Thanks for the tip, Murray! :mrgreen: However, I wouldn't mind seeing what I've got before I turn it into soup. But, I don't want to wait two years to see this thing, either!!!
I give it a couple weeks, then it's crab soup! :P

they get hairy at a certain size. i found one in my tank, definitely a gorilla crab, but it doesnt have any "hair" yet, as it is still kind of small (compared to what they can get to).

ive been told that any crab with black (or dark) claws is bad news.

OK, so it's been a while, and I'm sure this guy is doing some damage! No shrimp left, no nudi's left, and my Sally Lightfoot has gone missing. All corals and fish still A-OK.
So, drinking glass, eh? What about all the hermits in the tank, won't they get stuck, too? Then won't this nasty crab do in some of them (seen a few hermit corpses as well)?

I've removed one by finding his 'home' rock just by keeping an eye on the tank and then removing the whole rock and shaking him out into a bucket. I've also had luck with a jar propped up against the rockwork with one of those sinking algae wafers in it as bait. I wouldn't worry about the hermits. The evil crab will fill up on the bait once in the jar and if you do loose a hermit that sucks but you're better off making sure that crab is out of your tank.

Bad crab...let the hunt begin.I just lucked out this weekend. I have been seeing and unsuccessfully trying to catch a rather large, all black, hairy SOB crab for about three months. A canreefer came over to look at a couple frags I had and wanted a frag of my green cap which wasnt yet fragged. As I picked the rock up the crab scurried across the rock and I quickly yanked the whole rock out. The crab fell off the rock just as it crossed to the outside of the tank. You would have thought I had just won the lottery, I was sooo happy. I told buddy he made my day by coming over and gave him a wicked deal on what he took. The crab and a large blue knuckled hermit that has killed three mexican turbo snails in as many weeks ended up at the shop and I wont say what ended up happening to them:twised:

I have had lots of practice hunting for crabs. what I find has worked best for me is I went to princess auto and picked up a 12 inch long pair of forceps they will be able to lock on to the crab as the little buggers can hold on to the rock like you wouldnt imagine. I wait till all the lights are out in the tank and the room is dark then have a look around with my trusty flash light with the red lens. I have pull many crabs from my tank with this method.

Come to think of it it is about time I go on a crab hunting expedition again


Hope this helps and happy hunting

I think I may end up going this route. Last night only one small hermit was in the glass. The bugger may not even be in the main tank anymore - I moved some LR around between the sump and hte main tank... I want to make sure he's out of the main tank, tho before I go and get some shrimp, tho

I am sorry but I do not think this is a bad crab, it has the same shaped claws as an emerald, which eats algae. I have crabs like this in my tank, with no issues.

If you look closely the claws are rounding at the ends not pointy, and the inner claw at the point is flat for scraping algae.