possible hitchhiker crab

[jesse]

so i was looking at my one piece of LR lol im barley starting. as i was looking at it i noticed it had this little white thing. i was moving that piece to see if it looked good upside down and the thing moved into a little hole. i only saw it for like one second but it looked like a little white crab to me. i cant describe in detail because i havent seen it since and im still looking for it. i saw it like 1 hr ago. does anyone know how do i make it come out or how i can find it? i really wanna see what it is.

 

[wontonflip]

if it's still there, maybe turn off the water flow and put a piece of mysis in front of the entrance. Or turn out the lights, too. Try looking for it at night.

 

[marcah]

I agree try looking for it at night, the life in the tank really comes to life at night..

 

[jesse]

well i can only see a piece of it and at least i know theres something there. its hidden and i can only see some legs and a pincer. the pincer seems to have a dark tip the legs are brownish but it looks like the rest of it is white anyone know of this?

 

[Eissie]

Jesse, dont know what your unknown critter is, but just wanted to say your signature is adorable!

 

[little_fish]

sounds like a gorilla crab, which is a nasty fellow. I would put together a trap to try and remove it.

A good way to check if a hitchhiking crab is going to be safe or not is to look at the claws. Safe crabs will have more cup like claws to grab algaes, where predatory crabs will have pointy claws. I also think the bad ones tend to be more hairy

 

[jesse]

well i got another situation on my hands. so i came home with a thermometer for the tank and a small piece of rock that i liked from a lfs tank and my gf came to my house with a little present. she got me a fish for the tank and i was like crap its not cycled yet so idk what to do with it. i had no where else to put it but the tank. what should i do? should i leave it in there? i think its a damsel fish a little blue one. shes in love with it cuz its cute but it took forever to explain to her about cycling the tank. so now were are both worried about what to do.

 

[jesse]

oh and thank you Eissie for the compliment.
and you to little_fish for the info.
i think i remember seeing that the pincers we dark tipped but not that pointy and how do i add pictures of my tank i got nothing to show off but i felt like a kid in a candy store staring at my one piece of rock.
and who changed my title to reefer? i dont think i put that did i?

 

[Eissie]

The "reefer" title is connected to how many posts you have made. (i assume) Because mine was reefer when i first started and now its... well whatever it is :D

 

[little_fish]

I would return the fish because its cruel to put them in an uncycled tank, and secondly that sounds like a damsel which are some of the meanest, nastiest fish you can get. They are well know for bullying other fish to death and being a general pain in the ass. Make sure also talk to your girlfriend about researching something before she puts it in the tank, this hobby is full of things that you either dont want in your tank or are totally unsuitable for being kept in our tank.

 

[jesse]

yea i kept telling her that but i guess she only wanted to be cute and surprise me with it. i talked to the store guy and he told me i need the fish to cycle it...

 

[marcah]

you definately dont want to cycle it using a fish a piece of shrimp dropped in will start the cycle for you . putting a fish in is just cruel to the fish.. I also would bring it back if you could they are cute but a pain later to try to get out after you watch it attack cuter fish you find later..

 

[ErinCahir]

+1 marcah.

 

[jesse]

yea i read about those little bullies but i heard that sometimes they are really cool with others
also about the crab in my live rock how do i take it out without hurting it or the rock (if possible) to check if its good

 

[NanoReefer]

you pretty much have to id it in the tank, and then either proceed to either kill it or keep it. if you could get a pic and post it in the id section we could probably help ya out

 

[little_fish]

Once you catch it, you can post a picture and we can ID it for you

 

[Kully3xf]

I would take the crab out before putting any other CUC members in the tank, in my experience hitch hiker crabs are mean and killed 1/2 my CUC before i realized what was going on. You could put him in a refugeum if you have one and dont wanna kill him! :)

 

[jesse]

the thing is i dont know how to get it out or catch it. its in my rock but it never comes out i have only seen it about 3 times since i got the rock.

 

[NanoReefer]

look up how to make a gatorade fish trap:)

 

[jesse]

ok so how do i catch the crab tho. i dont think i comes out of the rock. i have never seen it in the sand and im wondering how it will get in the trap