I was wondering about how much salt to add to get brakish water ( 1.005 - 1.010), cause if I ever do get one of the red clawed fiddler crabs i'll need to know how much salt to add, I would get a hydrometer ofcourse, but does anyone know?

ok... here's one of the good things about going brackish - you don't have to be so vigilant with the hydrometer. Why? It's because brackish areas occur where there is a confluence of sea water and fresh water at the mouths of rivers and streams that meet the ocean right? In just one day, due to the actions of the tides and sometimes even rainfall, the salinity in a given area fluctuates from one end of the specific gravity spectrum to another several times, sometimes in as short as a few minutes! Animals living in these areas are thus adapted to widely varying degrees of salinity unlike fully marine species which live in a very stable environment and are thus unable to cope with deviations from their required maintenance needs.

You could generally alternate between mild-salinity to mid- and full-strength saltwater with every waterchange you do so as to simulate the environment of brackish species. This is also recommended for brackish fish , btw, such as wild-strain sailfin mollies, monos and scats. (although adult scats and monos require fully marine conditions to stay healthy as they are only brackish in the juvenile stage

Hey Shamu - you have to play around with the salt and the hydromater a bit because once the salt is open it absorbs humidity which affects the ultimate SG. BUT, that having been said, 1 tablespoon of salt p/gal seems to come out at around 1.006 or so.......

thanks guys, good idea on changing the salinity that might work. Hopefully I can get the crabbie, my mom still doesnt want one although they're ssssoooooo cute! and she even agrees on that lol