unique patterns that help them stand out even more!

That said, all Fiddler Crabs have the same basic appearance. These crabs are decapods. They have ten feet that help them make their way through the land and swim in the water. The most identifiable feet are going to be their two front claws. The females have two small claws. However, the males have one massive claw. For most specimens, the large claw is significantly bigger than their entire body! Author Note: These massive claws have a number of interesting uses.

Fiddler Crabs use them for self-defense and communication more on that later. Beyond their signature claw, Fiddler Crabs have stalked eyes and a pair of antennae. Most Fiddler Crab species also have a beak-like structure on the from of their shell called the rostrum. The average size of a Fiddler Crab is only about 2 inches wide. These are very small crustaceans! Fiddler Crab care is quite easy compared to a lot of other invertebrates out there.

These critters adapt well to life in captivity and can stay pretty healthy in most situations. Of course, you still need to address their core needs! These creatures are unique and require a very specific environment if you want them to truly thrive which should be your goal with any pet. A group of up to four crabs can live very comfortably in a simple gallon aquarium. A standard aquarium will do just fine. Just make sure it has a stable lid! A mesh top is best, as it will provide ample air circulation throughout the habitat.

Author Note: If you want to keep a larger group, provide about five extra gallons for each additional crab. For many owners, this can be one of the trickier parts of Fiddler Crab care. Fact : Some Fiddler species have modified mouthparts that allow them to feed on the sand. They possess specialized setae that scrape off the organic material so that the sand particles are discarded before the organic material is passed to the buccal cavity.

Therefore, crabs that feed on sand consume fewer indigestible particles than crabs that feed on mud. Fiddler crabs are not fully aquatic, they require an enclosure that offers both water and dry land.

The best setup for their needs is a paludarium tank. A paludarium is an aquarium that has one half designated to dry land, which slopes gradually into a water-filled area and resembles a shoreline in appearance.

When done properly a Fiddler crab may also be housed in a fully aquatic tank that has a floating land area, with a dry substrate where the crab can exit the water. A partially filled aquarium with large rocks above the water level can also be used.

These kinds of setups need to be done carefully to ensure the crab has easy access to the dock, but can not escape the enclosure. Because of this, a paludarium is the best choice. Note : Fiddler crabs are more than capable escape artists. They will use cables, tubes, or other items that go in and out of the tank to climb out and escape. In their natural habitat fiddler crabs burrow into mud and sand along the shoreline. Sand is the most popular substrate choice. Ideally, Fiddler crabs need a substrate that is deep enough to allow them to burrow, while at the same time providing a gradual transition into the water portion of the tank to allow easy access to both sections.

Small gravel can be used as well, as long as you provide sandy burrowing areas. Fiddler crabs, like all crabs, enjoy having a safe place to hide during their molting periods and reproduction. You should provide a few hiding places for your fiddler crabs.

In general, their length was about 10 — 20 cm 4 — 8 inches. Keep it in mind when you decide to provide them with some. In the wild, Burrows did not necessarily contain standing water but were usually only damp at low tides.

Fiddler crabs return to them every 10 to 30 minutes during feeding to renew the respiratory water lost. Unfortunately, there is an extremely high chance that Fiddler crabs will damage your live plants. They are not plant safe. Most Fiddler crabs in the pet trade come from brackish swamps with low salinity levels, because of this some pet stores mislabel them as freshwater crabs. Fiddler crabs can live in water with a low salinity level, but they can not survive in freshwater for a long time.

They are not freshwater crabs. I would advise using Instant ocean marine salt link to check the price on Amazon for brackish setup. Note : Chlorine is dangerous to Fiddler crabs, so it is important to dechlorinate any water before it is added to the tank.

When finished your tank should meet these requirements:. Salinity level between 1. Adequate aeration from an air pump, or filter outlet. Although Fiddler crabs can osmoregulate powerfully over a wide salinity range. They do not like the high level of salinity.

