catching a emerald crab.

[limitedslip]

Long story short, this lil bugger has attacked, killed, and eating about 100 dollars worth of fish in my tank in a period of a month. Last nite, he proved my theory buy popping outa the rocks, grabbing my chromis, and dragging him into a cave.

I am hesitant to remove rock, as, i have lots of inverts and coral all over the tank, What is the best way to catch, if any, an emerald crab w/o moving the rock and coral structures?

[Purple Penguins]

if you know where his hiding place is you can take a water bottle, cut off the top invert it into the bottle till its locked in place, poke holes in the base of the bottle, put frozen mysis or brine or any meaty food in it submerge it with opening right by his hiding space, he should crawl in and not be able to get out, this is how I catch my emerald to move from tank to tank and my shrimp, but make sure bottle is clean with all wrappers/stickers removed and that you remove it every day and put fresh food in it as to not to raise your levels

[yiliyang]

Wow, you are in the same pickle I was in a few month earlier. The water bottle thing the penguin mentioned did NOT work for my crab. Not to say it can not work for yours. This is what worked for me.

Take a piece of live rock in your tank, the size of a baseball ish. The more holes and crevice it has the better. Now leave that rock in a corner that is a few inches away from your main pile. Stick a little piece of bait to one of the crevices. If the little bugger is hungry enough, he will come running to get it. Then you stick your hand in the tank and yank out the rock with him on it. The reason this works better is that when he sense danger, in this case your hand. He will hunker down on that rock, it will be too far of a run back to the main pile and he thinks it is safe to squeeze himself into a rock crevice.

Please try to find a home for that crab instead of killing it. He was only hungry and that is what they do in the wild.

[reefturkey]

I had this happen a few years back. The nice little grrn crab turned into a vicious eating machine. I ended up luring it wih some food into a plactic cup. It took a while but I got him.

[limitedslip]

ok, ill try that...I was acutally really tempted to feed it to my puffer, but the store I bought it from will give me equal trade for it for the price I bought it for. So, we'll see how it goes. I'll let you know when I catch it.

[petoonia]

A glass works really well too. Just put the food in and wait.

[limitedslip]

haha, well, it seems like nothing can be a simple task or end easy for me. about 2 days ago, I took out all the LR, chizeled out the holes, and tried to find him, and he was gone. I had taken the rocks from the tank, and put em into a lil 10 gallon tank i had, I left the rock in there for a few days w/ water and a powerhead, but it never emerged.

Last night, while i was pickin up something I dropped on the floor, I saw him, he was dead >< (dried out ). He had found his way 15 ft, from the tank to the fridge, and he had a lil piece of rice in his mouth ><.

[jake32010]

if you totaly want to get rid of it take a screw driver and stab it when it on a rock or enywere.

[petoonia]

Originally posted by jake32010
if you totaly want to get rid of it take a screw driver and stab it when it on a rock or enywere.

If you read the post above yours you will see that the problem has been taken care of.

Unwanted crabs in a tank didnt ask to be put there. They are just doing what crabs are supposed to do. Be responsible, and find unwanted tank inhabitants another home, or at least handle them in a humane manor. Thats just my 2 cents!!

[Reefynewby]

*sniffle* better luck next time, and remember to do your research before buying anything. If theres ANYTHING i've learned about reefing, research is the key to success.

[limitedslip]

research had nothing to do w/ it ><. From reading and talking to people in town, I was told/read/researched that people had virutally little to no problems w/ emerald crabs in reef tanks. I just happened to be unlucky this time :/

and to top it off, I didnt buy this one, it was a hitchhiker ><

[petoonia]

Are you sure it was an emerald crab? There are so many different types of crabs that look very similar to an emerald. You could have had something in the same family as the emerald crab, something that was not reef safe.