Help Me, info on Red claw crabs

Hello all! I currently work at a PetSmart and am knowledgeable about small animals and reptiles, and know more than most people about fish and water quality, etc. But I find the biggest problem I encounter is stocking issues. There are various guides out there that have minimum tank suggestions, but I feel this in incomplete as it doesn't take into account if the fish are schooling, aggressive, should be kept in pairs, or the foot print of the tank. I'm hoping to go through the list of fish we sell at work so I can learn more about recommended stocking options and any extra info to know about each species.

So, for the first Fish Of The Week we have:

Red Claw Crabs!
I would like to know some basic info like including:
How many should be kept in a tank?
Recommended tank size? 15 gal minimum with plenty of space to come out of water, like a paludarium.
Life expectancy?
Fresh or Brackish? They live in places where salt meets fresh water, so I would expect brackish? Salinity around 1.005, heated.
Temperament (Community, aggressive) Only 1 male per tank, can potentially be housed with brackish water, non-bottom dwelling fish, like Mollies, since the crabs will hunt fish.
Substrate? Since they are from beachy areas, sand is ideal.
Max size? 4 inches.

I've included in green the info I have found and would love for someone to add personal experiences or refute or corroborate my info! Thanks so much and excited to learn!

 

Nice to see that employees are trying to get educated! For me I always tell people not all pet/fish stores are bad and it depends on the employee. So you're on a good start knowing different factors that decides one's stock. The most reliable websites is Fishbase,se and Seriously Fish. For catfish specific, planetcatfish is a good place! I suggest that you search up all of the fish in the store using these websites. However you might want to start with the popular fish or fish that most people go to.

Another great way to learn about different stockings is to go on the stocking page on this forums and look at the different threads! Overtime after reading a lot of stocking threads you will be accustomed to different combinations of fish and learn how to stock! I didn't know how to stock when I cam here but after learning from different people I am not pretty confident on stocking however I'm more in the smaller fish area don't really know much about the bigger fishes like JDs, severums, and other fish.

As for the Red Claw crab I would say 20 gallon is minimum especially if you want other organisms. Also a 20 gallon is more common than 15 gallon. A 10 is the minimum if you just want a species only. The tank mates would be other fish able to live in brackish water however if you do mollies your gonna want a 29 gallon tank since mollies have high bio-loads. You can do freshwater but I believe this will shorten there lifespan drastically, brackishwater is best. A paludarium is best or at least have some land area since these go between land and water. With these crabs you only want to have 1 male. You want a 1:2 m/f ratio. A 20 gallon can do 1:3. If you want 2 males than you will have to do 2:4-6 however I suggest getting a 40 breeder.

 

Thank you for all the help and info! I'm much too passionate about animals to be working in the environment I work in, but it's the only way I can help change things right now. So I do what I can. I like to keep a little list of ways I helped an animal everyday. Like today I got a betta to have a filter and they also purchased BB to start a fish-in cycle. So it's the little things. Improving one life at a time for now and hoping to create a way to help educate my co-workers. The other day she sold a Red Claw Crab to a family with a 5 gal tank, common pleco, and 1 neon tetra. I then got in trouble for stepping in and convincing them to at least get more neon's to fix one problem. Anyway, I'm hoping to learn more every day and will definitely take a look at more stocking threads. Many thanks!

 

Ask any question and I will help you out!

Also not sure if you know but even when you buy a bottle of BB it takes 2 weeks to cycle the tank. You also need a source of ammonia (pellets not flakes) to help feed the BB otherwise you would waste your money.

 

Yeah, I told them not to put the BB until they got their new betta. I figured doing a fish-in cycle with BB is better than them just not getting anything and letting the poor fish sit in his own ammonia for a month or two.

 

Yep! Good thing you know! Its actually doable to have fish in an uncycled aquarium as long as you add a bottle of BB that way at least some of the ammonia will be eaten

 

I personally wouldn't recommend keeping red claw crabs with any fish, even top dwelling ones will be caught by them. All predatory crayfish/crabs are very opportunistic.

 

Thanks for the info, Anders247!