Is a vampire crab right for your tank?
Only if you keep, or are ready to build, a humid paludarium with a real land area. Vampire crabs (Geosesarma) are semi-terrestrial: they live on land and use water, so a planted aquarium filled to the lid is the wrong home. So is a shrimp or fish tank you were hoping to add a crab to.
Get the enclosure running before you order. It needs a lid that closes with no gaps, including around cables and tubing, because escape prevention is part of the setup. Add hides on land, a clean water section the crabs can walk into and climb out of from any point, and humidity you can hold steady and check on your own gauge.
Which vampire crab should you pick?
Pick the look you like, then plan one enclosure per line. We have two: the Tomato vampire crab, also sold as Red Ruby, and the White-handed vampire crab. Two Geosesarma that look alike aren't necessarily the same species, and that's why we wouldn't keep different lines in one enclosure.
Can vampire crabs live with shrimp or fish?
Yes, in the water section, if you choose them well. At Shrimp Aquatics, we keep Neocaridina shrimp in the water section of our vampire crab paludariums, where they breed and the crabs rarely manage to catch them. Keep only small, peaceful fish: an aggressive fish can eat a crab or harass one that has come down into the water to molt. Crablets are the exception, because adults eat the young they find, so move them out to grow up.
Keeping several of one line together? Give them enough hides that every crab can get out of sight at once, then watch how the group settles over the first weeks. If one crab keeps getting chased out of cover, add more hides or split the group.
Ordering vampire crabs from Vietnam
Everything in our catalog is bred or propagated in our own tanks rather than collected from the wild. We don't promise breeding or the number of young from any order.
Shipping is a flat USD 120 per order to every country. You'll pay it once if both lines go into a single order, and our shipping policy for live orders 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. Confirming your own import rules is part of ordering. We cannot tell you that live freshwater invertebrates are legal to import where you live. Once the courier collects the box, transit is normally 2-3 days.
Have the enclosure humid and settled before delivery. Open the box in a quiet room, film one continuous unboxing from the sealed box with the shipping label readable, and let the crabs walk into cover on their own. The live arrival guarantee needs that video and a report within 2 hours of the carrier's delivery time.