Hairy Crabs?

[Jetdrvr]

I just read something on here about hairy crabs. What are they and do they eat SPS? I have 2 crabs in my tank that have been in there for a while that may fit this description. Should I be getting rid of them?

Thanks

 

[JR719]

If they are hairy, get rid of them. The one's I've had, did munch on coral.

 

[Jetdrvr]

Any suggestions on how?

 

[JR719]

There is a can of worms to open. I found one in a acro colony. The only way I could it out was to remove the colony, grab the little turd with hemostats and rip it out. It had a death hold on the coral, but I got it.
I caught another at the base of a colony and was able to get it without removing the coral from the tank.f
Hopefully someone else has an easier way.
Good luck.

 

[Sparkss]

if you can pierce their carapace they will eventually die. We had to do this to 2 different hitchiker crabs. Our LFS uses a scalpel (not sure where he got it from) and we used a thin, sharp, file to do it. HTH

 

[60Cubed]

tweezers is how i got rid of mine. if you can catch him out of the coral normally they don't run when threatened. that's there down fall. they will try to attack whatever is after them! i have had to remove one for almost every acro colony i have purchased from a LFS. they are a nuisance and they eat the new growth.

 

[rdrash]

My Emerald crab started attaching my first SPS I bought. He had hairy legs so I figured I should probably get rid of him. He now lives in the sump. I think I made the right choice.

 

[Jetdrvr]

OK, now you guys are scaring me. I have an acro colony I bought from MD. There are 2 small crabs in it, I thought they were acro crabs (is there such thing?) Are they bad? They are very small and dont' seem to be bothering anything. THe hairy ones I'm talking about are big, the size of a half dollar. I found one messing with a frogspawn last night. I tried to grab him with tongs, I ripped off a leg but he got away.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Jet, they don't do damage that fast so you got plenty of time to trap him. I had a big one for years until I upgraded my tank and while tearing down my set up to put into the new tank, I found the suckers and put him in the fuge.

 

[hobogato]

you can skewer it with a bamboo skewer (the stick used to make shish -k-bobs) and pull it out or flush it out with a turkey baster after killing it with the skewer.

 

[Lee_Bay]

I had to take out about half of my rock. (I was ready to re-aquascape anyway) If you know someone who has a mantis shrimp, the crabs make for a good 2-3 minutes (depending on their size) of entertainment for the mantis.

 

[Lee_Bay]

BTW, I have a small crab in a colony of pocelapora(sp.). He is smooth though, not hairy. I'll put a small piece of krill on a bamboo skewer and hold it above the colony. Within seconds you see a claw emerge from the colony. If he still can't reach it, he'll put both claws out trying to grab it. Eventually he will come out to get it. He's a good crab and when we have company over it makes for a good party trick!!!
lol

 

[jeffbrig]

Another strategy: if you separate the carapace from the rest of the crab, they tend to be short lived after that.

I accomplished that totally by accident. I had a BBQ skewer in the tank, and was trying to dislodge him from a rock so I could grab him with tongs. Apparently he had a pretty good grip on the rocks...

Look at this claw!