Help getting rid of hitchhikers!!!

g8gxp

New member
Got my first softy frags today and tried to put them in the display tank. within 10 minutes they had all been attacked by some sort of crab or another. The duncan i bought which is supposed to be pretty near impossible to kill, is just about dead after being torn in half by me rescuing it from the grasp of a crab.

I guess the problem is i've got too much rock with too many hitchiking crabs to get them out with traps. The only solution i can come up with is using soda water or if that doesn't work a straight soda water dip on ALL of my rock, which would invariably kill everything. does anybody have any other solution to this problem? My goal is a mixed coral reef tank but until these hitchhikers are out there's no way that's gonna happen.

extremely frustrated......
 
wow thats gona be a project bro dont know about the soda dip tho it might kill your algae that you need in your tank
 
Were they really attacking the corals or cleaning them off I have some hermits that climb on corals and clean them off when I interduce new species into the systems. Never seen one attack them.
 
well, i set the frag plug on a rock and when i came back the frag itself was inside a hole with the crab trying to pull the whole damn thing inside. i managed to pull it out but it was kinda like those movies where the dude is being pulled by two people on the highway in separate cars. the frag is hanging onto the plug by a tiny piece now with the rest flapping about.
 
I had a huge Gorilla crab problem-I did 2 things-I did an iodine dip on all the rock-my tank went through a mini cycle after the dip- it seemed to knock off the majority of the crabs-and other stuff too-I tried the traps without much success-I had to seek and destroy with a sharp object-I did it at night with a flashlight-it seemed to distract them so they did not see my weapon coming for them. I had conservatively 50 gorilla crabs on my rocks-I still have one I havent gotten(that I know of)

Good luck.
 
That sucks.....My advice is 1.) Buy live rock from a reputable place or 2.) buy base rock that is dry and that way you know there are no hitchhikers on the rocks.

When I purchased my tank it came with semi-live rock which I did not want in my tank. I took the rock and submersed it in a tub of R/O water and a gallon of bleach. I let it sit for two-three days. Then rinsed it off with R/O water thoroughly and let it sit in the sun for a day. Once the rock is completely dry it is ready to be placed in the DT. Now, I will admit that the cycle took a long time (3-4 weeks) as I only had LS in the tank with the dead rock. To date (knock on wood) I have not had any problems with pesky pests.

Shawn
 
Overall I'm happy with the rock, I did alot of research before buying and the type of rock and the way it looks is ten times better than any rock i've seen in any LFS in the area. Actually i bought it knowing what i was getting, I just didn't realize they would go for corals.

I got all the gorilla's out before the tank even cycled, but there are some other ones that so far have been doing an awesome job on any algae, but it's backfired now that the tank is so clean, and they are going after the corals.

The problem with the dips is that it will kill all the copepods, sponges, worms etc. I think I'll just have to do some selective blasting.....Just when i thought the major headaches were over.
 
I got this tip from another forum when I was changing froma FOWLR to a Reef tank. The crabs I had which were mixed started niooing at the LPS I had put in there. Take a heavy bottomed glass in the tank next to the live rocks. Put a piece of raw shrimp or fish in the glass and place it in the tank as described above. Do this at night when the crabs come out to forage. The crabs will crawl into the glass for the food but can't get back out of the glass. Because of the amount your talking about it may take a week or so or you can put in several glasses around the tank depending on the size of the tank. I did this a couple of months ago and in about an hour I had 2 of the bad crabs I was looking to get rid of in the glasses. I a couple days I had the little buggers all cleaned out.
Hope this helps because the other ways of getting them out require stressing the inhabitants of the tank.
 
^^ +1

as tipmoff stated the glass trap always worked for me.
just put the glass near a rock where you think the crab is. glass touching the rock so he can crawl inside for the bait. and he is done. might take sometime but i think is the best option now.
 
g8gxp ...... did you try the glass inside the tank method? Curious to see if it worked as well for you as it did me. Most times the Keep It Simple Stupid method works.
 
I put a piece of shrimp on the end of some sharp teasers and decided to pick a fight. After we got through insulting each others mothers, I got him!
 
yeah ive used the glass trap method before and it works well. i went ahead and tried a mass trapping to see how many baddies i could get. took about 30 minutes to get my cleaner shrimp out to the QT tank otherwise they'll steal everything. I set 10 shot glasses with shrimp and got about 7 culprits. I'm gonna do another one tonight. I'll see if i can get a picture of it.
 
Great...They must be really small to stay in shot glasses. I was thinking small water glasses or such. You ma want to try placing a few of that size to get some bigger ones you might not be aware of. Glad it worked as well for you as it did for me.
 
I know how you feel. I just got some lr from tbs today and just hand picked 5 crabs 3 three bristle worms. One popping shrimp and some weird looking slug a/brownish dots. Took an hour of waiting and plucking LOL but I think I got most. Only a few rocks had holes to hide. I do believe there is one popping shrimp left though. Got too tired to finish LOL. Good luck. I'm gonna try the glass thing tomorrow
 
Lol that's where my rock is from. The rock is absolutely awesome. but the other stuff is not so awesome.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14823593#post14823593 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by g8gxp
Lol that's where my rock is from. The rock is absolutely awesome. but the other stuff is not so awesome.

My rock is from TBS too...lots of hitchhikers-our undesirable hitchhikers are no doubt-2nd or 3rd cousins. I still have many active barnacles after 7-8 months- and one really smart gorilla crab.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14821222#post14821222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drunkymunky
I know how you feel. I just got some lr from tbs today and just hand picked 5 crabs 3 three bristle worms. One popping shrimp and some weird looking slug a/brownish dots. Took an hour of waiting and plucking LOL but I think I got most. Only a few rocks had holes to hide. I do believe there is one popping shrimp left though. Got too tired to finish LOL. Good luck. I'm gonna try the glass thing tomorrow

I am laughing-I thought the same thing-trust me you have just begun:lol: But it is very interesting rock.
 
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