White mandarin vampire crab

Care at a glance

Overview

A peaceful, sociable vampire crab that wants company of its own kind; keep a group with more females than males in a species paludarium of 38 liters or more, mostly land. Males spar over territory, and any crab will eat shrimp, snails or small fish it can reach, so no tank mates. Keep the water at 22 to 28 C, pH 7 to 8, and skip copper. It leans carnivorous: frozen bloodworm, small insects, bits of fish and crab pellets, with a little fruit or vegetable, plus cuttlebone for calcium. Breeding in a well kept colony is not difficult.

In the wild

White mandarin vampire crabs come from lowland forest near small streams around Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Borneo; the type series was collected at Gunung Kloncet on the road to Anjungan. They live on land, molt on land and use water less than most vampire crabs, so build a paludarium of 38 liters or more with about 80 percent land, damp coco fibre or sand, bark, moss and leaf litter, and a shallow freshwater pool or bowl 6 to 10 cm deep with easy exits. Keep the air humid under a tight lid and the water at 22 to 28 C with a pH of 7 to 8.

Good to know

Geosesarma pontianak is a sesarmid land crab described by Ng in 2015 in Zootaxa from hundreds of specimens; the holotype male measures 13.4 by 13.2 mm and the largest 13.9 mm across the carapace, so adults are about 1.5 cm across with a legspan near 4 cm. Ng gave it the same live colours as G. ambawang: the front half of the shell dark brown to reddish brown, the back half cream or grey, bright red claws and reddish brown legs, with the yellow eyes that give vampire crabs their name. The orange mandarin crabs of the trade, including the white claw form sold in the US, are shop forms that have not been matched to that description. Before 2015 these Borneo crabs were sold as Geosesarma notophorum, a species from an island off Sumatra, and the two mandarin crabs are still mixed up in shop listings. Females release fully formed young and are reported to carry the hatchlings on their backs for a few days.

Common questions

Related species

• 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)

• 

  Mandarin vampire crab

  Geosesarma notophorum

  0.6 in (1.5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  0.6 in (1.5 cm)16 gal (60 L)72–81°F (22–27°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

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  2 in (5 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

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