Mean Sally Lightfoot crabs!

[pappadow]

I have a pair of Sally lightfoot crabs in my tank, one female and one male. The male is getting pretty dang big and his claws are growing as well. I've been missing my pepermint shrimp for about a week now and couldn't find it. So today I'm walking by my tank just in time to see the bigger sally lightfoot crab grab my cleaner shrimp and kill it. Little piece-o-#@%&, I took my net and jabbed the bugger till he let go of the shrimp but it was too late. It took all my willpower to not squash that crab when I had him pinned to a rock with my net handle. Do big sallys usually cause problems in a reef, or are mine just mean?

[diverrad]

I've heard that they can and will kill shrimp, the only crabs i allow in my tanks are dwarf zebra hermits and even they pick on each other sometimes. Alot ope pleople hav a no claws allowed policy, I'm not that extreme but anything that get some size like sally lightfoot and spider crabs i stay away from

[NowasReef]

My sallylightfoot that ive had in my 100 reef has kileld at least 3 fish......But hes a cool addition so I keep him :)

[azreefer]

I had a sally that would jump off rocks to try and catch fish. I always wondered why my fish were disapearing. Needless to say, it went back to the lfs and I will never buy another one. Btw, it didn't get aggressive until it was pretty big.

[padixon2]

hungry crabs( i bought my hermits crab pellets, they dont mess with anything else)

[pappadow]

Maybe I should stop feeding them chopped Krill!!! They've got the taste for shrimp!

[dc]

Mine is huge, and I've never seen it attack anything.

http://images5.fotki.com/v58/photos/2/28482/371192/DSC02501Sally-vi.jpg

[csunracer]

I think it really is hit or miss alot of the time with different species of crabs. I've had sally lightfoot crabs in the past and so far havn't seen any destructive behavior exhibited, but I do have friends who have experienced mysterious fish deaths when dealing with large sally light foots. Another crab that is really hit or miss are emerald green crabs. Some people swear by them for valonia control and claim they are totally reef safe but IME I had a larger emerald green crab that would constantly knock over corals and even take chunks out of softies right in front of my eyes and chow down on them.

[padixon2]

uh oh, do the emerald mathrix crabs eat mushrooms, I have one but he is small and iI havent seen him attack them yet.

[csunracer]

Originally posted by padixon2
uh oh, do the emerald mathrix crabs eat mushrooms, I have one but he is small and iI havent seen him attack them yet.

As with other species of crabs, I only had problems with the emerald when they got really large. I take it they go after other food sources once they get larger and require more intake. Try supplementing his diet with squid or something.

[williemilkem]

ive had nothing but bad luck with the emeralds..i caught one eating a duster and a caralina goby..even with plenty of bubble algea in the tank..i do want to buy a sally but this is scaring me out of the idea..

[H.I.D. KEVIN]

Yep, I loved my Sally, but while he kept all the bubble cleaned up, he ended up eating all sorts of other critters in the tank. He was booted! But, the bubble problem is a pain now. I have to come up with some sort of a solution. Kevin

[diggidy]

the one crab pictured is a percnon gabezzi... not a "true" sally lightfoot.... graspus graspus... that's the problem with scientific names

[eums]

kevin for your bubble aldae, use a foxface. they attack the stuff and eat it as fast as they can. i have a baby one in my tank on loan right now and he is growing like crazy from eating the stuff.

back on topic i have a sally lightfoot, he sometimes will move fast towards a fish/shrimp but has not hurt any, once the algae is gone and my refuige is doing its job he will be taken out.

on emerald crabs, mine loved to eat sps poloyps and coraline algae only, he would not eat anything else, EVIL CRITTER !!

[Gusto]

I had two of these little SOB's in my 100 gal. I bought them because the two legged jackass's at my LFS told me they would help cut down on my hair algea problem.
They didn't eat any of the hair algea, but they helped themselves to a few of my fish. Took me over two weeks of midnight stick raids until I finally killed both of them.
The cleaner shrimp had the last laugh, as soon as the sense that crabcakes were being served they cleaned them up in no time.

[whs520]

Originally posted by padixon2
uh oh, do the emerald mathrix crabs eat mushrooms, I have one but he is small and iI havent seen him attack them yet.
Yeah,
I had this one Emerald crab for about 1 year, and one day I came home to see it snacking on my Yellowhead jawfish:(. Needless to say, I was shocked and pretty mad. So, I took the stupid crab to the LFS and requested that they put it in the Trigger tank (death penalty).
I never would have bought it if I had known that there was any risk.

[panamaembraced]

I just bought a sally; it's been in the tank for two days now and I have watched it eat two of the larger red hermit crabs. I can't find the scooter blenny that I purchased along with it. I'm thinking about taking it out of the tank. I should have read up before I bought it. But it does such a good job on the hair algae...

[H.I.D. KEVIN]

Sally was one of the most captivating creatures to watch, but he just ate to many of my other cool critters!! Poor Sally!

[smurf04]

I had a hawaiian rock crab that just grabbed hold of my false perc and snipped the head clear off. Needless to say i didnt know i had this crab untill this and he went into the bag and back to the LFS

[AquaticFins]

Pretty much all crabs are omnivores and will eat anything they can get their hands on.

Just takes longer to show up for some of them...