Just finally caught my Sally Lightfoot Crab last night .
Just finally caught my Sally Lightfoot Crab last night .
I tried catching my Sally lightfoot for weeks without luck, and just caught him last night in 5 minutes, with a crab trap I made.
Things that failed over several weeks of trying to catch the crab:
- Many failed attempts leaving a jar leaning at a 45 degree angle
against the rocks over night, with a silverside in the
bottom of the jar.
- Many failed attempts trying to catch him using a fish trap.
(This trap worked great though to catch super fast Coral Beauty
and Coris Wrasse that I wanted to get out of my tank though.)
- Many failed attempts trying to catch him with a fish net, a large
pair of tongs, my bare hands.
- Two failed attempts making a trap using a nylon and toothpicks
with a piece of silverside in the toe of the nylon, as described
in another thread. Also tried using a plastic ring to hold the
nylon open. He checked out the trap, but wouldn't go in. Left it
over night, no go.
What finally worked:
- I made a crab trap. I caught the sally in FIVE minutes using this
trap I made last night. Cost was about $3 to make it. I bought a lingerie bag which was made out of white netting. I cut the bag in half, so that it was still a bag, but not as deep. Left it about 7" deep. At first, I had bought a round embroidery hoop, but I could see it was much too bouyant. I took a wire hangar, that you get from a dry cleaner, and I removed the cardboard tube. I then shaped the hanger by hand, into a rectangle, about 4" x 6". I fed the wire hangar in and out of the top of the mesh bag and then I kind of looped the two hooks of the open wire hangartogether to hold it into a rectangle shape (each hook holds one side of the cardboard tube) . So, now I have a metal wire hangar frame, with a net bag hanging below it. I then took some fishing line I had, and tied a piece about 15" long, to the middle of each side of the rectangle frame I made. I then tied all 4 pieces of fishing line together. Next, I tied the 4 strings to one single long line of fishing line about 2.5 feet long. I tied that single line to a broom stick handle. Basically, I made a crude version of the traps in the picture below. I had planned on just barely burying the trap under the sand so that the crab couldn't see it, but my sand wasn't deep enough, so I just covered the metal frame and a little bit of the netting, on the side of the trap closest to the center of the tank. I had the broom stick handle, resting on the top of the fish tank, with the trap attached to it by a fishing line. This way, I could stay off to the side of the tank, out of site from the crab. I tied a big piece of silverside to a piece of rock rubble with an elastic, and then placed the bait in the center of the trap. I wasn't sure if the sally would go for it, because he seems to sense any foreign material. He would NOT go into the clear plastic fish trap I tried, and kept feeling the sides of the trap, and would walk away. I tried placing sand in the bottom of the fish trap, but he still wouldn't go for it. Same thing with the leaning jar trick. He WANTED the bait, but seemed too smart to step into a trap. Well, with this new crab trap I made, the netting was white, and blended in pretty good with my sand. Within 2 minutes, the crab came out, and wanted that food. He had his body half way over the trap, chomping away at the food. DARN....I should have put the bait further back in the trap, closer to the glass, so that the crab would have to go further over the trap to get the bait. I watched him eating for about 2 minutes, and he stepped in a bit further, so that he was about 3/4's of the way over the trap. I started slowly raising the broomstick handle, which started raising the trap around the crab, and then yanked it up quickly and binglo, crab fell into the bottom of the trap !!! Off he goes to a new home tomorrow !!
I had started a thread on the same problem you're having catching the crab. You can read it at the link below, and read other ideas from other people.
Many Failed attempts at catching a Sally Lightfoot Crab
The trap I made is a crude version of the traps in the picture
below. Good luck catching yours! Pam
