Monday, August 17, 2009

Aquarium Crabs


Crabs can be an excellent addition to your home aquarium. They can be very entertaining pets, as well as great scavengers that can help to clean out uneaten food from your aquarium. Crabs will feed off of dead and dying organic matter, such as leftover food and dying plants in the aquarium. Some people just like to keep crabs in the aquarium because of their unique looks and the way they interact with the other aquarium inhabitants. In this article I will be going over a few of the things you will need to consider when keeping your own crabs in your aquarium.

Crabs come in many different shapes and sizes and certain crabs are suited for certain aquarium types. Make sure you do plenty of research when picking out the proper crabs for your aquarium. Some crabs can actually attack and eat some of the smaller fish in the aquarium, so make sure you do your homework before you make a costly mistake. As long as you pick your fish and crab species wisely you should have no problem at all when housing them together. Crabs are also sometimes escape artists, so make sure that you provide secure housing so you do not have a loose crab running around the house!

After you pick out the right crab for your aquarium, you will have to begin the acclimation process which I will go into detail about here. For this process you will need the following tools; a net, a plastic container, an empty clean bucket, a bucket of water the same condition and temperature as the aquarium water, and a thermometer. Also the lights in the room should be dimmed, and aquarium lighting cut out all together.

1. Gently open the bag and place the invertebrate into the empty bucket with the water from its shipping container.
2. Add a cup of aquarium water into the bucket.
3. Repeat step 2 for 45 minutes at 5 minute intervals.
4. Carefully remove the invertebrate from the bucket and place them into the aquarium. Making sure to place your new pet near the hiding places in the aquarium.
5. Remove the water from the placement bucket
6. Fill in any misplaced water in your aquarium with your conditioned water.
7. Keep aquarium lighting and room lights dim for at least 12 hours.

After you acclimate your new crabs to the aquarium, you can start to enjoy all that they offer to your aquarium dynamic. Most crabs are generally easy to care for and are low maintenance. You can supplement your crabs diet with bloodworms and brine shrimp. Owning crabs can be a wonderful thing as long as you know how to properly care for them. If you have any more questions that I did not cover in this article, the web is a great tool for research. If you are still having problems finding the answers, you can always speak to a helpful customer service representative to answer any more questions you have.

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