The best food diet of fiddler crabs is varied and diverse, including combinations like dry crab pellets, sinking pellets, flake fish food, blanched vegetables like zucchini and peas, brine shrimp, plankton, seaweed, bloodworms, raw fish, and krill.
This article will uncover the best way to feed your fiddler crab and help you decide whether tankmates, like guppies, shrimp, or snails, can be housed with your pet. Let’s dive in!
The best food diet for fiddler crabs is one that replicates the natural behaviors of the crabs in the wild. In nature, fiddler crabs are found in brackish waterways, where freshwater and saltwater meet. This habitat is often changing, with fish moving in and out of the area seasonally to breed.
Hearty plants and algae will grow in these water conditions, but many fine plants will not.
For this reason, the best food diet for fiddler crabs is one that is diverse and calorie dense. Since they are scavengers and omnivores, fiddler crabs will eat basically any food that falls to the bottom of the tank, whether the product is commercially produced or naturally found in the wild.
You can supplement their diet by creating a combination of foods that can be swapped out every few days.
To create a balanced diet, you should feed fiddler crabs mainly pellet crab food, as it’s specially formulated to provide proper nutrition to your crabs.
Supplements to this dry diet include: bloodworms, plankton, brine shrimp, seaweed, fish flakes, blanched zucchini, blanched peas, raw fish, and krill. Any vegetables should ideally be organic and pesticide free to ensure the health of your crab.
Feeding your fiddler crab
Fiddler crabs will eat both on the land and while in the water, although most prefer to feed in water. Simply drop a small amount of food into the tank and allow it to settle on the bottom.
Fiddler crabs should be fed once a day, and you should remove any uneaten food from the tank the following day. Different crabs will have different favorite foods, and add treats sporadically.
If you keep your fiddler crab in a tank with fish or other tankmates, the crabs will clean up any flake fish food that falls to the bottom of the tank. This means that you need to pay special attention to ensure that everyone in the tank is getting adequate food and that the crabs are not being overfed.
Will fiddler crabs eat guppies?
Fiddler crabs are scavengers. This means that they eat the food that falls to the bottom of their habitat, by sifting through sand, substrate, and gravel.
For the most part, guppies remain in the upper two thirds of the water column in the tank and will not venture to the gravel. Fiddler crabs are not active hunters, and they will not pursue attacking your guppies.
Generally, guppies and fiddler crabs can be housed together. However, this does not mean that conflicts cannot arise.
If your guppies become weak or slow moving, the crabs may try to grab one with their claw. If this happens, the crab will take advantage of this injury. When the guppy begins to sink towards the bottom of the tank, fiddler crabs will readily eat the fish.
Furthermore, although guppies can adjust to mildly brackish conditions, they will not be able to thrive and may experience weaknesses or even death, in which case the crab will eat them.
Depending on the temperament of your crab, it may be best to keep your guppies and crab separate.
Do fiddler crabs eat snails?
Fiddler crabs will eat snails. If you want to keep fiddler crabs and small snails in the same tank together, you should note that there is a risk that your snails will not survive.
This is because snails are a natural component of the diet of crabs. In the wild, snails and crabs are found in the same habitat and feed on the same detritus (decaying matter).
Snails are an excellent protein source for crabs. In fact, they are the preferred food of many crabs. Although snails have a shell for protection, fiddler crabs will use their large claw to scoop out the meat from the shell.
They will eat both land and marine snails, although they may prefer feeding on the snails found in the water. Larger sized snails may be less vulnerable to an attack.
Different fiddler crabs will have different personalities and temperaments. If you add a snail and your crabs do not try to kill it, don’t count this as a portion of the crabs’ diet.
You can keep an eye on them together and then, if there is minimal aggression, add additional snails. If your crab eats snails, keep the shells in the tank to provide the water a calcium source.
Will fiddler crabs eat shrimp?
Yes, fiddler crabs will eat shrimp. In this case, fiddler crabs will eat any shrimp that is smaller than them, including cherry shrimp and ghost shrimp.
This is because fiddler crabs are scavengers and naturally eat shrimp in the wild. Although fiddler crabs would prefer to eat decaying (dead) materials, they will eat a shrimp given the opportunity. To minimize risk, make sure that you are adequately feeding your crabs.
If you want to house a breed of shrimp with fiddler crabs, your best option is the amano shrimp. Amano shrimp can be up to 2 inches long, just about the same size as the crabs.
They have a relatively peaceful temperament and are quick moving. This means that they can escape from the crabs and jump high into the water column if they are ever snapped at.
The larger the tank space, the better chances your shrimp have at surviving with fiddler crabs. If there are hiding areas in the tank, several levels, and/or fine vegetation, the shrimp will be able to stake out safe locations.
Additionally, if your crab is happy and healthy, with adequate land area, they will be more full on their regular diet, and not want to pursue a live meal.
