WHAT YOU NEED TO KEEP VAMPIRE CRABS

What you need to get started with vampire crabs

If you are thinking about keeping Geosesarma Vampire Crabs as pets but aren’t sure what you need to get started or how to care for them. This guide will walk you through all the equipment you’ll need to set up your own little Vampire Crab ecosystem paludarium. There are a few very important steps and components that you need to pay close attention to so make sure you take your time and plan ahead for the best results.

Everything you need to start keeping vampire crabs

Before you even start considering getting crabs or anything else, you need to make sure you have all of the necessary equipment required to make a suitable environment for your vampire crabs. Thankfully they are fairly low maintenance critters so it won’t cost you a fortune in gear and upkeep.

equipment list

1. Tank

2. Light

3. Heater

4. Filter (optional)

Picking a Tank

As this is the base for everything else you need to choose wisely. Vampire crabs cannot be kept in anything smaller than a 5 gallon (25 liter) tank. Unless you a treating a single crab for injuries.

While 5-gallon (25 liter) tanks might seem like a nice small tank to start with they are also quite difficult to work in, especially if you are new, so I highly suggest starting with a 10-gallon (45 liter) tank. This will make your life easier and your crabs will be happier.

If you are using an aquarium, you’ll need a really tight fitting lid as vampire crabs are escape masters. If you are using a standard terrarium or paludarium style tank (with doors on the front) you should be good to go!

Important: Remember your environment is going to be 80% land and 20% water.

Picking a light

Lighting is probably the easiest thing to choose as vampire crabs aren’t fussy about what kind of lighting they are being kept under. So feel free to pick any kind of light you want. The only thing you need to make sure of is that it is capable of growing plants. For this reason, I highly suggest some kind of aquarium light.

Just make sure that it covers the entire tank, you don’t want any dead spots that don’t get any light as your plants won’t grow as well as they could. To make things easy for yourself pick with with a timer so that it will automatically turn on and off for an 8 to 10 hour period per day. If you don’t want to pay extra for this feature, simple switch timers work just as well.

Picking a Heater

Picking a heater is a little more complicated but having a heater is super important if you live in a location that gets cold during winter. If your house/apartment falls below 22c for long periods of time (not overnight lows) you will need a heater for your vampire crabs. There are four main heating options. Aquatic Heaters, Heat Mats, Heat Lamps, and Heat cables. Each one has its pros and cons but generally, most people will use a heat mat or aquatic heater. You can find an in-depth guide on each option here. I highly suggest reading that guide before you choose something.

Picking a filter. Why are they optional?

This might come as a surprise to you but filters and pumps are completely optional for vampire crab tanks. If you plan on adding fish (bigger tanks only) it’s probably a good idea to add a filter. However, if you’re only keeping vampire crabs, with snails and shrimp, you can skip adding a filter. BUT! Only under this condition! That you add aquatic plants, primarily floating plants.

Aquatic plants will absorb any nutrients from the water in order to grow keeping everything healthy and habitable. My personal favourite plant choice for this is Salvinia so if you’re not sure what plants to use grab a handful of Salvina and watch it work magic!

Keeping fish with vampire crabs
Keeping shrimp with vampire crabs

Everything else you will need for a vampire crab ecosystem

Once you have all of your equipment sorted, there’s still a lot of other stuff you need to get before you think about getting vampire crabs. Below is a base list of those requirements. However, rather than continue with another huge wall of text I’m going to link you to another guide that will walk you through vampire crab care and ecosystem creation.

1. Substrate (Leca/lava rock)

2. Soil barrier material (Weed matting/window screen)

3. Soil/Dirt (land section)

4. Sand/Gravel (water section)

5. Hardscape (rocks and wood)

6. Plants & Moss

7. Botanicals (dead leaves, sticks, seed pods)

8. Water (dechlorinated)

The video below is a great example of what you can create using everything from this guide.