Hey guys. My LFS recently got a pretty sweet order of some crabs. The currently have spotted panther crabs, vampire crabs, patriot crabs, and orange mandarin crabs. I was wondering if anyone not only has experience with crabs but if they have experience with crabs in a planted tank. I am very interested in picking up one of these guys, preferably the panther crab since they appear to be the most aquatic. I just dont know if my planted tank will be able to handle him. With he eat and uproot all my plants? I would be very interested in hearing peoples experience keeping crabs in different set ups. Thanks in advanced for any input towards this topic.

dont know about crabs but i had a crayfish that would uprroot then de-root plants. I'm guessing any omnivore with pincers will do the same

yeah im just worried because apparently the panther crab like to burrow sometimes. I was hoping if he had lots of hiding places he would just do his burrowing there.

The stingray tank of legend had vampire crabs at one point. That's about all I know...might check dendro boards.

well that guys tank tank is bad ass.

I've had the vampires before, they do enjoy being out on land so I made them a tank with half land half water, and they lived for a bout a year, I am not sure what went wrong with them. I loved them, and they would eat anything, including plants.

The only ones really safe for plants are micro tai crabs, they are fully aquatic, and shouldn't bother your plants.