Mandarin vampire crab

Care at a glance

Overview

The mandarin vampire crab is a small, aggressive land crab for a humid setup. It is a crab for experienced keepers.

Caring for the mandarin vampire crab

The mandarin vampire crab lives almost entirely on land and molts there. Give it a paludarium or humid vivarium of at least 16 gal (60 L), with 80 percent land. Use deep, damp substrate with bark and leaf litter, plus small shallow pools so its gills stay wet. Keep the air humid under a tight lid.

Keep the water at 72 to 81°F (22 to 27°C), with a pH of 7.5 to 8.0, and never add copper. Feed live and frozen foods such as crickets, isopods, fruit flies, bloodworm and bits of fish. Add pellets and cuttlebone as well.

It is one of the more aggressive vampire crabs, especially between males. Keep one male with several females, and give every crab its own hide. A colony needs about twice the floor space of a Geosesarma dennerle colony. The crabs hunt shrimp, snails, isopods and small fish, so choose any tank mates with caution.

Wild imports travel badly, and losses in the first weeks are common, so buy settled or captive-bred animals. After the eggs hatch, the female carries the fully formed young on top of her carapace for two or three days. Some spiders and scorpions carry their young the same way. Breeding it is moderately hard.

Good to know

Geosesarma notophorum was described by Ng and Tan in 1995, in Crustaceana, from a male of only 9.0 by 8.6 mm. Trade adults are bigger. The shell is dusky blue on top and red underneath, with red legs, white to pale orange claws and light green or yellowish eyes. The name notophorum means back-carrier, for a habit of the female that no other crab was known to have at the time.

In the wild

The mandarin vampire crab was described from montane forest between about 1000 and 1300 m on Gunung Lingga, on Pulau Lingga. Pulau Lingga is an island off the east coast of Sumatra. The crab comes from cooler, wetter ground than most vampire crabs.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  White mandarin vampire crab

  Geosesarma pontianak

  0.6 in (1.5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

  0.6 in (1.5 cm)10 gal (38 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Purple arm vampire crab

  Geosesarma noduliferum

  0.6 in (1.5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

  0.6 in (1.5 cm)10 gal (38 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Purple vampire crab

  Geosesarma dennerle

  1 in (2.5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

  1 in (2.5 cm)10 gal (38 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Blue-leg vampire crab

  Geosesarma bicolor

  2 in (5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

  2 in (5 cm)10 gal (38 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Orange vampire crab

  Geosesarma tiomanicum

  2 in (5 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  2 in (5 cm)11 gal (40 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Red vampire crab

  Geosesarma hagen

  2 in (5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

  2 in (5 cm)10 gal (38 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)