# Carnivore Cove - Geosesarma Crab Viv Build ***PIC HEAVY***



## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

Geosesarma bicolor vivarium build
Exo Terra 24x18x18 

Started Jan 1 2014

Fauna: G. bicolor crabs 
neocardinia shrimp

Flora: 
Carnivorous plants- Nepenthes ampularia 'brunei red'
Drosera sessifolia
Drosera spatulata 'fraser island'
Utricularia graminifolia

Other plants- java/taiwan moss
anubias nana
anubias nana 'petite'
anubias frazeri
java fern
hygrophila pinnitifida
Bucephalandra sp.?
Rotala sp.
Riccia

Tools:
Disposable brushes
cheap metal knife
large razor blade
scissors
needle nose pliers
spraybottle


Supplies & Materials:
Great Stuff foam
100% silicone sealant
eggcrate light diffuser
zip-ties
fiberglass screen material
Quickwall concrete
polyester casting resin
acrylic paint
peat moss & fir bark substrate
long fiber sphagnum moss
corkbark
manzanita branches
small fountain pump (harbor freight)
computer fan


With the success of my quickly put together red devil geosesarma paludarium, I decided to pursue a more advanced and appropriate vivarium build for a different species of Geosesarma crab. I almost gave up on keeping crabs when i build my first, nice paludarium for them and had them slowly die off over time. I also had none of them breed so my small population was not sustaining itself. I completely neglected the tank except for an occasional mist and a glance to see if i had any crabs left. I literally almost tore down the thing one night till i noticed i had baby crabs in the tank! Here and there, and everywhere, I immediately gave the tank more food and attention. I think i ended up raising close to 20 crabs and have fallen in love with them all over again. So, that's how this build even came to be.

I made many mistakes with my first build such as getting poor soil coverage over the great stuff background, too many holes, nooks, and crannies for the crabs to get into and get completely out of sight. I also didn't really know how to use the great stuff, so this time around I was much more liberal with it's use. I also wanted something that kept the tank more humid, short of installing a misting system (which i may still do in the future), so i built in a waterfall feature. I also wanted it to look more like…well, something real. So i made it look like a tree root going into a river or pool of some sort( the waterfall feature kind of breaks this goal, but whatever it looks cool). I also wanted to make this DIY to the extreme, so everything is build from scratch and made with found and bought materials, nothing was prefabricated except for the wood and bark, but that's made by nature, so it doesn't really count.

I also wanted to put few of my passions in the tank: Crabs, plants, carnivorous plants, and art/making/fabricating. So this also highly motivated me to even make this tank in the first place. Im really a noob when it comes to carnivorous plants, but I really wanted to give it a try, and knew the crabs would be fine with them. Specifically the N. ampullaria which some geosesarma crabs actually live in out in the wild. So this will be a big experiment for me with CPs, so we will see.

I'll try to explain things as needed, but I hope most of the pictures speak for themselves. I don't want to have to explain every decision and step in this first post, I'll just let you look and ask.

I will say that I already have some regrets with the polyester casting resin. I may have not let it cure properly, or I didn't mix it properly with the catalyst. It was gorgeous and crystal clear when I put it on and after it hardened, but literally as soon as it was in contact with water for a few minutes and turned a nasty, cloudy, opaque, color which totally lost all the detail in my paint job on the concrete features. So i think i should have gone with some sort of epoxy resin. But i wanted to did it on the cheap, and fish safe which i knew it was ( but i wish it knew it did this before I used it). I may be able to dry the tank out and let it cure better, but I may just say screw it and let the moss and algae grow on it so it looks natural enough.

Please enjoy, and I will try to update as much as possible, but now that it is actually built, it will be more plant growth and inhabitant updates from here on out. But feel free to ask about anything.

Here are some pics of my first crab paludarium.

























Here is the Exo when I bought it.









And the build...









































































Well that escalated quickly!


































































































































































Future flora and fauna ...


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## TerraFerma (Feb 20, 2011)

This is very, very cool


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Cool! Not enough vampire crabs on DB. Keep us posted!

Also, do you plan on mixing the red and yellow crabs? I understand that they are different species and will kill each other (I think the yellow is the murderer)


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

...I like it.


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

Very cool! Makes me want to get crabs.


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

Hypo, I think the red devils are in the original and the new one is for the bicolors.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

epiphytes etc. said:


> Hypo, I think the red devils are in the original and the new one is for the bicolors.


ooooh ok. I remember looking at the german websites for these guys and seeing the pictures of dismembered frogs and I was like "OH NO!" when I thought they were being put together lol


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

epiphytes etc. said:


> Very cool! Makes me want to get crabs.


So many jokes to be made.....

Great paludariums!!! I'm continually tempted to get some of these, and seeing nice display vivs like these doesn't make it any easier to resist


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## diggenem (Sep 2, 2011)

This looks nice, can't wait to see it planted

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


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## DorisSlammington (Jan 12, 2014)

Very cool. Can't wait to see it filled in. I've heard pitcher plants don't do well in high traffic, like crabs walking on them, will the spiky crab legs touching the fragile pitchers hurt them too much? I can't wait to see because if all goes well I am so doing this! Full Borneo style!


