Crab ??!!

[f3honda4me]

I added 3 peppermint shrimp to my tank today, and lo and behold a crab emerged when some shrimp came nearby. I couldn't tell if the shrimp were trying to get at the crab or the other way around. The crab must have been a hitchhiker on my LR. The crab is probably as big as the shrimp are. Golfball size AT LEAST.

I'm concerned. I think it's an emerald crab but the pincers looked kinda small. The crab was very hairy. I couldn't get a pic as they are under the LR doing some dancing around, but it's hard to get a good look at the colors.


Should I be concerned?

[Bluemon]

Yes. Take it out

[SushiGirl]

Emerald crabs aren't very hairy (just a little on their legs). Sounds like it could be a gorilla crab. At any rate, get it out if you can.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Tilt a smooth sided tall glass, baited with some raw seafood against the rock. Crab will crawl in but can't get out. Tilt should be pretty steep.

[Jocko]

Yeah I've used the glass technique for catching gorilla crabs. Usually works quite well. You definitely don't want a golf-ball sized gorilla crab. They are kinda interesting, but at that size they could even snag unsuspecting fish if they wanted to.

[f3honda4me]

Thanks, I'm gonna pick up some freeze dried shrimp and tie it to a rock and do the glass trick. Hopefully that works, though I hear i will probably catch a few hermits too that way.

[SneakyPete]

I hear i will probably catch a few hermits too that way.

Easy to pick them out and back into the tank though, lol.

not to hyjack, but if you had an agressive tank with say a lionfish and a trigger, could you have a gorrila crab or would it cause chaos with your cuc?

[tebstan]

I've been told that as a general rule of thumb, if it's hairy it's bad. Crabs, I mean.


Working at a LFS, we found a gorilla crab in a live rock shipment. We tossed it into the predator tank, thinking it would be an interesting show to watch the shark or trigger tear it up. The crab walked into a rock and the fish ignored it. Very anticlimactic. A few years later, we saw the crab stealing silversides during feed time, but the tank inhabitants still ignored it.

[gmate]

Gorilla crabs will eat/harm your other inverts and possibly harass fish. Get it out, banish it to the sump, or roast him up and eat him :P

[Fish Biscuit]

+1 - hairy crabs are not good, send him packing

[f3honda4me]

I've had shrimp in a tilted class against the rocks where I saw him, but no luck yet. It's been in there about 24 hours now. Probably have to pull it out and put a new shrimp in there so it doesn't decay.

[Seagars]

Share a picture please blood luck