Found a predatory crab, how do I trap him ...

[LoJack]

Last night I saw the freakiest thing ever, huge huge black crab. the only thing I've seemed to be able to ID him as, is a xanthid crab.

I have had a few small fish dissappear lately ... noticed nips in the tails, but the only other fish inhabitants could not be the culprits.

Last night I finally saw it, almost 3 1/2 inches across, jet black, reticulated legs, and huge claws. The claws look like they have teeth within the teeth, bright red eyes.

I don't know how I never saw this thing when putting the live rock into the tank, its only 2 months old, so this crab must have been pretty big when I first introduced it to the tank.

Anyway, I have 150 lbs of LR and would like to not have to remove it ... how can I trap him? Bait him? remove him?

Thanks

--Tyler

 

[kzickovich]

find a glass that is four inches across put some krill in it and place it in the tank at a 45 deg. angle he will go in to eat and can't climb back out

 

[Diffusion]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13290420#post13290420 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kzickovich
find a glass that is four inches across put some krill in it and place it in the tank at a 45 deg. angle he will go in to eat and can't climb back out

+1 on this advice same thing I did to catch a hitchhiker crab who snacked on the first fish in the tank

Instead of krill though I used a chunk of a jumbo shrimp.

 

[LoJack]

Perfect, I'll give this a try ... Hopefully I can get a good photo of this thing.

 

[bbyatv]

I had a bunch (12+) bad crabs that came with my LR. I had no luck with baiting them or trapping them.

The best way I found is to wait until they have crawled onto a piece of rock that you can take out of the tank with ease.

As soon as they have, reach in and grab the rock. They get scared and slide into a crevice in that rock.

Once the rock is out of the water use a knife or something to remove the crab from the rock.

I managed to get them all over about a 6 month period.

Bruce