75 gallons of poor impulse control

[starypotter]

Well it looks like I have a killer crab on my hands.

When I put everything back in my tank after the move, I added the two little crabs I had to the DT. They had previously been in the sump, because one of them was carrying eggs and I was afraid that if they hatched DT would be overrun by crabs. This was before I knew that they were so tiny I wouldn't matter and they'd be all torn up by filtration and whatnot. But I figured that since I now didn't have that worry, I'd drop them in the DT and let them have a go of it in there.

Well last night I came out into the living room a few hours after lights out and was looking around with a flashlight. First I noticed a leg in the sand. Then I noticed my favorite little Hermit's shell laying there. Empty. I was so so sad, but I kept a little hope... maybe... maybe he just switched shells and molted? But all of the spare shells were in the same places as before. While I was looking around I spotted one of the crabs that I hadn't seen since I put them in the big tank laying in a cave of my rock work. Hmmm that's weird but... maybe he's just eating from the sand and I can't see? I wasn't convincing myself of anything at 3 in the morning. And not to mention that this was just hours after I discovered that my yellow clown goby had gone MIA in the QT tank as well, and that a green one was looking quick to follow. YCG was so so so thin, I fed but I'm guessing it died overnight and was cleaned up by the 3 shrimp in there. At least I hope it was that and not a murder, he'd been swimming fine not long before.

When I checked this morning, the crab in the rock cave was still there. Confirmed dead. Hermie's shell was still empty... another confirmed dead. I have no idea when the crab died, I wasn't too concerned. They were New Jersey crabs so who knows how long they live or how old he already was, the thing was carrying eggs for a while so it was at least whatever age that starts at. But Hermie was a hard hit, the little fella was always running around. But at this point, I thought it was just a natural death. He was sitting on a rock for a while the day before not how he usually did so maybe that was it? Maybe he was ill?

Then tonight, I fed the tank, I've been somewhat overfeeding because I want it to be able to handle the additions of my critters a bit better, and with so much of the new sand and rock I want to make sure there's enough food for everyone. And that's when I saw it.
One of my ghost shrimp (who are pets, those things are hilarious) was perched on the rock EATING ANOTHER SHRIMP. Now the shrimps have never shown aggression to each other before. The most they do is take food from each other. Sometimes they'll attack a dying?/dead? snail, but nothing really major. They're all fairly peaceful so WHY IS HALF A SHRIMP IN THE OTHER SHRIMPS MOUTH.

And that's when I saw him. The crab that I had forgotten was even in there, standing out in the sand looking like the proud jerk that he is. Nothing can convince me that he isn't the killed. 3 critters dead in two days and the sudden reappearance of a crab all but forgotten of? The universe is rarely that lazy for it to be a coincidence. I tried to lore him out with some fish but WHAYDDA KNOW the killer was already full. Now the hunt is on. He will not get away with this. It's time to catch a crab.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Well it looks like I have a killer crab on my hands.

When I put everything back in my tank after the move, I added the two little crabs I had to the DT. They had previously been in the sump, because one of them was carrying eggs and I was afraid that if they hatched DT would be overrun by crabs. This was before I knew that they were so tiny I wouldn't matter and they'd be all torn up by filtration and whatnot. But I figured that since I now didn't have that worry, I'd drop them in the DT and let them have a go of it in there.

Well last night I came out into the living room a few hours after lights out and was looking around with a flashlight. First I noticed a leg in the sand. Then I noticed my favorite little Hermit's shell laying there. Empty. I was so so sad, but I kept a little hope... maybe... maybe he just switched shells and molted? But all of the spare shells were in the same places as before. While I was looking around I spotted one of the crabs that I hadn't seen since I put them in the big tank laying in a cave of my rock work. Hmmm that's weird but... maybe he's just eating from the sand and I can't see? I wasn't convincing myself of anything at 3 in the morning. And not to mention that this was just hours after I discovered that my yellow clown goby had gone MIA in the QT tank as well, and that a green one was looking quick to follow. YCG was so so so thin, I fed but I'm guessing it died overnight and was cleaned up by the 3 shrimp in there. At least I hope it was that and not a murder, he'd been swimming fine not long before.

