Found Another Bad Crab, Anybody Want It?

[Beverly]

Bought some new rock to get my empty 7 gal started again. I was reaaranging the rock today and, dang, found another crab that I believe is a mithrax. The poor little guy really didn't like being picked up by the tweezers, and it was a struggle to get him out, but he's out now.

Am not planning to visit the lfs again this week and am wondering if anyone wants him.

[Aquattro]

Crab ROCKIN' time...... :eek:

[Beverly]

Crab ROCKIN' time...... :eek:

Geez, Brad, I hope not this time :sad:

It was bad enough feeding our python this afternoon ... they need to eat a live mouse every 7 to 10 days. Today was the day for that sad, but necessary, event. Don't really want to rock this crab, but am too busy until next week to get to the lfs with it.

Pleeeeease, someone take it ..... :shocked!:

[Aquattro]

Beverly, off topic, but why don't you feed frozen rats? Just as good and safer for the snake. Cheaper too, I bet.

[Beverly]

Beverly, off topic, but why don't you feed frozen rats? Just as good and safer for the snake. Cheaper too, I bet.

Ball pythons will not eat frozen food, and I doubt he will ever get to the size of needing to eat a rat. My guy will only grow to 4-6 feet long, not like, say, Burmese pythons that'll get 20-30 feet long and will eat rabbits, dogs, small children :eek:

I'm not saying that you think this, Brad, but I think some people think it's less yucky to feed a snake pre-killed food rather than feeding live food. But the mouse still has to be killed by someone. It's still a dead mouse in the end anyway.

I agree that frozen food can be less dangerous to the snake because a dead mouse cannot injure the snake in any way. However, you never know how the mouse was killed, or, for that matter, how it lived before it was killed. I buy my mice from a pet store that breeds them right in the store. They even give the mice baths once a week to keep possible parasites at bay.

I drive out of my way to buy these mice because they are well cared for. When I get home, I put the mouse in the snake's feeding house, which is portable and much smaller than his regular house. The mouse has water and food and is given a chance to settle down after the scary trip back from the pet store before it becomes lunch for the snake. How strange, but nice, is that???

Anyway, I still have the crab if anyone wants it :smile:

[Aquattro]

Bev, I agree that the only benefit is that the mouse won't bite the snake. Oh, and I can buy them in a bag of 100! Decent savings in bulk. They're killed in a CO2 chamber by a local supplier of feeder rodents (www.mouseman.ca).

**Ever notice how I have a bad habit of hijacking threads??

CRAB still available!!

[Quinn]

this time i can actually take him! :biggrin: i dropped you a pm, bev.

[Beverly]

**Ever notice how I have a bad habit of hijacking threads??

Yes, you do have a way of hijacking threads, but at least you're not annoying like someone on another board I frequent. Now that guy needs to have his head examined. You're okay, in my books.

BTW, sounds like you have a snake, too? If so, (while we're off topic already) what kind?

[Aquattro]

Mine is a corn snake. I bought it for my kid as a 8th BDay present, and as it got bigger, she became scared of it. So now it's "my" snake. :rolleyes:

I've had many other snakes over the years; Boas, Pythons, most native canadian snakes.

[BC_Grl]

oh no! Brad, is the snake yours now? :biggrin:
I had a friend who owns a pet store and he sells frozen rats. He just sticks them into the freezer. Says it is the most humane way to kill them rather than gassing them to death?

And as a sidebar, Brad... aren't you, as a STAFF member, supposed to keep people on track with threads?? :rofl:

[BC_Grl]

Bev, we had one of those evil crabs... had to "rock" it to sleep ourselves. Aren't they a pain to have in your tank??

[Beverly]

Bev, we had one of those evil crabs... had to "rock" it to sleep ourselves. Aren't they a pain to have in your tank??

Yeah, rocking the last one was very hard for me to do. Cried like a baby after it was done :cry:

But having them in a tank is even worse. Still have one in our 42 gal that I haven't seen in a very long while. I tore down the 42 over the weekend to rearrange the rock and corals. Swished every rock in a bucket of outgoing changewater to see if I could find the crab (and to clean rock of detritus), but he didn't fall out no matter how hard I swished :confused:

Sure glad I found this one in our 7 gal, though. Can't imagine what kind of damage the little fellow would do in such a small reef. teevee's on his way up here tonight to get him for his sump. Yeahhhhh, teevee :exclaim:

[Bartman]

There are some LFS that sell Mithrax (Emerald?) crabs. Why are they considered bad?

