Greetings, From Crab Land. And my version of a care sheet

For starters, I do not claim to be an expert or even know for sure that what I am doing with my Halloween Moon Crabs is correct or right. I do not post anything as proven fact. What you will read in this blog is purely from my experience and what has worked for me.

So heres some background:
I got my Halloween Moon Crabs (Gecarcinus quadratus) February 25th of this year at the Northwestern Berks Reptile Show (aka the Hamburg show). I dont recall who the vendor was as it was VERY busy and hectic. I got 3 1 inch crabs, to my eye 2 females and a male. (It is said that females have yellow orange legs, males red orange)
I researched a TON before getting them and found all the info very conflicting. Which is why I decided to do this! I see a lot of people saying they are difficult or dont last long, the care sheets are incorrect/conflicting/totally strange... Can a girl get some solid info?!

First off, This is about HALLOWEEN MOON CRABS. Not Rainbow crabs, or halloween HERMITS... Rainbows are different though their care may be similar. The crab itself is different.
Halloween Moon Crabs come from Costa Rica and are LAND CRABS, have black and dark purple bodies, lavender to bright purple claws, and orange legs. They have yellow to orange "eye spots", and two white spots on their backs (photos will be shown in another post). They have BLACK eyes. Even though they are LAND CRABS they do have gills and DO need to be able to submerge into water.
They are crafty and can climb, please remember to have a tightly fitting lid!


Next, The three biggest things I saw that conflicted and were confusing were Temperature, Substrate (land), and Water.

Temperature: I have seen everything from mid 60's to high 80's, and people complaining about every single one. These crabs come from Costa Rica, so after seeing some really strange info I just looked up what Costa Ricas average temps were. They are in that range, but stay in between 70 and 80. As far as MY crabs care is concerned. I've kept their temp never below 70, and no higher than 88. Yes. Costa Rica does get hotter and cooler than that, but In my eyes keeping it in the mid-range is most likely the best bet for survival.
I use a 75 watt red light 24/7 at the moment, but may take that off when it hits summer and my room is warm on its own. They are in a window to give them a day and night cycle.

UPDATE 11/26/2012- my room stays at a 76-79 range, and I now use a 50watt red bulb on my 20gal tank, it keeps the crabs around 82-86 and they LOVE that temp

Substrate:
Or land. In the informational (not care sheet info) articles I have read about these crabs, the say that they live along river banks in mud and sand, stay mostly by the river, but will travel back and forth to the ocean as well. They also LOVE to burrow and dig. I know this from personal experience. The information on them says that in the wild they will make burrows up to 5 feet deep into the ground!
I have my 3 small crabs in a 30 gallon breeder tank with just play sand as their land. the left side has up to 10 inches and the right has about 2 inches. It is a nice slope and has about 9-12 man made hides. Your crabs will need plenty of places to hide and dig. I used Terra Cotta pots buried with the opening out (photos later) but also left places for them to dig. The sand MUST be kept moist at ALL times. This is so they can make burrows that stand up. if it caves in thats a problem.
Dont be shocked if they redecorate.... they do that.
I also have fake plants to help hide their holes, and pebbles and rocks for them to move around.
You may use peat moss as well, but packed moist sand is better for digging solid tunnels.
The land SHOULD be sloped, with water at the low end, as it would in the wild on the bank of a river. Running water is best, and may coax them to go in, but I havent gotten a filter yet for that.

WATER:
This is such a back and forth issue I see on all care sheets. The fact of the matter is no one seems to be sure whether or not these crabs NEED salt water to survive. They do need de-chlorinated fresh water AT ALL TIMES. Enough to submerge and wet their gills. Halloween Moon crabs are known to flit back and forth between ocean and river, so I personally keep 2 dishes of water in the tank, changed often to keep bacteria from growing. One of spring water, one of salt (I use a hermit crab salt water kit to make it). I have NEVER seen them go into them in all the time i have had them. But to be sure they wet their gills every time I have changed their tanks and dug them out i have put them into the water for a bit.
They must have an easy way in and out of the water, as they CAN drown.

UPDATE 11/26/2012- Crabs have shown MUCH interest in the salt water now.


Other than those three items, we have Food, Size, Age, and Sex issues to discuss.
These crabs are scavengers. In the wild they eat fruit, leaf litter, and sometimes fish and animal matter.
So in my home, I feed my crabs mango, papaya, apples (and plain unsweetened applesauce), Bananas, Lettuce of all kinds, well rinsed grass, Hermit Crab Food (moistened, is a great staple diet), and for a treat I sometimes give them dried red shrimp (sold as turtle food).
You can also give them crickets, feeder fish, raw plain fish pieces, boiled unseasoned chicken, and other fruits and veggies. You will also need to provide cuttlebone chunks for calcium.

Halloween Moon Crabs in the wild can live to 15 or so years old, and can get to about 4 inches in width (across the body). They give a nasty pinch so be careful when handling. They are also VERY fast. From my experience, they may take a month or more to start to come out at night and dig around. Mine were burrowed for over 3 weeks!

Also to mention, two males should NEVER be housed together. They may fight to the death (or so I have heard.)


Molting:
Other care sheets say about the same thing... I still dont know much about it. They will most likely eat their shed exoskeleton. How often they do it I do not know. Just be patient and dont bug them. Dont dig them out of their burrows unless absolutely necessary.
They may lose a leg or two in a bald molt, but as long as they dont lose one or both claws, or have damage to their eyes, they should be fine. I have one who had 2 legs missing and grew them back in his recent molt, and my female lost two in her molt. They get around just fine. =]



Lastly, and once again. I DO NOT CLAIM TO KNOW ANYTHING. I could be very wrong.

Thats all I can think of for now. Next post will be photos!