In the wild, when salinities are extreme, they go underground and seal their burrows. Note : Sponge and Hang on Back Filters do not work well with lowered water levels. Keeping Fiddler crabs with other creatures can be difficult due to their semi-terrestrial needs, but it can be done.

Whenever you keep a community tank, it is important to ensure the needs of all included species are fully met. In the case of Fiddler crabs, any tankmates must be saltwater animals that can survive in the lower salinity levels of brackish water. For example, Neon Tetras, Guppies, Mollies, etc. Fiddler crabs are small, so keep this in mind when choosing tank mates, larger predators may decide to snack on it.

In contrast, smaller fish may be harassed and even killed by the crabs, so the options are limited. Basically , keeping fish, snails, and shrimp with Fiddler crabs can really be a game of chance, so it is not recommended unless you are prepared to potentially lose some fish, snail, shrimp or a crab.

Do not keep them with other crab species. For example, even Red claw crabs In the wild, they live side-by-side are more likely to win disputes against Fiddler crabs and harass them. However, they can easily be kept in small groups of their own species. It is recommended that you keep this group as a harem, one male will multiple females, as males will fight. For each additional crab after 4, add gallons of space. Fiddler crab mating is an interesting ordeal.

First of all, these species show two types of mating behavior in sex-mixed colonies. In both cases, males initiate the pairing by waving their large claw to attract females. A male courts a nearby female, usually the nearest one. The male leaves his burrow and approaches the female.

A burrow holding male induces a wandering female into his burrow. If a female is ready to mate she will choose one of the waving males. In case the mating is not successful, the female will emerge from the burrow in a few moments and continue wandering.

If it is successful she will not emerge, but the male will come out after about 5 minutes and begins to gather up sand to block the entrance to his den. He barricades his den from the inside and seals him and the female inside, where they continue to mate up to a few days. Each male consistently courted females within 1.

Now it is obvious why it is a bad idea to keep several males in one tank. After underground mating, the male will leave the den and make, or fight for another one. The female stays underground for about two weeks days , while she incubates her eggs. The eggs must be kept moist before they are released into the water. Like with shrimp, the clutch size of Fiddler crabs significantly increases with female size.

From a few hundred eggs to several thousand. After the incubation period, the female will enter the water and release her eggs, the larvae will hatch immediately. The larvae are called zoea and the closely resemble water fleas. They are free swimmers, they survive on rotifers and freshly hatched brine shrimp nauplii. After three or so molting periods, into different stages of zoea, the baby crabs will molt into their final larva state.

This stage is called megalopa and is similar to a crayfish in appearance. They are still free swimming at this stage but tend to settle. After a final molt, the young crabs finally look like their parents and they start the typical fiddler crab lifestyle. Important : Rearing of Fiddler crab larvae is only possible in marine water. However, in the wild, breeding periods are not coincident with the wettest times of the year, but with the months following these times.

Furthermore, this coincided with the beginning of the growth of new cohorts. This breeding pattern may reflect adaptation to reduce mortality on the larvae or juveniles caused by a decrease in creek salinity.

Fiddler crabs are semi-terrestrial organisms and require land to survive and feed. Fiddler crabs vary in color from tan to brown. Sand fiddler crabs are lighter than the other two species. Males have one enlarged claw that can grow to 1.

The carapace shell is squared with rounded rear edges. Male marsh fiddler crabs have a royal blue spot on the center of the carapace, while male sand fiddler crabs have a blue or purplish carapace. Carapace varies in size from less than an inch wide to 1.

The marsh fiddler crab is the smallest fiddler crab in the Bay region and the red-jointed fiddler crab is the largest. Fiddler crabs have four pairs of walking legs. Fiddler crabs eat algae, bacteria and decaying marsh plants.

They feed by sifting through sand or mud for food particles. They often eat in a puddle of water to help separate food from sand. Females have an advantage over males for finding and eating food because both their claws are small. Fiddler crabs mate every two weeks in summer.