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GermanMusician
03-03-2008, 12:33 AM
Okay, so within the past 2 days or so, I have been having some strange problems with my fiddler crabs...

My first concern is the weird one... one of my females has been having issues with her shell... The underside of her "torso" (unless there is a better title) has detached from the rest of her body at the front, exposing something that looks to me like her "innards", for lack of a better word. They are a dark grey color, and they seem to move with what I would imagine to be her breathing.
Is this just a strange form of molting, or what? HELP!

The other problem isn't so weird, but... A long time ago, one of my males tore off the small claw of another male. He molted and grew back another small one, which fell off. I figured it just wasn't strong enough of a shell yet, and it would be fine with the next molt. Then, just yesterday, I came home to see that same crab's big arm on one end of the tank, with his dead body on the other end...

Now I've got two healthy males, two healthy females, and one female with some weird shell problem...

:help: :help: :help: :help:
Levi
03-03-2008, 12:42 AM
in smaller tanks, sometimes it's better to have only one male
GermanMusician
03-03-2008, 12:54 AM
I've actually got a 25-gallon tank... I originally made sure to have 2 females per male... and then when one female died, I went to petsmart for a new one, but the guy grabbed me a male because he couldn't tell the difference.:smad:

If you want to see my tank setup, find one of my other threads.
squirt_12
03-04-2008, 08:42 PM
well the females will flap that little piece of shell down to mate. So this soudns normal. Is it down all the time??
You should have more females than males. 1:2 ratio.
GermanMusician
03-05-2008, 01:14 AM
The shell has been down constantly for the past... 4-5 days.
squirt_12
03-05-2008, 04:26 PM
hmmm....do you see any eggs coming out yet?? If there are eggs...they will hatch but wont survive as they need natural stuff from the ocean to survive.

P.S.
When the eggs hatch they are larvae so you wont beable to see them.
GermanMusician
03-06-2008, 12:31 AM
To my knowledge, I haven't seen any eggs or anything.
squirt_12
03-06-2008, 12:32 AM
hmmm. This is really weird. Well if you do see eggs it looks like a brain coming out from underneath them.

When was the last time she molted??
GermanMusician
03-10-2008, 01:39 AM
Sorry for the delayed response...



I have not seen any other molts - just the one male.

it does look like there are brains sticking out underneath her... but doesn't it usually take her and a male 2 weeks burrowed together before the eggs will show? I haven't noticed this happening.
squirt_12
03-10-2008, 02:08 AM
Sorry for the delayed response...



I have not seen any other molts - just the one male.

it does look like there are brains sticking out underneath her... but doesn't it usually take her and a male 2 weeks burrowed together before the eggs will show? I haven't noticed this happening.
Yes they usually do burrow for 2 weeks and mate and then come out and she will release the eggs into the ocean and they hatch away and go through their larvae stages. BUT they can 'mate' without going into a burrow. The male will just mount the female and fertilize her right there. I have witnessed mine doing this. They just did it under the water.
These are eggs. The female will either eat the eggs OR they will hatch and die. There is no way that they can survive in a home aquarium because they need special 'stuff' from the ocean.

EDIT - congrats on the eggs btw.