Rainbow Land Crab (Cardisoma armatum)

Rainbow Land Crab Cardisoma armatum
Name	Rainbow Land Crab
Name Lat.	Cardisoma armatum
Family	Terrestrial Crabs
Family lat.	Gecarcinidae
Order	Decapoda
Order lat.	Decapoda
Origin	West Africa
Habitat	Mangroves, estuaries
Diet	Leaves, fruits, crab food
Humidity	70-90 %
Behavior	Aggressive, territorial
Keeping	Individual
Care Level	Difficult
Housing	Humid terrarium
Breeding	None reported
Life Span	8-10 years
Protection	No
Metric Units
Size	8-12 cm
Temperature Day	24-28 °C
Temperature Night	20-24 °C
Housing Size	100 x 40 x 40 cm
US Units
Size	3"-4.5"
Temperature Day	75-82 °F
Temperature Night	68-75 °F
Housing Size	40" x 15" x 15"

Distribution and habitat

The distribution area of harlequin crabs is the West African coast from Cape Verde to Angola. They live mainly terrestrially in the intertidal zones of rivers, in mangrove swamps and on sandy beaches with some distance to the sea.

Maintenance

They need a well structured terrarium (aquaterrarium) with climbing possibilities (branches, stones) and a 20-30 cm deep substrate suitable for cave building, made of non-rotting substrate such as sand-peat mixture with coconut fibers and sphagnum moss, with a drainage, covered with leaves and pieces of bark. Artificial plants as privacy screens that can be easily removed for cleaning are advantageous.

In addition, an approx. 30 x 30 cm, shallowly draining water basin with fresh water or slightly brackish water with a salt content of 5-10 g salt per liter. Regular water changes are required to maintain water quality

Daily 1-2 times the inside of the terrarium must be finely sprayed with water (humidity), but better is a rain or fog system

Temp. air: 24-28 °C

Temp. water: approx. 25 °C

Humidity: 70-90 %

The lighting duration must be 10-14 hours depending on the season. Daylight fluorescent tubes with low UV content are very suitable, supplemented with spotlights.

Diet

They need animal and vegetable food. For a species-appropriate diet, the food supply consists of foliage (oak, beech, sea almond tree), vegetables (peas, carrots, zucchini, etc.), fruit (apple pear, banana, etc.) supplemented with high-quality dry food for fish, crabs and shrimp (spirulina tabs) and commercially available frozen food mixtures. Occasionally, chicken meat and smelt can be offered. It is important to regularly add minerals (cuttlebone, calcium powder) and vitamins

A regular and varied diet promotes health and prevents deficiency symptoms. Unaccepted food should be removed after 4-5 hours.

Behaviour and compatibility

Because of their intra-species aggressiveness they should only be kept singly. Keeping them in pairs is only recommended in a much larger and well structured terrarium with an additional water basin

Basically, only mutually compatible species with similar requirements may be socialized.

Reproduction and breeding

Males have much larger claws and a pointed abdominal valve (pleon), which is rounded and much wider at the top in females

The females carry several thousand eggs in their abdominal pouches until the larvae hatch. The larvae live planktonically in seawater, where they go through several stages of development until they return to land as finished juvenile crabs about 5 mm in size.

There are no known reports of successful breeding.

Important

Special care should be taken to cover the terrarium well, as they are escape specialists. Escaped crabs dry out quickly.

The terrarium must have good ventilation without drafts and meet the species specific needs. Measuring devices such as thermometers, hygrometers, etc. are necessary. The lighting must correspond to the species-specific day-night rhythm and must be installed in such a way that the animals cannot injure themselves. Contamination must be removed regularly.

Further literature can be found in your pet store.

References

Text: petdata; Image: petdata

Source: WERNER (2002): Garnelen, Krebse und Krabben im Süßwasseraquarium, Verlag ACS; ENGELMANN & LANGE (2011): Zootierhaltung - Tiere in menschlicher Obhut: Wirbellose, Verlag Harri Deutsch