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Red eyed crab, Remove and Kill?


pendergraft

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I've had one of these crabs in my tank for ~5 months and he hasn't caused a problem. I usually see him picking off of the liverock, but he will also scavenge food. My watchman goby sometimes sits in the same hole with him and hasn't been harassed as far as I know. I think mine is a little larger then the one pictured. He looked like that a few months ago, but since has developed white markings on the top. I have been keeping my eye on him though. Here is a pic from a few months ago.

post-39002-1232236035_thumb.jpg

 

So far he has been an enjoyable hitchhiker, he likes to sit near the opening of his cave and peer out. He does tunnel through the rock, and I have had a snail fall into a hole and die, so I would watch out for that. Unfortunately the snail wasn't eaten by the crab and rotted, spiking the nitrates in the tank. :(

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supreme_spork
Why the "flush"? Why not take him to the LFS? Who knows, someone might want the little dude.

 

+1.

 

There are plenty of options for unwanted crabs that don't involve flushing.

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My LFS is an hour drive away, plus after trying to catch them for a week when I did catch them is was so frustrated. I would consider putting them in a sump etc if I had one but my Biocube14 doesn't. I am not prone to killing things, honest. But at the price of gas I wasn't going to drive one hour each way for a pesty crab. So he got the flush.

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supreme_spork

first of all, an hour drive is nothing.

 

second of all, craigslist and want ads and if nobody is local, shipping is an option.

 

third, either you care about the living things in your tank and want to do what's right for them or you don't. most folks i know who have been in the hobby a while would easily drive an hour to give a cool crab to someone who wanted it before flushing it down the drain.

 

if nothing else you can put it in a little hang-on plastic breeder "prison" until you figure out how to get it to someone who appreciates it. flushing is lazy and disrespectful, IMO.

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BustytheSnowMaam
if nothing else you can put it in a little hang-on plastic breeder "prison" until you figure out how to get it to someone who appreciates it. flushing is lazy and disrespectful, IMO.

 

 

Agree. I just don't get people who have a reef tank and then want to kill everything that comes on the reef. Ignorant IMO, and very cruel.

 

There are tens of thousands of different crab species out there, and many look very similar- you can't possibly identify them by glancing at a "hitchhiker FAQ".

 

Most crabs are not equipped to harm anything in your tank, and if they do seem to "harm" something, it was probably already on its way out and the crab was doing the job nature intended for it to do.

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When I caught mine, it went to a fellow reefer's mantis tank. I didn't want to flush it or stab it, so I figured I would let a very small controlled act of "nature" do it.

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first of all, an hour drive is nothing.

 

second of all, craigslist and want ads and if nobody is local, shipping is an option.

 

third, either you care about the living things in your tank and want to do what's right for them or you don't. most folks i know who have been in the hobby a while would easily drive an hour to give a cool crab to someone who wanted it before flushing it down the drain.

 

if nothing else you can put it in a little hang-on plastic breeder "prison" until you figure out how to get it to someone who appreciates it. flushing is lazy and disrespectful, IMO.

 

+1

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first of all, an hour drive is nothing.

 

second of all, craigslist and want ads and if nobody is local, shipping is an option.

 

third, either you care about the living things in your tank and want to do what's right for them or you don't. most folks i know who have been in the hobby a while would easily drive an hour to give a cool crab to someone who wanted it before flushing it down the drain.

 

if nothing else you can put it in a little hang-on plastic breeder "prison" until you figure out how to get it to someone who appreciates it. flushing is lazy and disrespectful, IMO.

 

 

-1 for the "hour drive is nothing" comment, not everyone seems to have as much free time as you.

+1 for craigslist, It's pretty simple to put an add on there, but not everyone knows of it. I also wouldn't drive an hour to give the pesky thing away. Pick up only.

 

For someone who might not have the extra time to spare, flushing isn't lazy, it's convenient. Delivering or shipping takes precious time that many, like myself, don't have much to spare. Give him/her a break.

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-1 for the "hour drive is nothing" comment, not everyone seems to have as much free time as you.

