freaked me out!!!!

[graphixx22]

Last night I was giving my brittle star a little treat. I had a piece of shrimp on the end of my feeding stick and had it right by his rock he hides in. I was waiting for him to come out and all of a sudden these 2 hairly legs and one huge claw comes out of the rock and snatches my shrimp. I almost fell off my chair it freaked me out so bad. well I turned the lights and tried to do night recon but saw nothing. So this morning before work I did it again but this time I was ready. Same as before here comes this crab half way out going for my shrimp well I moved the shrimp a little and a second one comes out and snatches the shrimp. I thought I was ready but not for 2 of the hairy little buggars. So when I get home tonight from work me and the turkey baster are going to do some crab extraction. I will take pics. I am very curious to see how many of these things are in there. Here is the kicker, I have not added one thing that would hide a crab in my tank for about 8 months and the rock they hide I take out of the tank when I clean and aquascape. that is weird. you just never know, I guess that would explain the mystery deaths over the past 8 months. Just a cool little story I thought I would share with you

[SeanT]

Tilt a glass against a rock and drop a piece of shrimp in it.
The crabs will climb into the rock but the glass is too slick for them to climb out.

hth,
Sean

[graphixx22]

I have not heard of that method, that is an awesome idea I have tried bottle traps in the past but all they are good for is catching hermits and snails. I tried that for a month trying to get a mantis and finally just had to take the rock out and use the ole baster. I will try that sounds like a killer idea thanks Sean

[Agu]

You'll also catch your hermit crabs and starfish that way .

Since you know where they are and they're feeding here's another approach.

Cut the top off on of those plastic bottles and throw the top away. Punch a bunch of small holes in the bottle and tie fishline near the top. Then rubberband some shrimp to a rock , drop it in the bottle, and place the bottle on it's side where the crabs can easily enter. Then step back a few feet and wait. When a crab enters the bottle pull on the string making the bottle vertical and raise it to the lip of the tank.

[graphixx22]

that sounds good also, man where were all of your good ideas when I had my mantis problem!!!!!! I will have to try these and see what happens I will take some pics and see what happens. I am curious how many of them are in that rock, its about as big as a football. This should be a fun little project

[rockindacheeks]

Originally posted by Agu
Cut the top off on of those plastic bottles and throw the top away. Punch a bunch of small holes in the bottle and tie fishline near the top. Then rubberband some shrimp to a rock , drop it in the bottle, and place the bottle on it's side where the crabs can easily enter. Then step back a few feet and wait. When a crab enters the bottle pull on the string making the bottle vertical and raise it to the lip of the tank.

sounds exactly like the glass cup idea with a string attached

[ONEMANBAND]

bait a really small hook and fish it out.

[ebzhighestbidder]

Lol use a sabiki

[bboyin4lyf]

personally ive allways been partial to spear fishing my hitch hiking crabs

[chrismunn]

did the crab look anything like this? brown and fuzzy with red eyes? well i had one....it came in on a piece of live rock. i was depriving the tank of any food so i could trap him overnight in a jar, but i didnt ffed the tank for so long that the crab died and fell out of the rock! here it is

[avshockey311]

chrismunn are you sure the crab died? We did the same thing and found what looked just like your pic. Thought well that was easy, we where wrong. 2 days later here it comes again. We finally had to take the rock out and squirt it with fresh water.

[avshockey311]

Forgot to add this, some crabs shed there exoskeleton and hide in a different spot to rebuild a new one.

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

graphixx22, wheres the pix?