Friend or foe?

Reefwifey · Jul 12, 2006

Hey all,

Those of you that know me may remember that I'm quite an arachnophob, so you can imagine the drama that ensued when I saw legs sticking out from behind one of my zoa frags last night. :shock:

I was afraid it was one of them zoa spiders or something and freaked out, heh. Hubby retrieved what the legs were attached to, and it was a shedded shell of a crab:

Anyone have any idea what it is? I can only assume that its former owner is in the tank, the shell was perhaps half an inch long. I'm not thrilled with crabs either, but as long as he's not harmful he's welcomed to stay. Thanks.

Kam

Shultz · Jul 12, 2006

As a general rule of thumb if the claws form a point at the end its a baddy & needs sumping, if the ends are flat (almost spoon like) then its normally a good algae eater....

Cheers Shelton.

Reefwifey · Jul 12, 2006

Okay, so would you call those claws sharp or flat?

jessiesgrrl · Jul 12, 2006

sharp imo- see the black point on the seperated claw? Almost looks like a strawberry crab but it is too smooth.

?
Laurie

Reefwifey · Jul 12, 2006

Hehe, I have to giggle.......I'm suprised by how many receipes there are out there involving strawberry and crab in the same dish :grin:

Great....so I'm prolly gonna have to find this little sucker. I swear, anything that has more than four legs gives me a headache.

Azurel · Jul 12, 2006

Removal is the best option...If you can find him of course

jessiesgrrl · Jul 12, 2006

See if you can trap him.

Take a single plastic soda bottle (like 16 oz size), cut the top off it. Invert it and smush it back down the top of the bottle until it's tight. Then throw some food in it (brine shrimp, etc) and leave it in the bottom of the tank overnight. All the crabs and whatnot will climb into it.

Can't remember where I read to do that, but it's how I do it now and it's much easier than tearing the reef apart. just dump back into the tank what is good until you catch the little fart.

Laurie

Reefwifey · Jul 12, 2006

Good idea Laurie, I was reading about using a glass propped up against the rock too since they can't climb back up. Bleck, I think its a little gorilla crab. They can get big and nasty. You know, I'm so spider/bug phobic (and crabs remind me of underwater spiders) that just from doing some research online and looking at pictures, I'm all creepy crawly. Heh. My dog brushed against my leg and I about dropped the laptop jumping up and screaming. Bleck. I think I'll task hubby with trapping it.