Hitchhiker crab help

We have been trying to get this guy out of our tank for months now. We rarely see him. Heck, we thought he had died after my husband grabbed him with a hemostat and ripped off one of his legs. He was MIA for awhile. Then one day I saw him sticking his hairy head out of a crevice in the rocks. We've tried baiting him with sacrificial anemones and using the inverted lid to a soda bottle with shrimp pellets in the bottom to no avail. What has been your experience in catching these guys? He's very wary and if we go after him we usually don't see him again for awhile. He's not attacking our fish or coral as far as I can tell but I know he'll grow into something bigger and more problematic one day. My husband thought he attacked our acropora and killed it but I'm not so sure, I just think the acro didn't do well in our tank.

Any tips would be appreciated!

 

What type of crab is it?

 

No idea. We've tried to id it off of websites and the closest thing we can tell it is is a brown crab. He's probably only the size of a quarter and we've seen him maybe 4 times total.

 

Posting pics would help. You said he is brown and hairy, I am guessing a teddy bear crab. Teddies become irritating when they get bigger-steal corals and stuff to eat and then they drag it into their dens. They get fish too. I would suggest using the crab bottle trap method, that works the best. It does take a while too. And next time you see him dont attack him. Try and feed him if you see him. This can teach the crab that you are not predators. I had a large one in my tank, but he was to fast to catch. So I started to feed him chunks of shrimp. Once he was accustomed to eating from my tongs, and he was no longer afraid of me, I was finally able to grab him with a fish net and drop him into my refugium. Still fat and happy to this day. He did kill several corals in my tank before I was able to catch him. Also feeding him will help prevent him from eating your inhabitants when he gets hungry.

 

Darn, my husband had a pic of him but he deleted it. If we see him I'll try to get a shot. We didn't even know he was in our tank until 6 months after we set it up. Sneaky little guy. We'll try being nice to him and see if that works. How long does it take for these guys to grow to become a neusance? He's pretty small, his body maybe the size of a quarter.

 

I think he will cause many problems, I had one I had to frag off a chunk of acro. I made a pen spear gun next time I get a bad crab.