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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Help on Keeping Red Claw Crabs

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16 Nov 2007 23:02 #1 by harbo (Paul Harbison)
Hi,

I have 2 x Red Clawed Crabs in my tank. I have them about 2 - 3 weeks now and got a shock this evening when i arrived home. I could not find them anywhere in the tank, usually they hide under some bogwood or on top of the filter and even manage to get up near the light to dry off. Anyway I found what I thought was a dead one, but glad it turned out to be the old shell and the crab had molted, then I found a second shell. Both are very nervous as I believe they are vulnerable until their shell hardens. Usually the are quite visible.

My question is, should I be adding salt to the aquarium for these? will my other fish be O.K. with this? Other fish are Mollies, Lemon Tetras, Red Finned Shark. I think I should be adding salt for the Mollies anyway but I would be grateful if someone could advise if it's O.K. to do so and how much.

Thanks in advance.
Paul

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16 Nov 2007 23:39 #2 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:Help on Keeping Red Claw Crabs
Hi Paul,,
a bit of a mixture of fish and crabs you have there that really don't mix all that well. Mollies can deal with salt. You can actually keep them in salt water. But neither your lemon tetras neither your red finned shark will appreciate it.
Lemon Tetras only look their best in really soft water that has tannins in it. Lovely fish if kept properly.
The only tetra that I can think of that is regularly available in the shops that will tolerate salt is the Penguin tetra.
I have never kept red clawed crabs but plenty of shrimp. They will disappear out of sight after a molt until their new exoskeleton has hardened.
You don't mention your water parameters but if your water is quite hard I would imagine your crabs should be OK. However, from what I read, I can see problems in the future since red clawed crabs don't seem to be doing all that well in tanks containing fish .

Holger

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16 Nov 2007 23:50 - 16 Nov 2007 23:54 #3 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Hi Paul, they usually hide after they shed there exoskeleton. If you have sand in the tank they could have burrowed in it.
They would appreciate the addition of salt (2 table spoons per gallon ).Marine Grade Salt will help to provide trace minerals needed for proper development.
This helps with the growth of the new outer armour or shell.
It is best to do this outside of the main tank since the tetra's and especially the red tailed shark wont appreciate this concentration of salt.
If you can find them and have a container to remove them to for about a week and then acclimates back to fresh water.
Alternatively leave them where they are and dont add salt unless you are prepared to remove the shark.
If you remove the shark 1 table spoon of marine salt per gallon will be ok but keep an eye on the tetras. Dont add all the salt at once. Do it over a number of days or dose the salt with water changes.

EDIT. Looks like holger posted at the same time as me:blush:
Last edit: 16 Nov 2007 23:54 by platty252 (Darren Dalton).

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17 Nov 2007 00:24 #4 by harbo (Paul Harbison)
Hi Again,

Thanks for the advice. Looks like a good excuse for me to get additional tank:cheer:

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17 Nov 2007 09:18 - 17 Nov 2007 09:20 #5 by MonsterFish (Monster Fish)
Yeah get another tank, theres always room for one more!

They really should be kept by themselves, while they strictly speaking don't require salt the way fiddler crabs will ,they do need hard alkaline water and the salt would certainly do no harm.
Keeping with any fish is also a dangerous game as they are surprisingly large when they reach adulthood, okay they're no rainbow crabs but they will easily quadruple in size from the babies normally seen and at this size can be quite handy predators.

I have kept them before with small moray eels but even this was only suitable for a short time as the morays would have viewed them as a tasty snack when they matured.

They can be rewarding in a species tank, just ensure to offer an above water retreat for them and to feed with something such as Hikari Crab Cuisine as their main diet as catfish pellets etc. will not offer them all the nutrition they need, calcium is a particularly important ingredient during this time when they are shedding their exoskeleton.

Hope this helps, enjoy your tanks

MonsterFish

# Dictated but not read
Last edit: 17 Nov 2007 09:20 by MonsterFish (Monster Fish). Reason: #

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