MD Blue Crab - legal to keep? - Brackish?

[Coffeeinbed]

I watched that TV show dedicated to the hobby.


They made a tank to house the MD. Blue Crab. The water was brackish (no parameters were mentioned just - "brackish").

My first thought was - 1)Is it legal to keep Blue Crabs? and 2) These crabs are also found in regular 35PPT seawater ( I don't know about year-round).Can they just be kept at 35ppt?

Just curious.

The Blue Crab does have nice coloration but is a destructive little bugger I'm sure.

 

[Betta132]

What TV show is this?

Blue crab? Pretty sure they're legal to keep. They hitch-hike now and then, and it's not like they're rare. Confirm that, but I doubt it's illegal provided you get it legally.
Blue crabs are pretty hardy. I'd think that just your average tank environment is fine for a blue crab... for one thing, there's someone on here who had one hitch-hike in and it's now quite large.
They're destructive all right, they definitely aren't main tank things. However, if you have a large refugium, you can keep one in there.

 

[Coffeeinbed]

Thank for the help Betta132

I didn't want to mention it by name but a lot of people know the cable show "Tanked".


Anyway...How can a Blue Crab "hitch-hike" on tropical rock?! It's found in the cold-ish Atlantic waters such as the Chesapeake Bay (or so I thought).

 

[apexkeeper]

Blue crabs migrate through the season from open bays & ocean, to brackish tidal creeks to even freshwater. I have never read about people keeping them but I do know alot about how they live in the wild and I'd really think it would be hard to reproduce those conditions in an aquarium. They might adapt though not sure. Other issues are they do grow somewhat large 7" + inches, they are messy eaters and will attack anything so keeping them with fish would be out of the question. They like to bury themselves so you would need a decent substrate depth. Also they can swim lightning fast and do occasionally climb out of water, a secure tank would be a must. A chiller would also be a must as their typical summertime water temps rarely peak over 70 degrees.

As far as being legal to keep, depends how it is obtained/collected and where you live. They are harvested for food in most atlantic states and therefore have a season and size limit required to possess one. You would have to check your local state regulations.

Another thing, only the males have the vibrant blue coloration. The females are smaller, less vibrant blue and usually have red on their claws.

P.S if you saw this on the show tanked, I'm sure that crab is dead by now...

 

[Calappidae]

P.S if you saw this on the show tanked, I'm sure that crab is dead by now...

This is so true it isn't even funny. I've seen circus monkey's capable of taking care of SW tanks better than them. Ironically a decent ammount of their setups crash in short time. Just their acrylic is good..

But I'll save my little rant for the responible reefkeeping threads.
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But yeah, everything the others said on blue crabs is pretty spot on.

They are sometimes collected as feeders too.

 

[apexkeeper]

Just their acrylic is good..

Quality indeed :lolspin:

 

[Calappidae]

They're gonna need a big mop! :lol:

 

[sam.basye]

Check this thread out. Probably what Betta was referring to...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2439484

 

[Coffeeinbed]

Very intersting thread/ input....

Thanks guys

====================

The show-



I didn't want say how much I dislike that show but ....it's unwatchable ----and--- it's a subject I'm intersted in. Go figure.

The wife that's on all the time is so shrill, that screeching Northeast accent.

toydee toyd and toyd street--- Bugs Bunny X10

 

[Betta132]

Yep- that's the one. Seems like a pretty happy crab to me. Crabs are usually pretty hardy, so maybe blue crabs don't care if their salinity stays constant?

I won't jump into the Tanked debate too much. They have stated that they cycle tanks and such, then edit it down to make it look like the process is much faster... not sure if I believe them. And some of their tanks... ugh.
I don't like the people much, but I'm not gonna get in the middle of that debate.