Growing crabs for eels???

[Cassian]

Ok, so here’s an interesting thought and how it came about:

A few days ago, I put an emerald crab in my tank hoping to get rid of bubble algae. It was a fairly large one and it was cheap, so I said I would give it a go. Well, 5 mins goes by and here comes my moray eel. As you can imagine the crab became a snack. It got me thinking though, has any one tried growing some type of crab, like fiddler, in their tank or a separate tank as food for their eels? I feel like it would be really healthy for them and fun for them to hunt. I know my eel had a good time. Lol

Any thoughts on this? I’m thinking of doing it for my eel.

 

[lion king]

Fiddler crabs are a great addition to a pebble toothed moray's diet, you know me, I love feeding live. The stimulation would also be great, but be prepared for a more active maybe even aggressive eel, make sure nothing else in the tank could become a snack. It is a great idea. I think you can get a bunch of little fiddlers for cheap, and a crab tank can actually be fun.

 

[Cassian]

Fiddler crabs are a great addition to a pebble toothed moray's diet, you know me, I love feeding live. The stimulation would also be great, but be prepared for a more active maybe even aggressive eel, make sure nothing else in the tank could become a snack. It is a great idea. I think you can get a bunch of little fiddlers for cheap, and a crab tank can actually be fun.

Interesting about the increased aggressiveness, but it is understandable. Have you ever experienced this first hand? I don’t really care if she eats my crustaceans, but I can’t have her eating my clowns. However, a pebble tooth shouldn’t be able to grab fish, but if she’s aggressive and hungry....

 

[lion king]

It will get them stimulated in way to put them in their natural hunting response. I have seen pebble tooths eat fish, but usually a large eel fresh from the ocean with smaller fish prey. Also during an introduction to the tank. It's a really tough call, although it wouldn't be likely, it could happen. In theory, clowns would be easy pickings. It's probably not the best idea to keep a predatory fish in hunting mode in a community tank.

 

[Cassian]

It will get them stimulated in way to put them in their natural hunting response. I have seen pebble tooths eat fish, but usually a large eel fresh from the ocean with smaller fish prey. Also during an introduction to the tank. It's a really tough call, although it wouldn't be likely, it could happen. In theory, clowns would be easy pickings. It's probably not the best idea to keep a predatory fish in hunting mode in a community tank.

Hmmm, noted. Lol. My eel is still small, but I agree with what you are saying 100%. Probably best not to “activate” the hunting mode in my community reef tank. Might have a lot of expensive snacks for my eel.

 

[Paul B]

Fiddler crabs are great food and I can collect as many as I want, but you can't raise them at home and they need quite a bit of room to be kept in a tank as the males will fight.
You can see thousands here where I collect.

 

[Cassian]

Fiddler crabs are great food and I can collect as many as I want, but you can't raise them at home and they need quite a bit of room to be kept in a tank as the males will fight.
You can see thousands here where I collect.

Nice! Thanks for the info!