Red claw crab mating with Fiddler?

[Otto_VonBacon]

I've had both red claws and fiddlers in my tank for quite awhile now, but as i was watching my fiddler crab doing his mating dance, my female red claw crab ran up to him and tried to mount(?)(lack of a better word)

I've seen my fiddlers mate before, this was just kind of odd.

The male kind of just pushed her away with his big claw and continued dancing.

Is this normal?

 

[confused1]

I don't know about normal. But I have a red claw female full of eggs, and the only other crab in the tank is a fiddler. Uhhhhh.........

Yeah. Can we say fun. Hmmm...... so which species instructions should I go for when trying to rear the pups???

 

[TroutFarmerGal]

I've read that Fiddler crabs are practically impossible to breed in captivity because out in the wild the eggs are swept out to sea. Not exactly easy to mimic in an aquarium... If I am mistaken, lemme know! I just set up my 10 gal with a Fiddler pair and love watching their behaviours

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

Huge bump but ya, I read the same thing about the time this happened. I no longer have ether crab now. I read if you want to do you need things like wave makers and whatnot, and I'd imagine you'd need a large tank.

 

[confused1]

I am not even sure the eggs will be viable. I talked to a few of my friends (one a PhD who teaches genetics) and they are theorizing that the offspring will be incapable of maturing (either not hatch, or not pass the larval stage), or will be sterile. We are all watching to see what happens. If they hatch I can likely use the setup in our marine biologist's lab on campus to see if we can raise them. But the hatching part is a big if. The water is a low brackish, and there is plenty of land for them, but no burrow (which I understand is big for the male fiddler's mating behavior. I wonder if the eggs are even really fertilized. I will keep you all updated on the outcome. This could get real interesting.

 

[confused1]

Well, the eggs disintegrated. BTW they are only in about 3 gallons of water. Its mostly a terrarium setup. They seem to enjoy it though. Like wandering through the baby bonsai forest. Anyway, just thought I'd post the update. Both adult crabs are fine, just no young. Which at the moment is quite fine by me. I have about 80 zebra fry and a gravid clown pleco to deal with. Must be something in the water..... O yeah - Fish!

 

[confused1]

Just FYI for anyone who decides to do a terrarium setup with small plants and these crabs. Once the crabs got comfortable they had a nasty habit of cutting plants down. They did not eat them, they just cut them down.

 

[Burrilliant]

I was hoping to hear good things as I have both the a male fiddler and female red crab. In comparison with how awesome Tarzan, the male is, Ninja, the female, is the complete opposite. She is so skiddish, she somehow manages to climb up to the heater magically only when we're asleep and hang out there for ever. Should they ever have children, I hope they get their fathers favorable disposition. I find the red crab also eats all my plants while the fiddler isn't too concerned with anything but chasing shrimp and doing his sexy dance.