Red Claw Crab Question

[BloodySloth]

Hi, I'm the new owner of a red claw crab tank (as of today), and I just noticed that one of the crabs isn't using a leg; it's just curled up by his side. Is this a bad sign? Will it lose this leg when it molts, or is it indicative of some kind of disease? Thanks in advance for the help.

[Metageologist]

if the leg falls off shortly its a sighn of a disease i cant recal the name of it now but it will cause you rcrab to loose body parts, Red claws are very prown to this and i know of no cure. the only up side is that it does not affect fish to my knowledge.

[BloodySloth]

Are you serious? Is this going to kill both of the crabs?

[Fishalicious]

Not sure about a disease... many crabs lose limbs and regrow them after moulting...or before moulting lose the use of a limb. Their 'jackets' are getting too small....if it does lose it's whole limb it will regrow after 2-3 moults and be perfect again ;)

Make sure they have some land area and feed algae tablets which contain iodine which helps with the moulting process.

[BloodySloth]

I've heard of them losing a leg; it's almost more worrying that he still has the leg, but it isn't doing anything. He's physically fine otherwise, and is actually the most active out of the two crabs I bought.

They have space to crawl up on land, but I hadn't heard about the algae tablets. Thanks.

Another question: I'm having a hard time finding a good food for these guys. I found a nice amphibian pellet food that sinks, and they eat it up, but it leaves my water a little cloudy and the pellets often sink in between the pebbles I'm using as substrate (I would use sand, but my in-tank filter doesn't agree with it). I know they can pretty much eat anything you give them, but are there any recommendations?

[Fishalicious]

If you don't feed algae tablets which contain Iodine it is also a great idea to add Iodine & Calcium to the water ...it is usually only a few drops and you can get it in the marine sections at the LFS.

Foodwise they eat decaying vegetable matter in the wild... I fed mine leftovers from the dinner plate...peas, cucumber, zuchinni etc. they will pretty much eat any veg. They also love shrimp pellets and will scavenge around for them all day long or corydoras tabs/pleco tabs. Now and again they also like some protein so maybe once a week some bloodworms and they will be very happy crabs :hmm3grin2orange:

Crabs have a defensive mechanism where they can losen/lose one of their limbs to avoid capture or getting stuck...could be his leg just got a knock... I wouldn't worry about it at the moment or at least until he has moulted...after moulting he might just be all fine again.

[BloodySloth]

So should I not worry about the pellets getting stuck under rocks? It's great to watch them dig up rocks to get at the food, but the water getting a little cloudy is kind of irritating, and I worry about them not eating enough.

Speaking of which, because of their foraging eating behavior, how do I know how much to feed them? They seem to leave the food alone for a while, and then come back to eat it later, once it's settled and has spread throughout the entire tank :p I suppose for the vegetables, it'd be good just to leave them on dry land and let them crawl out to eat?

I've asked a lot more questions than I originally intended. Thanks for the help.