Attempted Murder!! mudskipper vs fiddler crab
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:33 am
When we bought our fiddler crabs about 6 months ago we had 2 Periophthalmus barbarus mudskippers and we asked our lfs brackish expert whether they would be compatible, of course he said yes and we stupidly thought that it might work out.
We had previously bought another tank so that we could split the mudskippers up because the dominant one kept the other one under the water so when we got the crabs home we put them in with the more docile skipper and everything has been great. Until now!
The crabs have always been visible and have often rested right next to the mudskipper but they went into hiding last week and last night we found out why. The female crab came out for some food and was immediately set upon, she lost 3 legs and an eye in the time it took to rush over and scare the skipper away - literally a second!
We can't get to the lfs to return the crabs until the weekend so now the 2 mudskippers are back together and the crabs are on their own. I'm hoping that the skippers don't murder each other before we get to take the crabs back!!
It's such a shame because i really like the crabs rummaging around and watching the big male waving trying to impress the female with his big claw! The girlfriend has refused point blank to return the offender (her favourite mudskipper) - good old British justice i suppose - the victim gets evicted!
We had previously bought another tank so that we could split the mudskippers up because the dominant one kept the other one under the water so when we got the crabs home we put them in with the more docile skipper and everything has been great. Until now!
The crabs have always been visible and have often rested right next to the mudskipper but they went into hiding last week and last night we found out why. The female crab came out for some food and was immediately set upon, she lost 3 legs and an eye in the time it took to rush over and scare the skipper away - literally a second!
We can't get to the lfs to return the crabs until the weekend so now the 2 mudskippers are back together and the crabs are on their own. I'm hoping that the skippers don't murder each other before we get to take the crabs back!!
It's such a shame because i really like the crabs rummaging around and watching the big male waving trying to impress the female with his big claw! The girlfriend has refused point blank to return the offender (her favourite mudskipper) - good old British justice i suppose - the victim gets evicted!