Do crabs eat mangroves?
Does a bear do you know what, you know where?
I got going on this whole mangrove thing as a way to replace the Gardner's Tree Crab food I was using. Gardner's is the only food with mangrove sap in it, but it uses bone meal which can be adulterated with heavy metals.
When I found out you could put mangroves in salt or fresh water, and that they'd act as filters, and since they come from the crabs' native habitat and it stands to reason that they'd eat it a lot, I decided to get some.
Most of my first lot have had all the tops eaten off, but I have a second set in a mini-greenhouse I made, growing tall before I throw them to the crabs.
If one dies you can always grind it up in a food processor. My crabs loved the chips fresh and dried, too.
My husband is from the tropics, and he told me that even the ones the crabs "killed" might still be able to recover, and when I looked at the roots and saw that they were still alive and growing, I took several of the mangled ones out and put them in the greenhouse. They look like they're starting to grow again! So this is a great thing to have in the crab tank: native food, nutritious, and renewable with a little forethought and care.
The ones in the tank are growing very slowly because of the low light levels, but still growing. Baby mangroves come to rest in all sorts of places, and especially under larger trees, so they must be adapted to live in low light, as these seem to do. Currently, for summer, I have 15 watts of fluorescent above each water basin, and 40 watt incandescent on each side.
I've got the mini-greenhouse under a 400 watt metal halide light, and they're growing, putting out new leaves, and doing wonderfully.
Bloodymary, knowing a good thing when she hears it, has also ordered mangroves, as have a couple of other people I know. So I'm very interested in hearing what her crabs' reaction was, and if they look as cute poledancing at the top of the mangroves and mine did!
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