crab?

OK so lately I've had two fish disappear in my tank and I'm bummed. I blamed the Flamehawk but today I was cleaning the rocks and got bit, pretty strong claw too. I have two scarlet crabs in the tank and a couple of days ago I saw both of them with a green hue still on them and actively growing. I've tried to coax the thing out of his hiding place by sticking something in there which he grabs pretty hard. I'm now thinking this is the guy that killed my blenny, loved that fish, so any help would be great. Look at the very middle of the pictures. Thanks guys

 

Being that is looks hairy I would hazard to guess gorilla crab. It does not look big enough to do much harm to anything.

Personally I think crabs get blamed for a lot of things that they do not actually do. With that said a larger gorilla crab can wreak havoc so I would trap him and send him to the sump or a good home.

 

I'm trying to trap him. Only method left is to get a pair ok needle nose plaits and surely if he hangs on I'll rip a leg or two

 

Use a fish trap with a piece of shrimp. Once those lil buggers latch onto something they very seldom let go. Especially if it's possible food

 

Yeah most crabs I've seen love food(But doesn't everything ). I have an emerald that loves algae wafers. Every time I put one in my tank as a treat he literally scurries over to it as fast as he can, picks it up, and takes off with it.

A side note when I was a kid we would tie chunks of chicken with small cord/string and drop them in the marsh in Florida. If you pulled the string up slowly the crabs weren't bright enough to let go, so we used to catch them that way for dinner. ;D (Maybe you can try to catch it that way?)

From the hairy legs the outlook isn't the greatest but heck, my emerald has hairy legs but they aren't nearly that hairy. I love crabs so I'm interested to see what it is out of hiding. From what I see though I would have to agree with Corailline that it is likely a Gorilla but I can't know for sure till we see the whole thing.

Bad news is that it probably isn't what happened to your fish but it is in the nature of your fish to hide when they don't feel well or are stressed out so it could be any number of things.

 

one cardinal was stung by the fox face, the other one surfaced belly up and the last one disappeared overnight just like the blenny. all fish had been in my tank over 6 months. any suggestions on laying a trap for him?

 

If you don't have a trap you could always try my old fishing method I noted in my last post. Not sure how well it would work with him and I would probably use a chunk of shrimp.

 

soda cans with a few bits of freeze dried krill work good for most scavenger crabs.

 

lay the can down with opening up sink into the sandbed for easy access.

 

you can open the can with a side cutting can opener to inspect your catch.