Sally lightfoot crab nightmare
 

So I had a Sally Lightfoot Crab for about a year now. It usually kept to himself and ate algea and some pods with no issues...

Well now this thing ate my clam, tried to eat my clownfish (Left it with a big scar) and also ate a big turbo snail. I have to catch this thing quick...

Does anybody have some ideas? I want to avoid ripping all my LR out because of attached corals, ect..

Has anybody else had problems with these crabs?

Cheers,

I've heard a few stories about Sally Lightfoots similar to yours. Any crab can turn bad (even Emeralds, I know of at least 2 people who have had problems with them), though it only seems to be the larger types that will attempt to catch fishes (Sally Lightfoot, Arrow, etc.)

Perhaps you could trap it using a bottle trap or something?

Correct me if I am wrong. I think all crabs are bad, even blue leg hermit crabs. I used to have them as part of my cleaning crew. But they attack snails and sometime corals.

Mine did the same sort of thing. Once it got fairly large, it started to get quite agressive trying to grab at things when they went by. I eventually caught it. I discovered that it wandered up to the glass edge at night and nabbed it easily in the dark with a net. Perhaps check a few hours after lights out and see if it's easier to grab. It didn't even see me trying to catch him in the dark.

Good luck

Catch it the same way a fisherman does trap and bait if he is that hungry he will go for it.

Watch "The Deadliest Catch" and get some ideas.

I'll give that a try. He seems to come out more at night. I won't be keeping crabs anymore...can't trust them. A $5 crab cost me $90 bucks....sigh