Always a surprise

[toytech]

So I walk up to my tank yesterday to say hi , and i see something scurry out of veiw . Cant think for the life of me what it can be , it wasnt one of my fish and i dont have any fast inverts .So i take the rock out that has all the action goin on and dip it in some fresh water to see what comes out , nothin .So i poke around in a large hole in the rock and find a big crab hes kinda stuned from the dip so i managed to pick him out by hand and sump the sucker . Now i know why im down to 3 snails and there is a variatable snail graveyard along the back side of my tank , has to be a dozen shells back there . Look more latter and found another small crab , tooth pick that one , makes me wonder how many more are out there.

[reefwars]

i have that same crab hes SUPER FAST and nocturnal only comes out at night, i also got a few others i cant id i managed to get one by the arm with tongs but he was to far in the hole to pull out so i yanked off his arm.....ive decided he deserved to stay after that and i called him lefty.


funny the only crabs i dont get to see are the ones i buy and hope stay out in the open lol irony

[Dr_Hicks]

Excellent photo!

I have not seen black ones sneaking around yet :wink:

[jtbadco]

I had a large chunk of SW rock that I bought dry and had in one of my FW tanks with some Marbled crayfish.

When I started up my salt tank I recycled the SW rock into the reef.

Months later I start seeing zoas disappear and snails shells start showing up empty.

One night with the moonlights on I spot a now quite large crayfish scuttle out of a hole in the rock and start chomping on zoas.

I took a metal rod and went all swizzle stick on his @$$

Problem solved...:)

[toytech]

It was hard to convince my wife to take the pic cuz it creeped her out , and watch out for lefty he will get his claw back when he molts .

[reefwars]

It was hard to convince my wife to take the pic cuz it creeped her out , and watch out for lefty he will get his claw back when he molts .


yeah i know but he wont come out of his hole he just sticks his arm up and searches for food judging by his claws i dont think hes dangerous.

im not sure if mine and yours are the same exactly but its close ive id'd(???) mine as a black mithrax(im a horrible speller tonight lol)

[reefwars]

sorry meant to say by his " claw " lol

id give him a dip but the rock is also home to my pistol shrimp and goby pair :)

[fishytime]

id give him a dip but the rock is also home to my pistol shrimp and goby pair :)


If you want him gone and know where he lives.......just skewer him with something pointy:twised:

[lastlight]

Wow what a badass looking crab. Hope he's at least getting to live in the sump.

[reefwars]

If you want him gone and know where he lives.......just skewer him with something pointy:twised:



but weve grown attached lol i even feed the little bastard now haha im more concerned about the mithrax though hes nasty lookng and very fast i set a trap with a cup and shrimp but he didnt take, he in the middle of my rock tower so id rather not take it apart....im not missing any snails but all my hermits are gone...im assuming it was him

[Money pit]

I have about 3 of those guys, or something like them. So far all they do is pick at the rocks and eat food. Like reefwars mine only come out at night.

[FitoPharmer]

Wow what a badass looking crab. Hope he's at least getting to live in the sump.
The best thing to do with these guys is take them to a LFS that has triggers in stock :twised:

[toytech]

I thought mine only picked at the rocks too until i got some new turbos and they all disappeared in a week , then i found all there shells in a pile.

[toytech]

If he had eaten any of my fish i would have SMASHED HIM WITH A HAMMER but he didnt so now hes in my sump , hopefully , can they climb well?

[reefwars]

If he had eaten any of my fish i would have SMASHED HIM WITH A HAMMER but he didnt so now hes in my sump , hopefully , can they climb well?


i dont think well enough to fight the flow coming out of your overflow but they can crawl up silicone:)

[Leah]

I was pulling rock out of my Q.T. and rearranging and I found a tiny crab.... thought nothing of it. I put the rock and crab back. Put my second cleaner shrimp in, as the first one didn't make it. A week later the new shrimp was half dragged under a rock...grr!!!
Then missing.

[Reef Pilot]

Had the crap scared out of me the other day when cleaning some live rock in my sink. Was rinsing it under the tap, and out crawls this 2 inch black ugly thing, looked like he was ready for a fight. I nearly dropped the rock.

And this live rock is 10 years old in this tank, so he must be pretty old....

Have never seen a crab before in my tank, probably have a few others then, that never show themselves.

Use to have a big Green Bird Wrasse, that would need anything that resembled a crab, shrimp or snail. But I guess he never found this one.

How long do these crabs live?

[asylumdown]

I had 3 of those exact guys in my 90. To be honest I kind of liked them, they never bothered any of my snails and seemed to go after all sorts of detritus. They started out about 1cm across, and by the time I broke the tank down they were close to the size of the crab in the pic, one of them even started carrying around clutches of eggs!

I had more problems with hermit crabs eating snails

[Lance]

Crabs are opportunistic feeders and will sooner or later take out something of value. There is no such thing as a nice crab! Oh wait.........a dead crab is a nice crab. KILL IT!!!

[ponokareefer]

It makes the idea of using dry rock that much more appealing than buying more expensive live rock. I wish they had dry rock around when I started up. I'm surprised people still buy live rock with all the benefits of dry rock.

[globaldesigns]

I have a couple of these, even bigger than yours. They are monsters... They are grazers, as they have scraping claws, so I find mine reef safe, so I leave them alone.

[reefgirl189]

When I opened your pic up the first thing I said to myself was, "Holy ****! If I found that in my (soon-to-be) tank I'd freak the F out!" And probably make my other half skewer him with a fireplace poker.

He's nasty! Sorry you've grown attached and no offence but he's just gross! lol

[toytech]

Oh no attachment here , i found another small one and made an hourderve out of it with a toothpick .Anymore show up in the tank and i have a sharpened piece of a coat hanger ready .Shiskebab anyone?

[reefwars]

Oh no attachment here Shiskebab anyone?


ummm crab skewers:)

on that note crab is delicious much better than lobster:)


since this thread i have now found 2 hitchhiker porcelain crabs so now i have 3 lol i found 2 black mithrax and one unidentified crab aka lefty lol