What kind of crab is this?

Cavalier2123

Cavalier2123

Guy on the couch
Jan 16, 2007
99
0
0
Newnan, GA
I've had this 90g tank since December, and this is the first time I have ever seen this. He came out and was eating the zoa's on that rock. That rock used to be a jungle of zoa's, and I figured their numbers just naturally thinned out. So whatever this little guy is, he's gone if I can get him to come out.

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If he is eating the zoos. He is bad. Get rid of him asap!
 
Watch for him at night.
 
My aquarium shop thinks it's either a porcelain crab or a gorilla crab. Either way, it's carnivorous and is eating my corals. I dangled a shrimp infront of it, but it snatched it away before I could lure it out into the open. Any ideas on how I can trap this thing?
 
they sell traps for things like mantis, could one of these possibly work if it was bigger type of thing? idn just a thought

Jay
 
Probably the best and easiest way is to fill a bucket with aquarium water, take the rock out that he lives in (if you know what rock it is), put it in the bucket and use a syringe with RO to flush him out. You will be very surprised how hard they are to catch otherwise.. If that is not appropriate, you can go the the hardware and get one of the live mouse trap catchers, and you can bait these.

Oh, if you do catch him, don't kill him.. he is only doing what he does in nature and it wasn't his choice to become a member of your tank. I am sure lots of people would be willing to take him.. I would but I'm not close.. you can keep him in the sump or a small perforated container stuck to the side until someone picks him up.

Best of luck.
 
I would take the rock out, but it's a base rock supporting most of the rock pile. I think the traps are going to be too small for him. I've been sticking dried shrimp on the end of a long feeding stick so that I can lure him out into the open to net him, but he is very reluctant to leave his cave. So far he has been too fast for me, so I'm going to have to get another set of hands.
 
This crab was quite large.. body without legs was about 2", they walk sideways, so he easily fit into a live mouse trap.

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I bought a trap late last night, and have set it several times now. So far I have managed to catch every hermit crab in the tank, but the big guy is too timid to come out of his rock.
 
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