Crab Attack!!!

[dochoot]

I have TBS rock and there is still a gorilla crab that I can not get rid of. I was sitting in front of my tank and saw a flurry of activity. It was a previously healthy small cadinal with crabs stuck on it still alive. One was the gorilla and the others were little blue legged hermit crabs from a clean up crew. I assume the gorilla can kill a small fish? Can hermit crabs? I was very surprised. Just previous to this the cardinal seemed normal ie not sick or lethargic.

Anyone have an experience like this?

Thanks

[H2OLUVSME]

how big was the gorrilla?

the most recent description i can recall about gorillas in this sense was "they will eat anything that they can catch". im sure this crab has techniques of catching fish......most big ones do.

landon

[dochoot]

He got to almost 3/4 of and inch. I may have killed him the other day but could not confim. I have not seen him for several days.

[Bax]

I have removed, easily, a dozen of these gorillia crabs, mostly very small ones, and I still have about a dozen really small ones.

The largest started out just less than 3/4" across. After wiping out half my snails and all my hermits he grew to almost 1 3/4" across. That's when I set a trap. It turns out they are just like bay crabs, they can't resist bait in a box. I used a small plastic container with a snap on lid, tied aline & cut a slot on one end big enough for him to crawl into set a fish hook (barbless) on the other end inside the container, baited with some scallop meat & weighted it so it could sink. I dropped it in the tank each night at lights out for one week. Every one feasted in the trap until this brute would take over the bait. Once he got used to the feeding, I just pulled up the trap with him in it.

He now resides in my sump return and keeps my intake screen very cean on my mag 5. I feed him once a month or so to be sure he survives because it's easier than cleaning the return myself. He does a great job! And there really wasn't enough meat on him for cooking anyway :)

[dochoot]

That is a big crab. I bought a trap on line and baited it. One of my shrimp instantly went in it, took the bait and got out with out it catching him. I think I will make my own. So, with yours, every day you would catch and set free the good crabs until you caught the big fella?

[Bax]

No actually, once he would enter the trap everyone else would run. Even my orchid dottyback give this guy respect. And she's not afraid of anything.

It was just a matter of aclimating him to eating in the trap. A couple of nights he, or some one else woud manage to steal the bait. I just let it happen and left the trap in. I think the trap worked because I just let him eat a few nights so he felt OK staying in the trap. The first few times he would actually drag the bait as close to the entrance as he could so he could keep one leg out the door. As you know they are so fast, that given any chance they are gone at the first movement of the trap.

The plastic container I used is about 6" x 4" x 2". My one mistake was using about 3" of line on my hook that allowed him to stay close to the door so I had to wait until he was wiling to just focus on his meal to pull him and the trap out.

Happy crabing!