The Puffer Forum

Just got these guys today, they seem to be doing pretty good so far.

Female

Male

Here's a video of the male waving his claw
http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f112/ ... 0_1827.flv
The males pretty funny, hes always waving his claw at me. And I think they were mating, I've caught them twice "hugging" face to face and the male was stroking the females head with his big claw. The first time I saw it I though they were fighting so I separated them, but none of them seemed harmed or scared of the other. The second time I saw it they eventually just walked away from each other. Does anyone know if this is indeed courting behaviour? That'd be cool if it was. I'm thinking maybe its because they were in FW in the store, and I acclimated them over 4 hours into BW (~1.004), which could have triggered the spawning.

nice! im thinking of setting up a tank for a couple of these, but i know that they need to come out of the water a lot.


fiddlers are brackish?????

Yea.. at least I think/hope so...

hmmmmm, I always thought they were FW....

Pretty much everywhere I've read has said BW. I have also read that there are many different species of fiddler crabs. Maybe some are FW.

All fiddlers are BW.

hmmm, thats interesting. i didnt know that.......

Right, if you don't keep them in BW they will fade away. Not immediately, but they will lose color, activity, and life in general over a period of 3-5 months and then will die a very slow death.

They positively need salt in their water. I believe that a lack of salt in their water also interferes with their molting.

OraLacerta wrote:Right, if you don't keep them in BW they will fade away. Not immediately, but they will lose color, activity, and life in general over a period of 3-5 months and then will die a very slow death.

They positively need salt in their water. I believe that a lack of salt in their water also interferes with their molting.

Ill have to clue in my LFS.....

OraLacerta wrote:Right, if you don't keep them in BW they will fade away. Not immediately, but they will lose color, activity, and life in general over a period of 3-5 months and then will die a very slow death.

Not exactly. Years before I had the common sense to know what brackish were I had a 20 gal long with 5 of these guys in there. HAd them in fresh water for about 2 and a half years... then the cheapo heater I had died out one winter and the water temp dropped from being in my basement which the heating vents are closed for the air to get to the rest of the house.

OraLacerta wrote: They positively need salt in their water. I believe that a lack of salt in their water also interferes with their molting.

The major thing that contributes to the molting of inverts is the 'iodine' levels in the water. Most fw/bw species do not need the higher levels of iodine as the marine/reef species do.

2 and a half years... from what I've read they dont live much longer than that. However I'm not sure how acurate that info is.

May have not been the heater then. But the lack of salt will not be a cause 'straight off' that would induce their premature death. Salt does help their systems, but naturally these little crabs are along the banks of fw and bw rivers/estuaries.