Ever use a bird wrasse for hitchhiker crab control?

[MantisWrangler]

I have a 200g tank with 200 lbs of live rock in it. I have already pulled out 10 mantis shrimp and one large gorilla crab. Unfortunately, the rock is infested with baby gorillas ( I can tell them by their black tipped claws and "hairy"bodies). It is going to take a long time to trap them all since they don't seem inclined to visit the traps. I am afraid to introduce any fish to the tank since the flame angel I put in lasted 2 wks, while it's pectoral fins were being continually gnawed on by some unknown force, then it disappeared after looking a little more damaged one day and acting "freaked out". I know there are more mantis' in the tank, although I have not seen them, I have heard them often enough. It occured to me that a bird wrasse might take care of the hitchhiker problem, then when it got finished cleaning the tank I could take it back to the store. Anyone think this might work? If not, any better ideas?

Tanks.

 

[Grunt]

Freshwater dipping the rock in 5 gal buckets would be my suggestion.....thats alot of rock to dip though. The wrasse might eat them, but over what time period? You could always try the old standby of throwing a piece of chiken in and letting the crabs grab on.

Tampabay LR?

 

[aromantis]

Maybe you could get a few mantis shrimp. They'll get rid of the crabs and wont cause much problems later on if you have such a large tank with larger fish.

 

[MantisWrangler]

Oh, I've got my share of mantis shrimp too. I've already taken 10 of them out of the tank, but there are a few left, I can hear them. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the mantis shrimp than the crabs, with regard to fishicide. I have the "killer tank" in which I put the crabs and shrimp that I catch. There is one huge, spiny gorilla (king kong) in there and a mantis (mama) half his size. Mama decided that she wanted Kong's home so she beat the poop out of him and drove him out. These things are crazy!

 

[jimroth]

A little octopus would happily take care of the problem...maybe you could sell him back to the store after that.

 

[JasonD]

I could also suggest a zebra eel. I guarantee he'll hunt down and eat every crab/shrimp in your tank and crunch them up. Can capture in baited PVC pipe after a month or so.


Jason

 

[noahm]

+1 on the eel or octo. They will clean house. See if you can borrow one. BTW, the leftover popping might be pistols not just mantis.