keeping crabs alive?

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#1 Post by **nialler** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:54 pm

just wondering lads if there is any way i can keep peeler crabs and other crab species alive for anything up to a week? i have a tank, and a small aerator and i can get sand and saltwater... does anyone have any opinion or advice on this? id also be interested in trying the same with rag and lug

#2 Post by **eric** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:31 pm

should be fine, but i would invest in a powerful filter as crabs are messy creatures. don't keep to many as saltwater species require lost of oxygen, id say 1 crab to 10 litres of water.

#3 Post by **boycie89** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:46 pm

you dont need to keep crab in salt water !!!! if you leave them in water too long it will kill them !!! i keep them in damp paper and cardboard box's in the fridge !!! i have kept crab like this for more than 3 months ! hope it helps ,
BOYCIE.

#4 Post by **Tom Maher** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:34 pm

Fridge.
But dont set it too cold.

#5 Post by **scara** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:46 pm

Somebody posted this a couple of days ago.

[url]http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1133257144&channel=1126878784[/url]

A nice over view of peeler crabs.

#6 Post by **derek yeates** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:22 pm

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/keepi ... -crabs.php

#7 Post by **pete** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:38 pm

Just keep the lads damp and cold. They are hardy and'll keep for an age. Gathered a bucket of hardbacks this morning and have them in a bucket in the garage, covered with a tea towel that had been soaked in seawater.

Try to keep them somewhere dark or cover them with something as they tend to get highly stressed when left open to daylight, their natural inclination being to seek cover in such conditions.

#8 Post by **eric** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:02 pm

ive have two crabs in my cold salwater tank and their fine, its set up to look like a rock pool, and no i don't use them for bait. my tropical marine tank also has several crabs which peel every two months or so but their expensive . do you guys get your hardbacks to peel by storing them in the fridge?

#9 Post by **EoinMag** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:00 pm

Hey Gazo the best way to get them to peel is to take the box they're in out of the fridge and let it come up to room temp while you have also put fresh water in. The water needs to be about an inch or so deep so they can drink it and you'll see bubbles coming out of their mouth as they soak up water to pop the shell off.
I keep them in polystyrene boxes in a small bait fridge with seaweed and seawater and some news paper, but only with weed and water if I want poppers.
If I'm keeping them for longer then just damp newspaper in the polybox and cover them.

#10 Post by **paul mason** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:21 pm

have a look at these.

#11 Post by **nialler** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:15 am

great stuff, thanks lads