How to rid yourself of crabs:

I have crabs. Most of them are hermits, but the particularly annoying one is a Hellers swimming crab who decided to take up residence in my tank. When he fell in the tank off a piece of live rock, i thought nothing about it. Back then he was a barely 1cm blighter, with big fish to run away from. He has now grown into a beast, with a carapace of about 5 or so cm across, and quite ferocious looking nippers.

He has been quite expensive to feed, having consumed 2 lineatus wrasse, 3 blue spotted tamarin wrasse, 2 iridis wrasse, 1 concorde goby, 1 diana hogfish, and 1 kleinii butterfly. Add that all up, and realise my frustration.

He is difficult to get a picture of, everytime i see him and run for the camera he disappears. Managed to take some with my crappy phone though:







Being a guy with a short fuse, drastic action had to be taken....

Big thanks to Chris from Northlands for hooking me up for three notorious invert killers:

1 x Marine Betta:




1 x Bursa Trigger:



And finally, the real bastard, 1 x Undulate Trigger:




Sorry about the poor picture quality.

Will keep you chaps informed on the progress.

 

Edited the post and copleted the story. I do not want to rip my tank apart to catch him.

Took an easier option.

 

parrafin treatment and a louse comb is said to work, but I am sure your gp will give you a perscription for something better.

This is a public forum, and could seriously damage your chances with the fairer sex..
If you are married, you better hope she don't read this.........
Sorry, i could not resist.

On a serious note: Some really awesome fish, and if there was something that could/would get rid of that crab, you got the right arsenal.......

The only problem with biological control of crabs is that it can be a hit and miss affair. With the miss resulting in the intended predator becoming prey...........

Once the crab realises it has enemies in the tank, and no longer just menu items, it will go into hiding, and start operating when its preadors are sleeping. triggers are easy prey, as they lodge themselves into crevices where they cannot bolt out of if disturbed. They are well protected by their scales, so guess it comes down to survival of the strongest................... If triggers are larger than the crab, you have a winner!!

 

The triggers are a little larger than the crab, and the betta is quite a big bugger.

If they haven't sorted him out by sunday evening, then i will be ripping all the rocks out and impaling the swine.

 

Man those fish look awesome - now I really think I should go FOWLR

 

Well, the invertebrate onslaught has begun. This morning i took a good look around the tank, and could not see my little brown friend. All my hermits (30 or so) have been grazed as well.

 

Hi Doberman, now that you have gone to all the hassle of getting new fish etc....have you tried using a bit of bait (fish or squid) on some fine nylon fishing line? You can leave this in your tank for a few hours if needs be. If the crabs are carnivorous they will come out and start eating teh bait then you can slowly lift them up slightly and then net them before they drop off the bait.

 

I didn't try that Kevin, but it was a good excuse to buy the fish that i wanted.

 

Doberman. This is the same crab I saw in my tank, but only briefly. Could this be the culprit that makes my fish dissapear???? Have you seen this crab eating fish or do you know if they have a habit in catching fish??
Please let me know as I have tried to catch the one in my tank but he's too fast

 

fish the bugger out