Picture: Spider crab eating speckled sand crab

I just wanted to share this picture. It is a spider decorator crab eating a speckled sand crab. This would explain why I am missing quite a number of the speckled sand crabs in my sump (all food for the mantis). This is also the same species that ate my scooter blenny. I never knew that these things were so aggressive. I guess when you are big enough, anything can be prey!

 

Probably not feeding him enough..lol

 

i couldnt stand having that thing in my tank! i had an arrow crab but wow too creepy got rid of it.

 

Haha maybe . There is always a piece of food in his claws. It is either from me, my macro algae, or other feeder crabs/fish. Like most crabs, they never turn down a free/easy meal (which includes confined crabs and fish when they get larger).

I pick these guys up from the beach to give my mantis an occasional treat. I guess I do get rid of them in a way. On a strange note, I often find them hitchhiking on the bottom of a cannonball jellies; I am guessing for free food.