Killer crab help!!!

Hello All,

I have just recently started stocking my 50 Gal. I have a 3 sally light foot crabs and 2 peppermint shrimps, brittle star, various snails. I recently found a small crab (hitchhiker) a little bit bigger than a quarter with black tipped sharp pinchers. He is really in the rock and I see him usually at night, but I can never get at him until he hides. Since I've noticed him I haven't seen my peppermint shrimp, 1 sally and my other sally has lost both his pinchers!

Any suggestions as to how I can get him out of there? I''ve got 7 Corals and a six line wrasse that I really don't want to disturb that much, especially since I got the aquascaping right how I want it!

Thank you!

 

Time to get creative!
Make a trap possibly out of a little box, pop the top and rig up some hinges, and a pull string. make some holes in the lid and put something meaty in there.
The problem is you will be constantly yanking sally light foots out of it.

 

A clear pop bottle seems to work good to, same concept of the box, just use a water bottle, and cut it in half.

I have no idea of what it looks like but, it might be an emerald crab. If it is, in my case with my emerald, I'm lucky if I see him once a month but I havent hade any problems with it.
I would worry about the sallylight foot. I had one that grew pretty big, pretty fast. I watched him try to catch any fish or shrimp that would swim by him, eat hermits and snails right out of there shell.
You said you had 3 of them, so maybe the sallys are fighting each other, I don't know how territorial they are because I have only had just that one.
If that's the case, good luck catching him, they are pretty fast.

Hope that helps.
If you have any idea of what the killer crab looks like you might be able to search something to compare it to other types of crabs.
Good luck to you

 

I use an empty glass jar--bait it with food and lean it against the rock he is in. I do this at night and usually he is there and can't get out in a few hours or by morning.

 

I had a dark brown crab hitch hiker that tore a nice piece of flesh off my damsel. I used a glass peanut butter jar with half of a plastic lid over the opening (to prevent fish from entering), put a piece of garlic soaked krill at the bottom of the jar, pushed the jar into the sand bed at an angle and rested the rim against the LR where the crab was hiding. It took a couple days, but the crab ended up in the jar trying to climb out, unsuccessfully.

 

Are you sure its that crab? Sally lightfoots can be very aggressive

 

Especially if you have 3 in that size tank!