When I checked this morning, the crab in the rock cave was still there. Confirmed dead. Hermie's shell was still empty... another confirmed dead. I have no idea when the crab died, I wasn't too concerned. They were New Jersey crabs so who knows how long they live or how old he already was, the thing was carrying eggs for a while so it was at least whatever age that starts at. But Hermie was a hard hit, the little fella was always running around. But at this point, I thought it was just a natural death. He was sitting on a rock for a while the day before not how he usually did so maybe that was it? Maybe he was ill?

Then tonight, I fed the tank, I've been somewhat overfeeding because I want it to be able to handle the additions of my critters a bit better, and with so much of the new sand and rock I want to make sure there's enough food for everyone. And that's when I saw it.
One of my ghost shrimp (who are pets, those things are hilarious) was perched on the rock EATING ANOTHER SHRIMP. Now the shrimps have never shown aggression to each other before. The most they do is take food from each other. Sometimes they'll attack a dying?/dead? snail, but nothing really major. They're all fairly peaceful so WHY IS HALF A SHRIMP IN THE OTHER SHRIMPS MOUTH.

And that's when I saw him. The crab that I had forgotten was even in there, standing out in the sand looking like the proud jerk that he is. Nothing can convince me that he isn't the killed. 3 critters dead in two days and the sudden reappearance of a crab all but forgotten of? The universe is rarely that lazy for it to be a coincidence. I tried to lore him out with some fish but WHAYDDA KNOW the killer was already full. Now the hunt is on. He will not get away with this. It's time to catch a crab.

Ugh. Sorry to hear. I had a cool Xanthid crab that came in on my live rock. When I added the first fish, I removed him. Would have loved to keep him, but you just never know with crabs. Best of luck catching him.

 

[starypotter]

Ugh. Sorry to hear. I had a cool Xanthid crab that came in on my live rock. When I added the first fish, I removed him. Would have loved to keep him, but you just never know with crabs. Best of luck catching him.

Thanks, I'll have to try again tomorrow. I could have swore I heard the darn thing laughing at me when I went in there with a net before.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Thanks, I'll have to try again tomorrow. I could have swore I heard the darn thing laughing at me when I went in there with a net before.

LOL. They come out bolder at night in my experience.

 

[starypotter]

LOL. They come out bolder at night in my experience.

Maybe I'll give that a try tomorrow. I gave them all a nice hunk of fish so hopefully he'll be full enough not to kill anyone else for tonight.

 

[starypotter]

So as it turns out, I had 2 killer crabs. Watched on try to jump up and snatch a shrimp as it swam by. Both killer crabs are now in sump prison.

I finally finally got around to siliconing my new frag tank today!! I'm really excited for it. I'm still not too great with silicone but it doesn't look too terrible. It's a 20 long. I got some black acrylic on amazon and picked up some clear for the baffles. Got a bulkhead and loc line nozzle from BRS. I just need to find what pump will be best for it. Compartment is about 5"x3.5".
I'm using my patented 'Quick Dry' method

I'm excited to start cycling it!
I needed to make some emergency transfers with my fish in QT so my 29 is taking up the spot that I wanted it to be in, but I'm hoping that if I drain all of the water from the frag tank it shouldn't be too much of a pain to move when I'm finally able to put it in it's permanent spot.

Here are my friends in QT.

Since it was an emergency transfer when I ran into complications with TTM it is not cycled. I've got an ammonia alert badge and have been adding Microbe Lift and rocks from the sump of my DT. I also have ammonia remover pads in the HOB but I'm still struggling to keep it in the first segment. It stays in the second but I don't want to add prime until I exhaust some other options because I want to use copper but if I can't manage to get it lower by tonight it looks like I'll have to. Right now I have a bag of the little bio media cylinders that come with the aqua clear soaking with some bacteria, some small rocks from DT, and a teensy drip of a teensy watered down drip of ammonia in there. I'll test that before I put any of it in the tank but it's an experiment right now. I don't know any other ways to help it do this faster. More rock maybe? I'm thinking about pulling another out of the display and they'll just live out their life in my new frag tank after this. I know the rocks can't stay for the treatment but until the other things have some bacteria to keep it going I think it's my best bet.