What freshwater crabs are available in Australia and are they suitable to be kept with african cichlids and a pleco or pictus cat. If not what would you suggest?
Species available would depend on local laws, but a variety of native and non native specimens are likely to turn up from time to time. As I’m in the UK I don’t know what you will find on your import lists (ours are quite limited). Ask a good local shop what they can find, you will probably need to order them in anyway (and it will depend on the season). As for the community, that would depend on the type you find. If it is a land crab (The Brazilian rainbow crab is quite common) then the pleco and african cichlids should be safe, but the pictus may have problems. Also the cichlids are known to predate on recently moulted crabs in aquariums, so the crab needs to be safe too. Smaller crabs would eventually become expensive food too. As African cichlids naturaly eat various crustaceans, it is difficult to keep the two together, but if you can keep the larger crab species safe when they moult, both should be able to fend for themselves. Remember though, that crabs have somewhere to climb
