How to get rid of unwanted hitcher crabs?

jcar1

New member
When I first bought my rock I noticed a few hitcher crabs would come out at night but I didn't see them bothering anything just picking at the rocks and eating so I left them alone. Well now they have grown alot and are pretty big but still I haven't seen them bothering anything so I thought nothing of it. Well yesterday my favorite fish (Jawfish named Pablo) disappeared. I saw him in the morning and everything was fine but when I came home from work no sign of him which is very unusual, I look in his burrow and I see the big crab along with alot of hermits and snails hanging around the area of the burrow. I haven't found Pablo's body but I know he's gone. I don't know if he died or if he was killed either way I want these crabs gone just in case. I have heard of using a shot class and putting food in it and the crab will go in and not be able to get out. Anyone have success with this method? My questions are what kind of food do you use and how do you get it to stay in the glass? Also I know my cleaner shrimp would eat the food before anything else has a chance to. Anyone know of any other tricks?
 
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I used that to get some peps out once. I put in some food pellets for bait.
 
That method didn't work for me I kept catching my shrimp. I ended up waiting for the crabs to come out and then I used a wood skewer to heard them into a net. It only took my 1.5 years
 
put on a grass skirt and start doing the houla dance...im sure they will come out in droves wondering what the hell your doing..lol...

you can usually hone in on their location right before the lights go on or off....once spotted jam them with a screw driver....not the one you drink...
good luck
 
I could see where he hides but there is no way that I could get to him. When he does come out at night soon as he sees me he runs.
 
Lol this reminds me of a lobster I bought. Sucker is toast now but he drove me nuts for a week. I used a 2 liter instead of a water bottle trap. Same principle. He had been killing fish opputunistically as they laid up for the night he would wound them til they fell dead them have a feast. Not cool!! So I starved out the tank for a few days so everythig was nice and hungry them I dropped brine shrimp into he 2 liter tieds to fishing line and Staked out my target.

Soon fish would cicle the bottle then my cleaner shrimp would tickle the edge but not go in but it attracked him to the scene and without a second thought in he went. He went to a friend who had a Mantis and thats the last I heard of it. Just have to be patient he wont be able to resist if you bait the bottle correct. Easy meal. Good luck Oh yea, My next option was to call ACME and get a rocket powered Lobster trap.
 
Had a gorilla crab that was killing my fish. Held a piece of shrimp in front of his home, and used feeding tongs to grab him. Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the stories and tips everyone. It's going to hard doing anything in my tank because it's small 25gallon, rock and corals pretty much cover from the sand to the top. I will have to remodel a little bit just to get a bottle in the tank. I really want to replace my Jawfish with a blue spot one but I want to get these bastards out before I drop $120 on a meal for them.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7562402#post7562402 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jcar1
Thanks for the stories and tips everyone. It's going to hard doing anything in my tank because it's small 25gallon, rock and corals pretty much cover from the sand to the top. I will have to remodel a little bit just to get a bottle in the tank. I really want to replace my Jawfish with a blue spot one but I want to get these bastards out before I drop $120 on a meal for them.
If its only 25 gal then tear down kill crab and replace rock shouldnt take but an hour or so. Mine was a 90 gal with 150 lbs of rock stacked full of corals and frags and other fish. It takes me all day to tear down and re-scape so I had to catch my demon. He was also killing tangs and my sleeper gobies in the night. Last straw was when I seen my baby clown duck into the rock work and his claw came weilding around at him just barely missing the little fella lights were off. It was then that I realized he was the culprit of multiple fish loss. He was eating some pretty pricey fish too. SO I kept him in a coffee cup for a day or so as solitary confinement for his crimes and them well you know the rest of the story.:mad:
 
Thanks alot Masson, I finally set the trap up and it worked. I caught one of the crabs but it's not the big one that I hoped. There is at least 2 more that I know of. After I catch them I think I am going to go on Deadliest Catch and try to get a job.:D
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7561627#post7561627 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mm949
put on a grass skirt and start doing the houla dance...im sure they will come out in droves wondering what the hell your doing..lol...

Matt, the last time I did that, I caught crabs too! lol
 
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