[Quinn]

specifically, it's the emerald crabs they sell, who will eat pest algae, such as valonia (bubble algae). however many people have observed that mithrax crabs, if hungry, will eat corals and even fish. this being an unidentified species, i would not want him in my reef either (hence why he will be living in the sump).

[Beverly]

mithrax crabs, if hungry, will eat corals and even fish. this being an unidentified species, i would not want him in my reef either (hence why he will be living in the sump).

teevee,

I have some very small mystery sand-dwelling things that might be a type of anemone that you can have while your here for the crab. They will probably be good in your sump too :smile:

[Beverly]

There are some LFS that sell Mithrax (Emerald?) crabs. Why are they considered bad?

Was at the lfs the other day and they had emerald crabs for sale. They were very green. The mithrax I have is brown with red eyes, similar but smaller than the one in these photos:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/42gal-mithraxcrab.htm

Our 42 gal had an anthias disappear without a trace. When I went looking for the body of the anthias, I came across the crab that a few people IDed as a mithrax and told me that it was not reef safe. I managed to get the crab out of the 42, which took quite awhile and numerous cuss words, and put it in our 2.5 gal for observation. While in the 2.5 gal, the crab started munching on some star polyps after lights out, so he was outta there in a hurry :evil:

Don't know if the crab ate the fish, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. The anthias is a fish that sleeps and hides deep in holes in the rock - a perfect set up for a predatory crab at work in the night :sad:

HTH.

[Lofus]

How did you end up catching him Beverly?

[Beverly]

How did you end up catching him Beverly?

Caught the crab in the 42 by using two people each with a flashlight, a long plastic cable tie to flush it out of the rock and into the open, and a pair of tweezers to pick it up.

[Dez]

I've got one of those crabs in my sump if anybody wants him, while we're on the topic of crabs.

des

[Quinn]

if no one else wants him i can take him next time i'm up, he can join his counterpart in the fuge or maybe he can live in a baffle :razz: i'm turning into some kind of SPCA for unwanted crabs here.

[Beverly]

i'm turning into some kind of SPCA for unwanted crabs here.

Yes, and a very nice young man you are too, teevee :smile:

Thanks for taking the time to drive all the way up here last night to fetch our crab. It was great to meet you and put a face to your posts. Hope to see you again sometime soon :smile:

[Dez]

Sure thing....just let me know when....

Des

[Quinn]

cool, will do.

bev i was talking to a guy on RC about the one i grabbed yesterday, he says that if it has sharp claws it probably isn't a mithrax, and from what i could tell, this one had pretty sharp claws. stupid me, i didn't take a picture and as soon as i put him in the fuge, he went and hit under a piece of halimeda. later when i flicked the light back on for a sec before going to bed, he was going underneath a clam shell, making little dust storms :razz: i'm going to watch my algaes, small brittle stars and tube worms closely for damage, just so i know what he eats, and grab some seafood sometime in the very near future to see if he'll eat that. and i'm going to do some research on the web and see if i can ID him.

[Beverly]

bev i was talking to a guy on RC about the one i grabbed yesterday, he says that if it has sharp claws it probably isn't a mithrax, and from what i could tell, this one had pretty sharp claws.

Here's a link that was sent to me when I found the first crab:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164499&highlight=crab+AND+red+AND+eye%2A

I used their method of IDing our crab and concluded he was a baddy. The one you picked up last night looks very much like the first one we found, only it's about a quarter of the size.

HTH.

[russell]

Hi,
Wouldn't putting a predator in your refugium defeat the purpose of having one? I'd be a little worried about the safety of the critters your trying to create a safe haven for...
Duaine

[Quinn]

if i see that my caulerpa and pod population seem to be affected, i will move the crab into another chamber in the sump (there are three other partitions available in theory). however i expect he is more interested in eatings worms, and the fuge has a. a 7" dsb and b. a huge pile of rocks that i doubt he will ever fully infiltrate. and with 220 lbs and 4" of sand in my display tank, i think he'll be alright.