how can I catch my emrald crab?

[supermarvin76]

I think that it is time for my Emrald Crab to go.....I regret buying this invert. How can I catch this crab with out tearing all my rock apart?

Thanks

 

[Fountainhead]

Doesn't he ever wander into the open?

Unlike some crabs, my emeralds (4 of them) aren't skittish at all. They'll come right out and take hunks of shrimp right from my tongs. Try and entice him with some food, then scoop him up with a net.

What does he do that bugs you?

 

[supermarvin76]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8249611#post8249611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fountainhead

What does he do that bugs you?

I bought him not even a week ago, and my six line wrasse has since been listed as MIA. The emrald crab is the prime suspect.

 

[affableamerican]

I've never seen emeralds even wave at fish, although I know some folks say they have seen them bother/eat corals. I'd be surprised if it was the emerald (says the guy who was surprised to find 6 emerald hitchhikers on a piece of LR he bought at the LFS recently).

 

[Sk8r]

Frankly I'm doubting the crab is the culprit, unless the two got into it. If the crab were missing, I'd be more apt to suspect the wrasse of eating the crab.

Don't mistake me: I'm the unhappy owner of an emerald that's eaten two, count them, two bubbles of algae, in a near-year in my tank, and that has no helpful uses I can figure, but outside of one suspicious rip in a goby fin, I've never caught her at anything, and my fish are tiny and peaceful.

If you devise a method of catching the creature, I'll be right behind you trying for mine...but I'd advise against taking the tank apart in a quest for it. I just recovered a goby out of the sump after missing her for, oh, nearly 6 months. Fish can go a lot of strange places, into rocks, etc, and you're just as likely to move a rock the wrong way and trap the wrasse by mistake. There's just no safe way to rearrange a reef with small fish involved, and it kicks up a ton of crap that messes with the chemistry.

 

[kappaknight]

Look for him at night to come out into the open.

 

[Erik765]

Geez. Some people just don't get it. If he want's to catch it, let him catch it.

Put a piece of shrimp or fish inside of a green net really close to the glass, he'll go in. Once he is, trap him and scoop him up. It works, I've done it.

hope that helps, finally.

BTW, I do agree that he shouldn't be the "Prime" suspect.

 

[Rays]

Try this, but I too doubt it was him.
http://coralcorral.com/id19.html

 

[supermarvin76]

I knew that I would get many posts of people doubting that it was the emrald.....However, six days after the emrald entered the tank the long-term tenat six line come up missing. The only other things in there are 2 chromis, and 1 perc, few snails, few blue leg hermits.

Thanks to everyone though.

 

[affableamerican]

To catch a gorilla crab, I leaned a small glass cup against a rock where he liked to hide out. I wrapped a bit of food in some thin material, so that my cleaner shrimp couldn't just grab it out of the cup but the crab would be able to "smell" it. Left it over night and found the crab in the cup in the morning.

See pics here --> http://affablereef.fotopic.net/c475307.html.

 

[nmprisons]

I watched helpless as my large male emerald crab attacked and killed my leaf scorpionfish. As soon as I catch him, I am feeding him to a puffer fish!