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

DorisSlammington said:


> Very cool. Can't wait to see it filled in. I've heard pitcher plants don't do well in high traffic, like crabs walking on them, will the spiky crab legs touching the fragile pitchers hurt them too much? I can't wait to see because if all goes well I am so doing this! Full Borneo style!


Nepenthes pitchers are very very hardy 
Not to worry about high traffic- the Nepenthes can take it


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

hypostatic said:


> Cool! Not enough vampire crabs on DB. Keep us posted!
> 
> 
> 
> Also, do you plan on mixing the red and yellow crabs? I understand that they are different species and will kill each other (I think the yellow is the murderer)



No I won't mix them. And I do have some red claw crabs (perisesarma) in there now as testers. I have found a few issues such as the waterfall output is large enough for the crabs to hang out in. But they can't go down the tube. So it's really not a big deal.


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

DorisSlammington said:


> Very cool. Can't wait to see it filled in. I've heard pitcher plants don't do well in high traffic, like crabs walking on them, will the spiky crab legs touching the fragile pitchers hurt them too much? I can't wait to see because if all goes well I am so doing this! Full Borneo style!



The pitchers should be fine. They are more sensitive to hard water with a high tds. But like I said, in Borneo some sp. of geosesarma live in them and actually forage for food from the pitchers. So they will be fine.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Oh hey, what are you feeding these guys? I'd imagine Repashy's "Beach Buffet" or "Shrimp Souffle" would work very well for these guys


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

Yes, I did just get some of the beach buffet, so I use that and shrimp pellets, flakes, other crab specific pellets, crickets, roaches, and a dead fish every so often.


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## Veneer (Nov 13, 2012)

What's your humidity at?


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

It's usually 80-90%. But once some of the aquatic plants start growing roots ad adjust to being grown emmersed I may try to keep it between 75-80.


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## nate_88 (Dec 3, 2013)

Nice set up I might try to set one up like it

~N8


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

More pictures!


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

soon...















soon...


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

Update! I have crabs in the viv! I have 2 pair so far and will get more soon. They arrived to their new home with a good culture of springtails and a dozen crickets, so they should be happy while they are settling in.

I have planted some more plants and mosses just to get things going, but nothing is final at this point. Especially the bacopa, it will be leaving as soon as I can get some Uticularia to carpet the ground and a good light. I'm planning on getting a 4 bulb t5ho for this setup to accommodate for all the carnivorous plants (which i have NO experience with) so with a good light I will at least have a good chance. Anyways...

I have also put the pitcher in it's final spot, planted a few N.ampullaria 'giant bloody red speckle' seeds on the sphagnum moss nearby, as well as in their own dedicated pots in another tank. So hopefully I will have so many N. ampullaria I won't know what to do with them all. I have also successfully germinated a few drosera to be transplanted when they are a bit bigger. So far I have some D. sessifolilia and some D. spatulata 'fraser island'. Can't wait to put them in!


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

I love this! Please keep the pictures coming


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Very nice! Love these little guys


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## Jeremy M (Oct 19, 2012)

absolutely amazing! That first palu is so lush and well grown out, I can't wait to see how this one turns out as it ages! This kind of makes me want to do some work on my tiny (very tiny) palu I had started for some sp. 'mandarin's approaching a year ago now...


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I've seen videos of these guys taking down crickets -- any idea if they'll hunt the fish?



frogface said:


> I love this! Please keep the pictures coming


Seconded!


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

I hope they hunt down the fish. That's what they are there for. I have never seen them do it before. But if they eat. I'm happy.

And hold your horses. I need time and more plants before things really get rolling.


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

Dang it. Now I need crabs…… 

Nice job! The tank and its inhabitants are very beautiful

John


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Hah! So you actually added the fish for the crabs to hunt down? Cool!


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## prunfarm (Nov 8, 2013)

Very cool set up. I have Red Devils, and they absolutely love ReptoTreat Suprema if you are looking for another food source. In some of the wetter areas, you could try using Subwassertang as a ground cover/transition plant. It worked pretty well in my viv, just took a long time. Hopefully soon you will have little tiny crabs running around.


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

I have plenty of food options for them which is good. But unfortunately I already had one if the females die and she was holding eggs! Grrr! But I will try to somehow artificially hatch these eggs. So well see how that goes. May keep them on a moist paper towel with some diluted methylene blue to prevent fungus.









But this is what I expected. It took me a few batches before my Red Devils got established and stopped dying after I got them.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Are these guys WC or CB?


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

No idea... Probably wild caught. Which sucks.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Hmmm yeah I've heard that the survival rate for WC geosesarma is really bad. Could explain your losses


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

We'll see. I have at least 1 pair left. And a few more males at the store. And I can always get more.


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## spyke (Jan 1, 2012)

Looks like I have a reverse trio left. ATM. So here is a current FTS.


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## DorisSlammington (Jan 12, 2014)

I'm going to research vampire crabs now! Or maybe all the crabs on eliteinverts.com. I'm hoping to have a crab habitat with a species that is outgoing and less nocturnal so I can enjoy them in the afternoons when I get home. I just love crabs. My only viv right now is a plants only paludarium and I haven't built it with any animal in mind. Are these crabs escape artists?


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## papa_mcknight (Feb 3, 2013)

Any updates on this? Also just out of curiosity, would geosesarma prey on nemerteans? It's been playing on my mind for a while.


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