Alright /an/, I have woken up today and I have deicded that in a year I want a pet crab. Crabs were a young autistic obsession of mine when I was kid and I want to channel my inner child again.

I already look after a terrestial frog in a 3 foot vivarium and have an adaptable heating and UV system in place which I can expand to regulate a second tank independently. The only catch is I know jack about crabs and don't know any aquatic stores near by. So I was wondering if there was any autists who could give me some advice on setups or picking out species. I am looking at ideally terrestial crabs (as that is what I am used to) available in bongland and I don't want to pull teeth out trying to learn or setup a salt/freshwater tank. I would also like long lived and/or big species to care for, but I have heard that there are some species that can form colonies and replenish numbers which I would be willing to go with as well. I am not too bothered about them being interactive or tame as long as I can see them feed or ruminate in some corner. I have no budget so nothing is too expensive and I seldom go on holiday or away from my house so I can do regular maintenance if necessary.

>>5009026 (OP)
Heya anon! I hope I can give you some advices. This sadly are purely speculative since I haven't owned a crab, but from what I do know is that Halloween crabs and vampire crabs are the most common crabs to keep as pet. Next to hermits sure, but hermits are supposed to be a pain to care for (but crustaceans in captivity tend to be hard to take care)

>>5009103
>hermits are supposed to be a pain to care for
Yeah I intially considered them until I did some reading into their care requirements and how a lot of the same people who did guides for hermits quit due to how high maintanence they are. But halloweens and vampires do seem to be a lot more acessible over here but I think I would have to look at doing a colony due their 2 year lifespan

>>5009026 (OP)
>. I am looking at ideally terrestial crabs (as that is what I am used to) available in bongland and I don't want to pull teeth out trying to learn or setup a salt/freshwater tank
terrestrial are typically tropical species, so youre kinda fucked in bongland, anything else requires an aquarium setup and you can only have 1 because they will kill each other if theyre in the same enclosure. your only other option is hermit crabs, problem is you need several, because they are social animal, but you have to be careful, because they will cannibalize each other during molts; they will also just die inexplicably, possibly from stress, but no one really knows exactly why, or theyll live for like 20 years, so just be aware some will die under your care; you also need a saltwater and freshwater source, and the enclosure has to be kind big because they climb apparently.
what im saying is, you need to sit down and research this, crab central station on youtube has a bunch of videos on caring for them, i think theyre the only ones documenting actual care procedure, rather than whatever the fuck has been going on for the past 30 years where the common perception of them is goldfish in bowl tier

>>5009159
lol remember when some guy called this an ai generated image

>>5009159
>what im saying is, you need to sit down and research this, crab central station on youtube has a bunch of videos on caring for them, i think theyre the only ones documenting actual care procedure
Thanks, this is the problem I am running into when it comes to finding a generalised overview of crab care. It does seem like my only real options so far are hermits, moons and vampires as I can buy all 3 of them at aquatic outlets. It seems like I can either go for hermits, spend a lot of money on aquatics and play roulette on whether they make it to double or single digit lifespan or go with vampires and accept that it will be an endless cycle of violence and cannibalism every two years if I pay a lot of money to make a completely bioactive paludarium to sustain a colony. Moons seem to be the better of both worlds with a lifespan of 10 years but from what I have seen so far they spend a good deal of their time completely buried in substrate.

>>5009026 (OP)
I haven't kept them before but Vampire Crabs are really easy freshwater crabs that spend the majority of their time on land. You can get away with providing a (large) water dish since they only need it for moulting and breeding but if you have a decent area they will forage and scavenge in there. Standard terrarium set up, they obviously need high humidity and they like to climb, most people recommend putting a little bit of effort in and doing a proper paludarium and then you'll see more natural behaviours. They will eat floating plants and mosses if you let them. There's a million channels on youtube that can show you how to do it for dirt cheap. In terms of getting a hold of them in the UK a lot of places sell them fairly cheap, they're actually on a site I've used for ordering before: https://www.tropco.co.uk/-p-3181.html though I don't think this is a "true" vampire crab as I think those are Geosesarma Dennerle.

