Buy a Red Devil vampire crab only if you already keep, or are ready to build, a humid, lidded paludarium that is mostly land, with a water section every crab can climb into and fully enter. It’s a small semi-terrestrial crab, a Geosesarma species, and a flooded aquarium is the wrong home for it. Hoping to add one to a shrimp or fish tank you already have? Then this isn’t the right buy for that tank.
What to have running before your Red Devil vampire crabs arrive
Have the enclosure built, warm and humid before you order. If you haven’t built it yet, work through vampire crab care first and order once it holds steady.
- A lid that closes with no gaps, including where tubing, cords or a heater cable pass through. Vampire crabs climb, and escape prevention is part of the setup.
- A land section with moist substrate, moss and enough hides that every crab can get out of sight at once.
- A water section with a gentle slope or rough surface, so a crab can walk in, get fully under and climb back out. They go into the water to molt.
- A thermometer at crab level, not only in the water.
- Moss and substrate that stay damp between mistings.
Dry air is the usual failure
Warmth is the easy half. Humidity is harder: keep the lid closed, the substrate and moss moist, and mist regularly. If the moss dries out between mistings, mist more often or close more of the gaps.
The climate and size to plan a Red Devil enclosure around
Hold the enclosure at about 78°F (26°C), keep the air humid all the time, and expect a crab roughly half an inch across the shell.
| Temperature | About 78°F (26°C), within 72-85°F (22-29°C) |
|---|---|
| Humidity | High at all times: closed lid, moist substrate and moss, regular misting |
| Enclosure | Paludarium, mostly land, with a water section every crab can fully enter |
| Adult size | About 10-15 mm across the shell in the described Geosesarma species |
| Lifespan | Short, about two years at most |
Size the tank around the shell, not the legs. You’ll see vampire crabs listed at 2 inches (5 cm) or more, and that could only describe leg span, which nobody has measured. The two-year lifespan is the longest recorded for related Geosesarma species, and it comes from experienced carcinologists’ species profiles, not from crabs aged in a study.
Who can share the water section with Red Devil vampire crabs?
Hardy Neocaridina shrimp are the easy choice, small peaceful fish can work, and another vampire crab line can’t. At Shrimp Aquatics, we keep Neocaridina shrimp in the water section of our vampire crab paludariums. They breed there, the young grow up normally, and the crabs rarely manage to catch them. We keep only small, peaceful fish with our crabs, because an aggressive fish can eat a crab or harass one that has come down to molt.
Neocaridina are kept at 65-78°F (18-26°C), so if you add them, hold the enclosure between 72°F and 78°F, where both ranges meet. Bee and Crystal Caridina are kept at 60-72°F (15.5-22°C) and meet the crab range only at 72°F (22°C), so we wouldn’t start there, and we’d never warm their water for the crabs.
Keep Red Devils with Red Devils. Crabs that look alike aren’t necessarily the same species, so we wouldn’t mix vampire crab lines in one enclosure. Adults also eat the crablets they find, so young ones are moved out to grow up.
Choosing Male or Female Red Devil vampire crabs
Pick the sex of each crab with the Male or Female option on this page. You’ll need both if you hope for crablets, but we don’t promise breeding, clutch size or the number of young from any order. If one crab keeps getting chased out of cover, add hides or split the group.
Ordering tank-bred Red Devil vampire crabs from Vietnam
Your Red Devils are bred by Shrimp Aquatics and ship from Vietnam alongside our other vampire crab lines. Everything in our catalog is bred or propagated in our own tanks rather than collected from the wild.
Shipping is a flat USD 50 per order to every country, and our shipping policy sets out the rest. Shrimp Aquatics pays the duties and taxes the courier bills against the shipment, on every route. You are not asked to settle a customs charge before the box is released to you. Once the courier collects the box, transit is normally 2-3 days. Confirming your own import rules is part of ordering. We cannot tell you that live freshwater invertebrates are legal to import where you live.
What to do on the day your Red Devil vampire crabs arrive
Open the box in a quiet room, film one continuous unboxing from the sealed box onward, and follow the instructions supplied with your order. Livestock that arrives dead is replaced free of charge, counted from the first animal, when you report it within 2 hours of the carrier’s delivery time with an uncut unboxing video. Our live arrival guarantee sets out how a claim works.
Skip food on the first day and let the crabs walk into cover on their own. After that, offer small, varied portions of meaty and plant food, since the described vampire crab species eat small insects and some plant detritus in the wild, and lift whatever isn’t eaten before it goes moldy in the humid air.
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