Hitchhiker Black Crab

[Diane/Reg]

I found a black crab in my rock yesterday and I know I didn't purchase it. Looks like a pebble flat on the front dark grey to black. I have sea horses and I'm just wondering if its safe?

[dsaundry]

Rule of thumb, almost all crabs can be a problem, with seahorses I wouldn't take any chances, Get rid of it..

[Zylumn]

I have 3 different hitch hiker crabs in my sump and they seem to be doing fine.
Kevin

[michika]

Is it a shiny black/grey? If so, its evil!

[Whatigot]

I had a mean little bugger raise hell in my reef.
killed fish and coral and was impossible to catch until he/she'd gotten about the size of a toonie.
I will never ever take a chance with one again, soon as I see it, it's gone.
The one I had was a little black one too, beady red eyes and somewhat hairy legs...

[Diane/Reg]

How do I catch the crab? It is very fast and hides in the rock.

[ponokareefer]

I just picked up a rock from a fellow reefer and gave it a fresh water dip and a crab came right out. Am I ever glad I did that as I think it would have eaten my pipefish for lunch!

[Whatigot]

I had to take my whole reef down rock by rock.
None of the traps i tried worked....

[ElGuappo]

i have had no hitchhickers in my tank as of yet outside of bristleworms can i just manually remove these? but i find if your willing to spend some time eyeballing it will come out late at night as i find all my inverts (shrimp hermits sallly lightfoot and porcelin ) come out in the early hours of the night 1-3 am . i have also found they will chase a semi floating pellet.

Not much help im sure but might be worth a try before you tear down your rock struckture.

maybe try tying down some frozen food this is a FOWLR tank? so you wouldnt have any scavengers picking at it . and may draw the crab out into the open.

[spoot]

Does it look like this?


If you know which rock he hides in, then remove that specific rock and force him out with skewers.