>>5009172
>You can get away with providing a (large) water dish since they only need it for moulting and breeding but if you have a decent area they will forage and scavenge in there
Sounds a bit like my current setup with my frog. If that is their essential setup for a water source I think I will be able to keep up as I already know how sort out humidity and temps for vivariums.
>people recommend putting a little bit of effort in and doing a proper paludarium and then you'll see more natural behaviours. They will eat floating plants and mosses if you let them
To be fair that does sound quite cool. I will try to have a look at paludarium water management and feasibility with my current setup, but as long as it is not as complex as trying to regulate a fish tank I think I can pull it off.
>In terms of getting a hold of them in the UK a lot of places sell them fairly cheap, they're actually on a site I've used for ordering before: https://www.tropco.co.uk/-p-3181.html though I don't think this is a "true" vampire crab as I think those are Geosesarma Dennerle.
That's not a bad price compared to some of the other listings I have found so far. Nice colouration too!

>>5009180
If you go with a bit more water and floating plants you probably won't run into any issues since they'll help regulate the water quality, but you will have to do occasional changes. If you get a small enclosure you won't need to worry about a pump and you can just do water changes every couple of weeks, but if you want another big 3ft thing you should look into false bottoms and get a pump.

>>5009162
I remember that lol, tried so hard I couldn't even know if they were baiting or not. I
Nonetheless it was very retarded.

Also good luck op! If you decide for a species don't forget to post it here! I would personally love to see it

>>5009170
coomer crab

>>5009026 (OP)
I have had a paludarium with Vampire Crabs for five years now, and it's great. They're fairly shy, but I love to observe them. Started with three pairs, and I didn't expect much in terms of reproduction, but I get lots of tiny babies every now and again. Very few survive, but some make it. No clue how many are in the tank now, it is impossible to keep track of. There's occasionally violence and missing limbs, but they regrow. There's a poor guy in the tank right now with three legs and one claw left, hope he makes it.

I keep them in a lamp-heated bioactive tank with springtails. The crabs wiped out the isopods I put in within weeks. Vampires need a lot of soil to burrow into for shelter, and will wreck the roots of plants, but they like coverage. Make sure to put in some good hiding spots, like driftwood, and a good water source that they can fully submerge themselves into. Other than that, not too hard to care for, and very amusing.

I only feel a bit of regret getting them because I learned that the wild populations are suffering from overcollecting because of the trade, because apparently they're difficult to breed in captivity in large enough quantities. I don't know, plenty of offspring in my tank, but I'm not interested in selling. I sometimes wonder if inbreeding will become a problem though...

>>5009277
Thanks crabanon!

>>5009296
Its relieving to hear someone else who has had success with them. Shame about the isopods though, would be cool to have an all in one complex ecosystem with springs, powders and the crabs themselves. What size tank and fauna do you use? I heard ferns are good but they apparently only have a temp tolerance of 24°C and with the setups I am currently looking at the temp ranges are just below 27°C

>>5009489
The tank is 80x40x50 cm. I tried white tropical isopods (Trichorhina tomentosa), but they didn't stand a chance, even though they were established in the tanks well before the crabs went in. For plants, I currently have some sort of Philodendron, which covers a lot of area, and a few patches of moss. I've tried others as well, including ferns, but the crabs disturb the soil so much they all withered. Every two years or so I have to dig up the soil and add some fresh material to keep it from compacting too much. 27 degrees is perfect, they are definitely more active at those temperatures. At night I let it drop to 18/19 (room temp) when the lights are off, and it doesn't seem to bother them, they just get slower.

>>5009509
An 80 is definitely manageble as I have space for three 3ft tanks, I assume you're using glass and stuff like pillow moss? Also do you do anything with the babies or do you just let them naturally grow in the tank and replace the adults? Will vampires naturally eat dead vampires or do you need to fish them out and chuck them? There seems to be a lot of stuff online about having to seperate the adults from the babies but I ideally want to be hands off if I can