can i keep crabs and shrimps in my tropical aquarium ?

Question

i would love to add some freshwater crabs and or shrimps to my tropical aquarium but can not find a site which tells me how they interact with other fish in the tank and what not to put them with can anyone help?

Answer 1

Here are good sites for info on shrimp: http://freshwaterinverts.com/sub_clams.html
http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.html

I'd advise avoiding the "long-arm" shrimps - they may kill smaller fish - if the shrimp has a "brush" on the forelegs, they would generally be a filter feeder that would be fine with fish that wouldn't be able to eat them.

For freshwater crabs, usually I've only seen fiddler and red claw (Thai) crabs available for sale. Both require brackish water and do best when given a land area to get out of the water. For this reason, they aren't the best animal to add to a community fish tak - they're best kept in something designed more for their needs:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile101.html
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=112
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/rarespecies/a/fiddlercrabs.htm

Both crabs and shrimp will molt their exoskeletons on a regular basis. During this time their extremely vunerable to predators (even each other and fish in your tank), so provide lots of hiding places where they can molt and wait for the new exoskeleton to harden.

Answer 2

Tropical Shrimps

Answer 3

I have 4 shrimps in my tank and they are doing really great, as far as crabs, i had 2 crayfish and they were extremely aggressive and ate several of my fish before their unfortunate deaths

Answer 4

yes if theyre freshwater i recently got a red clawed crab for my tank and its doing fine, im not sure about shrimp though, just look up freshwaer shrinp i guess.

Answer 5

some crabs may attack your other fish and eat them. it depends on the type of crab though. and the shrimp might get eaten by the other fish, also depending on the type of fish

Answer 6

If you want crabs, fiddler crabs are at least brackish water.

Try this site for purchasing and compatibility.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1075

Answer 7

i like putting ghost shrimp in my tropical tanks. they're so fun to watch, they're great at clean up, and at 40cents each, if one of my fish eat them its not that big of a deal.

i highly recommend them!