+1 for craigslist, It's pretty simple to put an add on there, but not everyone knows of it. I also wouldn't drive an hour to give the pesky thing away. Pick up only.

 

For someone who might not have the extra time to spare, flushing isn't lazy, it's convenient. Delivering or shipping takes precious time that many, like myself, don't have much to spare. Give him/her a break.

 

^ +1

 

Besides, no one on here thinks twice about wiping out aptasia or majano. What's the difference?

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-1 for the "hour drive is nothing" comment, not everyone seems to have as much free time as you.

+1 for craigslist, It's pretty simple to put an add on there, but not everyone knows of it. I also wouldn't drive an hour to give the pesky thing away. Pick up only.

 

For someone who might not have the extra time to spare, flushing isn't lazy, it's convenient. Delivering or shipping takes precious time that many, like myself, don't have much to spare. Give him/her a break.

 

 

Thanks dangsy!

If it is any consolation I do not "murder" for the joy of it. I have put a small fortune into my tank and have paid good money for the things that I do want in it, the thought of something destroying what I have paid good money for urks me. So I say better safe than sorry. I did post originally asking if they were good/bad, I was told bad so out they go :o

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  • 2 weeks later...
kamikaze_fish

You people telling her it's a bad thing, I can't imagine living in your home. The mice, spiders, moths, flies, gnats, ants, termites, and whatever else has made it's way in your home have got to be so comfortable since you clearly feel it's the same as killing babies for someone to get rid of pests.

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My point is to repeat what has been said already in this thread:

 

You cannot tell properly what species it is with so many species looking similar.

 

Then, there are people saying that they have the same/similar crab without making any problems. See post #26 in this thread.

 

No one's taking notice. I got, too, some black-clawed {= "dangerous" B) ) crabs in my tank absolutely doing no harm at all.

 

Well, if someone likes to nuke everything in his tank he didn't bought and what is possibly dangerous, why not? There are worse things out in this world, surely. :D

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first of all, an hour drive is nothing.

 

second of all, craigslist and want ads and if nobody is local, shipping is an option.

 

third, either you care about the living things in your tank and want to do what's right for them or you don't. most folks i know who have been in the hobby a while would easily drive an hour to give a cool crab to someone who wanted it before flushing it down the drain.

 

if nothing else you can put it in a little hang-on plastic breeder "prison" until you figure out how to get it to someone who appreciates it. flushing is lazy and disrespectful, IMO.

 

Yeah, I drove during a bad winter storm to my lfs (over 45 minutes away) to return a bad fish. The owner knows I cannot kill anything, and always willing to take back things. I ran in the store, gave him the little fella and ran out to my still running car.

 

 

 

Thanks dangsy!

If it is any consolation I do not "murder" for the joy of it. I have put a small fortune into my tank and have paid good money for the things that I do want in it, the thought of something destroying what I have paid good money for urks me. So I say better safe than sorry. I did post originally asking if they were good/bad, I was told bad so out they go :o

 

I generally wait to see if something is bad. As you could tell some people have had great luck with that crab even though others deemed it bad. Every crab I had in my tanks in 8 years of reefing have been fun. They all have great personalities and I find that when you feed them, they leave everything else alone. I feed mine at night, as soon as the lights go out, they go to top rock and wait for dinner.

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How exactly did you catch the crab?

 

I have a very small (1cm in diameter) one that looks similar. It stays in one place during the day and I haven't really seen it move around at night. I tried cutting a water bottle in half and putting some krill inside, but my emerald crab and hermits end up getting trapped. I covered about 80% of it in saran wrap, and now the hermit and emerald don't get in. I've waited over a day and the crab still hasn't been caught yet.

 

Is there another technique I should try?

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All right, if and of you catch any of these crabs in the future, attempt to ship it to me. I think there cool. Not as cool as a mantis or something as far as hitchers go, but cool all the same.

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Just browsing the forums, I have come up with a rhetorical ethical question. Why is it ok for people to inject/glue/burn majano and aiptasia (both living creatures) to kill them when they come on a rock but not ok when a person sends another creature down the toilet? They are not harming anything when they are little just like the crabs discussed here. Just thinking outloud.....

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