Feelin crabby today

[christyf5]

OK, so some of you know that I've been having problems with the tank lately (so what else is knew? ) but surprisingly enough, these aren't algae problems. I've had disappearing zoos, bases of acros eaten away, the occasional snail shell. So I chalked it up to a rogue crab and did an interceptor treatment. I killed a crab, not sure what kind it was but chalk it up to Christy 1 Reef 0. Time went by, acros recovered their bases, zoos slightly recovered in some areas yet dwindled in others. No more snail deaths.

Then this week I was doing a water change and noticed 3 different "rubble piles" we're not talking boulders here but someone was definitely doing some construction work on the rock, little bits and pieces chipped away. I also found 3 more snail shells (I didn't realize I even had that many snails) and one of my acros seemed to be "receeding" even more, A zoo rock that must have had at least 500 zoos on it at one time currently has about 5. Ok, Another crab. *sigh* Another interceptor treatment *sigh*. Dang I've been going through the salt lately!

I had purchased some rock a few weeks ago, I figured it must have hitchhiked in on that. I've seen a few moults around, a 2cm carapace, a little claw. How could such a small crab, or a couple of small crabs do such damage? They must be danged determined.

So today, another interceptor treatment (thank god the pills come in packs of 6 ). At the end of the treatment I come home thinking, score another one for me, yet there are no bodies lounging about the bottom of the tank. I see yet another claw, bigger than the others but thats about it. I'm scouting around the tank bottom with nothing to see. As I prowl around the tank I take a look at the end view and see this:



I take it interceptor only kills little weeny acro crabs, not monsters of this size Yep thats a full grown astrea shell next to it

I won't repeat what I said here. But its pretty much the equivalent to what one might say when they find a giant wolf spider less than 2 feet away from them

Then I laughed. How did I think a tiny little crab could possibly do the damage that was going on in my tank? How could I possibly have missed that giant mofo crab? How the heck did it get in there in the first place? How was I going to get it the heck out of there?

Removal was fun. I didn't want to even get near it (bad childhood episode with a crab, plus the big ones creep me out unless they're on my dinner plate). And of course it was also an ordeal involving removal of the lighting hood, taking my puzzle of rock apart to remove the giant 15lb rock it was attached to (and snacking on yet another snail I might add).

After all was said and done, here he is in all his glory:



And his lovely claws:



I look forward to my zoos returning, acros flourishing and my rock remaining intact.

On a brighter note, having the tank apart gave me a chance to grout out some snail shells and put some more rock in

Yet another fun day in the life of my reef