Don't get sallylight foot crabs!!!

[fish clown]

Well I've had a silly light foot for probaly 6-8 months and he has gotten big pretty fast. It has been doing great on alage but recently has gotten a taste for small fish. It has taken down one chromis and a firefish. I never saw it get the firefish because I was on vacation and when I got back it was gone but I noticed a missing chromis and I saw it going to town on the poor little guy this morning. I'll be giving mine away before it takes down another chromis to some one that dosnt have smaller fish. I've read you can catch them easily at night when they do their "dance" on the glass. I've also read some other threads and lots of other people have had this happen. My warning is to not get these or get rid of yours if you have small fish!!!

 

[gone fishin]

I had one of these spawns of satan. I ended up dismantling my tank to get him out I hope you have better luck.

 

[disc1]

Are you sure the SLF actually did the killing and did t just get hold of the body after the fact?

 

[sirreal63]

How to make a crab reef safe...

It is hard to prove the crab did it, it is also hard to prove it didn't. I have had no crabs of any kind in my tank for years and I have not missed them one bit.

 

[fish clown]

Are you sure the SLF actually did the killing and did t just get hold of the body after the fact?

I guess there is no way to be certain but I haven't had any loss of fish in awhile I I actually just tested my levels and baisicly they are perfect and I don't have any fish or inverts that could have done it besides the SLF. This guy when I bought him was 2 -2.5 in and now it must be around four. They grow quickly.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I don't trust sally lightfoots. I had one years ago that would wait outside my yellow watchman goby's burrow and lunge for the fish when it tried to come out. I have no doubt it would have eventually succeeded had I not yanked that crab out. Nasty boogers for sure.

 

[Khemul]

While I agree that crabs shouldn't really be trusted, in this case it is going to be especially hard to establish whether it was the crab or not.


Firefish are notorious vanishers. They are prone to hiding out nearly permanently if they feel threatened. They also are prone to leaping out of tanks. Meaning that one vanishing without a trace is actually not all that strange.

Chromis's are notorious for stabbing each other in the back. They get along fine when you are looking. Then one mysteriously dies and all the others are suddenly avoiding eye-contact and breathing a sigh of relief (can fish sigh?) when you start questioning the crab's alibi instead of theirs'.

 

[fish clown]

Well I removed the crab two days ago. I tore down my tank to get the thing but at least I was going to do that anyway to add a cabnet to my stand. I really will will never be certain it did it but I'm still glad I got it out since I've heard of so many people losing fish to these, Gone fishin put it in a good way, spawns of satan.

 

[DHyslop]

You can usually get them out without tearing down the rock. Get a stainless set of cooking tongs from Walmart. I've found Sally Lightfoots will come out and attack the reflections on it, making them easier to grab.

 

[tajaba]

didn't mean to ressurect an old thread but,

I just had to add my story to really hammer in the fact that you SHOULD NOT put a Sally Lightfoot in your tank (if you can help it) if you want to, thats totally fine to, cus you know, its your tank.

I have a small tank and got one because I live in Thailand and theres literally very little CuC to choose from. I got him when he was about 1 inch leg to leg, very small. He started out very cute and cuddly, eating algae and picking at the sand and what not.

Then he started to molt, and then molt again, and again, flash forward 6 month later, my tank is pretty established so there are very little algae (maybe thats why?). During the course of the 6 month, I have had around 6 cleaner shrimps and 3 fireshrimps dissappear on me, no bodies, no nothing, just gone. at first I thought it was my fault or maybe they jumped or something. So I changed up the routine, once I acclimated the shrimps, I would put them in an acrylic box in the DT for around a week more, then release them.
Every single one survived till the release day, then they dissappear.

Just Today, I finally caught the bastard red handed......I got a pair of bengais to come live with the female that I already have in the Tank. same method and they were fine.

so today I decided to release them out of the box. lo and behold, one of them was swimming pretty near the overhang bridge and BAM! the crab launched it self at it and managed to grab the poor fish by his gills, the switch startled and swam for its life, tearing open the gill and mouth of the fish in the process.

Needless to say, I am now 100% convinced that these *******s are never to be trusted.

ps: once you put them in, you're screwed getting them out