New Addition to the Family, Mr.Crabs

We've always had a fish tank. It's small but perfect for us. Many fish have come and gone as fish will. The fish tank has had one lonely fish in it for quite some time and he finally moved on.

Sergio decided to add new fish and ventured out on May 21st to get some. He brought home some gold fish, so pretty with their orange coloring and some other type of goldfish, kind of multi-colored as Hailey referred to them.

Hailey was quite excited to see the tank full of colorful fish. The very next day, tragedy struck. We awoke to find one of the goldfish dead in the tank. Hailey was quite upset.

In order to help her through the difficult time, we decided we'd replace that fish right away and we'd take her to pick out a new fish of her own. It turned into a family trip and Hailey picked out another goldfish.

I have always loved little crabs and snails, crustaceans as they are often referred to. I've always wanted one for our fish tank. Not putting much thought into it, I decided to pick out a fiddler crab to come home with us as well. I picked the biggest one I could find. I was quite proud of my choice.

I named him Mr. Crabs, after Mr. Crabs in Hailey's favorite cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants.

Mr. Crab seemed content in his new surroundings, or so we thought although we did find him at different times throughout the day, hanging on to the tube in the tank, towards the top of the tank. I really didn't think much of it.

That evening I was lying in bed and Hailey comes in screaming that Mr. Crabs has gotten loose. I'm thinking, loose out of what? What the heck does that mean? Low and behold, Mr. Crabs had gotten out of the tank and made his way into the living room. Ariel, our kitty, had already spotted him and was pawing at him. Sergio happened to look across the room at that moment and spotted the happenings. I couldn't believe it that little crab had climbed all the way to the top of the tank, up the tube and out a hole!!! We put him back into the tank but after all the excitement, I couldn't help but laugh at the crazy ordeal. How could something so small get out of the tank, jump 4 feet down(it's a long way down) and make it all the way across the room?


The following day Hailey proceeds to tell us that Mr. Crabs had been sticking out his big claw and swiping at one of the goldfish. She told us Mr. Crabs had almost ripped off the goldfish's fin. We did notice the goldfish's fin a little torn but Sergio and I thought nothing of it really and I just told Hailey that he was probably just moving his claw around, not that he was actually trying to get anything.

The day after that, we came home to find Mr. Claws with the goldfish stuck in his claw, pretty much eating it. Hailey was pretty traumatized and I felt horrible. How could Mr. Claws eat our fish.

Upon searching on the internet, I did find information saying that Mr. Claws, who is a fiddler crab, will eat slow moving fish. YIKES!!! Not to mention that they climb up the tubes because they need to be on the surface as well, not just in water. Now what? I couldn't' just toss Mr. Crabs out but if we didn't get him out of the tank, he'd eat our fish.

So opted for purchasing a small tank to keep Mr. Crabs in. We even bought him a cute rock and put it up towards the top of the tank so he could sit on the rock and not be totally submerged in water, whenever the need struck him.


I have to admit the tank is so cute with him in and he appears to be happy although has no fish to claw at!!!