Attacked !

[Petcrazy]

Hey Tristan...
Maybe Anthony is right..you should have left the fish in his tank...so I could sneak it to my house in a couple months LOL J/K.

I knew you had crabs...maybe that one isn't the type I had in mind...buuuut whatever.

Seriously I hope she pulls through, though I'm sure she will. You love your fish...

I would feel bad killing the crab myself, so I would keep it in the sump.

Besides, crabs a cheeky little monkeys...I think they are cute.

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by ron101

People do what people do - eat california rolls

Wha'?

[Beverly]

A crab that is large enough to take a bite out of a CBB will need lots to eat. If it is not fed enough, it will probably die a slow death. If it is fed well, it will significantly add to the bio-load of a system.

I have at least two hitchhiker crabs in my BB 67g that I have not been able to trap. They are the main contributors to the huge amount of detritus we siphon out of that tank each week IMO, the added bioload of a large, well-fed predatory crab in a sump is not worth it in terms of the nuisance algae it will eventually produce.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Beverly

A IMO, the added bioload of a large, well-fed predatory crab in a sump is not worth it in terms of the nuisance algae it will eventually produce.

Ya, best hit it with a rock, eh?

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by Beverly

They are the main contributors to the huge amount of detritus we siphon out of that tank each week IMO, the added bioload of a large, well-fed predatory crab in a sump is not worth it in terms of the nuisance algae it will eventually produce.

The main contributors? Sorry, but I find that hard to go along with.

Also, I may be wrong, but I think the crab would find enough to eat in the sump on it's own, without supplemental feedings, thus avoiding a "slow death". The way I see it, there is usually a certain amount of food that, when the display tank is fed, escapes the display and enters the sump. So you're gonna have uneaten food in the sump anyway. Might as well have a crab in there to help deal with it. It's either uneaten food or crab poop. Take your pick. I'm still pretty new to the hobby, but as far as I know, sump clean up crews are common (cleaner shrimp, etc.) for the very reason of helping maintain the condition of the sump. I would think the crab would be ideal for this.

JMO and cheers,

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Johnny Reefer

The main contributors? Sorry, but I find that hard to go along with.

If food is getting into the sump, overfeeding may be a problem.

Anyway, I have a pair of ocellaris clowns and two cleaner shrimp in our BB 67g. They get fed liberally once a day. Between these four animals, all the food gets eaten from the water column.

The crabs in our 67g eat algae, both macro and coralline. Here are pics of the detritus we get out of the 67g each week...

This is the first pail of water siphoned out of the 67g. The detritus in this first pail is that which is easily reached along the back, sides and front of the tank by the siphon hose. As you can see, most of the detritus has settled in the bottom of the pail, while some remains in the water column:



On the left is new saltwater that will be going into the tank after the water change. On the right is the second pail of detritus siphoned from the 67g. This detritus has been blown from under the rock structure:



Now you can't tell me that two fish and two cleaner shrimp are going to poop that much in one week

My page on maintaining BB tanks for more pics and info:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/reeftips...ottomtanks.htm

[christyf5]

Bev, I don't think thats just poop. I find my rock sheds quite a bit of detritus. I have no crabs or shrimp in the tank, just fish and corals. I can do a water change, siphoning all the stuff off the bottom and lower rocks and by the next day I see it building up again. My fish only get fed once a day as well and there is no way they can crap that much to have it build up that fast.

[Beverly]

Christy,

I thought it was just my rock shedding at first too. Then I saw a pair of hitchhiker crabs in that tank one day. I'm sure if there are two, there are more. Crabs hide very well and are often seen only at night.

We have some rock from our 120g in three 5g BB quarantine tanks looking for that snail-eating worm. At one point during the QT, two of the tanks have very little detritus and one had loads. The detritus in the third tank had little pellets mixed among the powdery stuff. When it was time for those three rocks to come out of QT, I checked them all for crabs. Found a quarter-sized crab in the rock from the really dirty tank. I realized the pellets were crab poop that had not broken down yet.

I find these same pellets in the 67g before siphoning. I intend, at some point when Chris (non-union) isn't forced to work 12 hrs/6 days a week because of that freaking Telus labour dispute, to tear down that tank and go crabbing.

I would have never noticed how much detritus was being produced in our tanks if we hadn't gone BB. We get 1/3 as much detritus weekly from our BB 120g as we do out of the 67g.

[christyf5]

Well I can guarantee that I have no crabs in my tank as all the rock was powerwashed rather well and I have a wrasse that loves to snack on them and he would have ferreted them all out by now.

[EmilyB]

Personally, I didn't get into this hobby to intentionally kill the animals that may come my way accidentally. So I have a place to put stuff like that.
Man, it must be full of poop

That's just me, but just wanted to let anyone in my area know that you don't need to kill the critter if you don't want to. I'll gladly take it.

Yes I eat crab - but it's dead already