I just place a couple more pieces of lr in my tank. Just now i am realizing there is a white crab with brown stripes in one of the pieces. He is about the size of my clownfish. Will he kill my clownfish or attack my cleaner shrimp? Is he helpful? Sorry i dont have a camera. Thanks
Urgent: Help!!
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Does it look like a crayfish/lobster shape crab or more like an emerald crab? Does it look like a mantis crab? If you don't know what one looks like, do some research on the web for mantis crabs.
If you are saying the crab is as big as your fish, it might very well kill them if it has the opportunity.
I am personally not an advocate for any kind of crab. If they are not killing the snails just to get the shells, then I've seen them eating/killing my corals.
If I had something like that in my tank, it would be as good as gone.
If you are saying the crab is as big as your fish, it might very well kill them if it has the opportunity.
I am personally not an advocate for any kind of crab. If they are not killing the snails just to get the shells, then I've seen them eating/killing my corals.
If I had something like that in my tank, it would be as good as gone.
Get him out well you still can if it is a mantis.I don't know about a Mantis crab, but here is a link for a Mantis Shrimp that has many species for you to look at. Mantis are predators in a tank, but crabs can be as well.
Mantis ID
If you took out the LR and want to get that crab out, take a turkey baster and squirt freshwater into the holes of the LR. If you have soda water, you can try that also. Another suggestion is to dip or set that LR into a high salinity of 1.030 and what is in there will usually come out. Keep us posted.
Mantis ID
If you took out the LR and want to get that crab out, take a turkey baster and squirt freshwater into the holes of the LR. If you have soda water, you can try that also. Another suggestion is to dip or set that LR into a high salinity of 1.030 and what is in there will usually come out. Keep us posted.
Thank you for the site Mermaid, im still not positive what kind of crab it is or was, but i think everyone was right with taking it out because one of my clowns swam past it and it appeared to lunge at the clown. I will probably try the turkey baster thing, but does neone know how long i can keep the rock out if i still cant seem to get it?
Thanks
Thanks
You can take some water from your tank, put it in a bucket and put the LR in there. Pick up the LR and then shoot all the holes with a baster to try and eject that lil varmit out of there and it will fall into the bucket. FW worked very well for me with getting a Mantis out of my LR.
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Most definately kick up the salinity. The higher the salinity, the quicker it should vacate. Then once it gets out of the rock, immediately remove the rock and leave the crab in the bucket. You can probably take it to trade it into your local pet store.
I would leave the rock in the bucket until you have visual confirmation the crab is out.
Do you have anything else on the rock or is it new? If you get really cheesed, then I would just take the rock out, put it on the driveway and blast the living heck out of it with the garden hose. Don't be surprised if the crab still stays inside the hole. They can be a real bear to remove.
I would not risk loosing clownfish or anything for that matter, to a nasty crab.
You are lucky in the sense that you know which rock it is in right now. If you wait, it may decide to move on you and you will be out of luck then.
I would leave the rock in the bucket until you have visual confirmation the crab is out.
Do you have anything else on the rock or is it new? If you get really cheesed, then I would just take the rock out, put it on the driveway and blast the living heck out of it with the garden hose. Don't be surprised if the crab still stays inside the hole. They can be a real bear to remove.
I would not risk loosing clownfish or anything for that matter, to a nasty crab.
You are lucky in the sense that you know which rock it is in right now. If you wait, it may decide to move on you and you will be out of luck then.
G
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Try using a turkey baster to force it out this works well. If you jack up or mess up the salinity you can ruin the piece of rock. If it lunged at any fish it is more then likely a Mantis Shrimp assuming its harsh nature.
DO NOT KILL the crap or shrimp or whatever it is. Mor then likely once you identify it it will be of some value. If it is white with bronw stripes running across the tail from left to right you might have yourself a juvenile mantis which would be worth while to keep to see if a petshop will take it.
While the rock is out of the tank make sure you have good flow over it and perform water changes.
Skylergirl is correct , all crabs are evil derived from the devil himslef but they are doing what crabs do. And they do serve a purpose.
Try using a turkey baster to force it out this works well. If you jack up or mess up the salinity you can ruin the piece of rock. If it lunged at any fish it is more then likely a Mantis Shrimp assuming its harsh nature.
DO NOT KILL the crap or shrimp or whatever it is. Mor then likely once you identify it it will be of some value. If it is white with bronw stripes running across the tail from left to right you might have yourself a juvenile mantis which would be worth while to keep to see if a petshop will take it.
While the rock is out of the tank make sure you have good flow over it and perform water changes.
Skylergirl is correct , all crabs are evil derived from the devil himslef but they are doing what crabs do. And they do serve a purpose.
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Here's a testiment as to how hardy crabs are.
I had some liverock that was only "so-so" that I did not have room for in my tank. I put the rock in a 7 gallon bucket filled with saltwater and put the bucket into my garage. Mind you now, this was around mid to late October. It wasn't exactly warm and toasty if you get my drift.
Well, I did no water changes. There was no aeration. Heck, I even put a lid on the bucket. It stayed stagnant this way for THREE WEEKS!
Well, I sold the rock and the person came over to get it late at night. As we picked the pieces out of the bucket, my hands were getting frozen because the water was so cold.
At the bottom of the bucket was a medium sized crab. I could not tell if it was an emerald or what. Let's just say it was extremely fiesty for being in sub 50 degree water with no light, heat, air or food for three weeks straight.
In my experience, crabs are not delicate creatures. Shrimp on the other hand, could not have survived that type of treatment.
But as I had mentioned earlier, if you can take it into the pet store, somebody else will buy it.
I had some liverock that was only "so-so" that I did not have room for in my tank. I put the rock in a 7 gallon bucket filled with saltwater and put the bucket into my garage. Mind you now, this was around mid to late October. It wasn't exactly warm and toasty if you get my drift.
Well, I did no water changes. There was no aeration. Heck, I even put a lid on the bucket. It stayed stagnant this way for THREE WEEKS!
Well, I sold the rock and the person came over to get it late at night. As we picked the pieces out of the bucket, my hands were getting frozen because the water was so cold.
At the bottom of the bucket was a medium sized crab. I could not tell if it was an emerald or what. Let's just say it was extremely fiesty for being in sub 50 degree water with no light, heat, air or food for three weeks straight.
In my experience, crabs are not delicate creatures. Shrimp on the other hand, could not have survived that type of treatment.
But as I had mentioned earlier, if you can take it into the pet store, somebody else will buy it.
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