Red Inca Crab - Fasciarma fasciatum

The Red Inca Crab Fasciarma fasciatum lives up to its name - the orange-red claws contrast beautifully with the terracotta hue of its legs and carapace. Fasciarma fasciatum comes from the Indo-Pacific despite its trivial name "Inca Crab". It is a new genus Fasciarma, the red Inca crab is partly still known as Perisesarma fasciatum or Sesarma fasciatum. It belongs to the mangrove crabs and is kept in an aquaterrarium with land part and water part.

With its carapace width of only about 2 to 3 cm, the Red Inca Crab is a small mangrove crab. The males of the Red Inca Crab can be distinguished from the females by the shape of the abdominal flap - the male Inca Crab's abdominal flap has the shape of an inverted large V, while the female's looks like a large upside-down U.

As a mangrove crab, the Red Inca Crab is a very social group animal that needs the presence of conspecifics and  should not be kept alone. The crabs actively communicate and interact with each other - fascinating to watch! A species terr arium is best for a group of the beautifully colored, pretty little Fasciarma fasciatum, but you can also keep shrimp in the water portion of the aquaterrarium if it is made large enough. A group of 5-6 Fasciarma fasciatum will fit in a smaller aquaterrarium with a footprint of 60x30 cm or more, ideally consisting of 2 males and 3-4 females.

The aquaterrarium for the Red Inca Crab should consist of a land part and a water part. The land part should occupy about 40% of the aquaterrarium, and the water part 60%. In the substrate of the land part the crabs like to lay their short living tubes, so it should be piled up accordingly thick. We recommend terrarium humus or coco humus as bottom substrate. Keep the soil permanently moist to keep the humidity accordingly high! Also, make sure that the crabs have comfortable exit possibilities from the water part. The Red Inca Crab needs a humidity of about 80-90%, a water temperature of about 21-27 °C and an air temperature of 24 to 30 °C. Humidity can also be further increased with a nebulizer, or you can spray with water twice a day. In the water part you can offer freshwater or brackish to saltwater.

Fasciarma fasciatum does not only like to dig, the small mangrove crab is also a good climber. The aquaterrarium is therefore furnished accordingly with climbing possibilities and hiding places - roots, stones and plants perform well here, whereby it is possible that the small mangrove crabs gnaw soft plant parts. The doors, openings or ventilation plates of the aquaterrarium must close tightly so that the small mangrove crabs cannot escape.

Fasciarma fasciatum land crabs are of the primitive reproductive type, which means that females carry a lot of very small eggs that hatch into larvae that need seawater or brackish water to develop. The breeding of the Red Inca Crab has already succeeded in the hobby quite sporadically, but is considered to be demanding.

The Red Inca Crab is like all mangrove crabs omnivorous, so it needs animal as well as vegetable food. Fruits and vegetables, greens and brown leaves are high on their menu, followed by frozen food, freeze-dried food and live food in the form of white isopods or springtails. The little crawlers - springtails and white is opods - also take care of uneaten food and dead plant parts in the aqua-terrarium at the same time, thus ensuring a clean environment.

Our food recommendation: Crabs in the wild tend to have a very varied diet. Most species are omnivores, and with the Natureholic Crab Feed Sticks we have taken this preference into account. They contain biologically balanced animal and vegetable components, which are also part of the natural food spectrum of omnivorous crabs in the field in such or such a similar way. The valuable ingredients of NatureHolic Crab Feed naturally support the molting, digestion, growth and reproduction of your crabs.

Our plant recommendation: For planting, use marsh plants, which are plants that are rooted in soil that is very wet or even submerged, but whose flowers and leaves are usually all or partially in the airspace and can be seen above the water surface. Thus, marsh plants are usually found on and in lakes and streams, but also on and in garden ponds or other bodies of water that provide them with a wet substrate, but still leave room for flowers and leaves to show to the outside.

Expert Tip: We recommend NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid when keeping invertebrates. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your invertebrates. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.