Found a new hitchhiker today...

[renwah]

So I got home from work today. Went to go feed the tank, and I noticed a small crab. Had to do a double take because I thought it was my Emerald crab at first. I knew I only had one in there, so I spent a good 20 minutes looking for my Emerald crab. Sure enough, I now have two. I pretty this is the culprit to my 2 peppermint shrimp dying for no reason.
Now I just have to catch the little sucker, any ideas?

p.s. picture was taken from the interwebs because I couldn't take a clear enough photo.. but it looks just like that but hairier.

 

[cloak]

Xanthid crab perhaps?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/12/inverts

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rs/index.php

 

[renwah]

looks pretty close to the stone crab too, just has black pincers, both are the same size.
Either way, it sounds like they need to be discarded asap, before it kills something else.
any tricks on trapping that thing? he's hiding in a cave, but he came out when I fed mysis shrimp today. then quickly went to hide again.

 

[jetmaker]

Check out my thread I don't know how to link it but I'll bump it

 

[renwah]

great thanks

 

[jetmaker]

I just bumped it

 

[cloak]

If you have a net handy you could try placing a small piece of shrimp or scallop in this and set it kind of close to his burrow. After that just sit patiently and wait. Once the crab gets close or better yet starts climbing on the net just give it a quick swoop and voila. GL.

 

[renwah]

thanks for the help everyone! Checked out jetmakers thread, and to me it looks like a gorilla crab. Time to get him out, he can go in the live rock seeding tank for now. Till I decide to cook him and feed him to my cats.

 

[human]

If it has black claws and is kind of hairy looking then its definitely a gorilla crab, I had one in my sump for a while.

 

[renwah]

yep, thats exactly what it looks like

 

[jetmaker]

Thanks I just got a positive Id on mine too I looked it up lol

 

[renwah]

nice!

 

[jetmaker]

Mine came in on a shipment of corals from blue zoo

 

[renwah]

yea mine came from a LFS

 

[H@rry]

Get a drinking glass and lean it up against your rockwork. Rubberband a shrimp to a piece of rock just big enough to make the shrimp sink and put it in the glass before lights out. The crab will slide down the side of the glass to get the shrimp but not be able to climb back out of the slick glass. In the morning you'll have him trapped in the glass.

 

[jetmaker]

I tried the glass method ended up pulling out the rock but got him

 

[renwah]

Yea ended up pulling out the rock also. I couldn't fit a glass by where he was, and just about every snail and hermits went in it. So I scrapped that idea and just pulled it. Ran some ice cold water over it and he fell right out.

 

[renwah]

Though I will say the glass trick did work. Just not for him

 

[renwah]

I ended up reconfiguring my whole rock layout

 

[renwah]

Before an after