Hitchhiker help

[hookednewbie]

Ok I'm 1 week into the hobby and excited to see stuff growing on my live rock. Tonight I was super excited to see the first moving thing in my tank. My excitement was very short lived as I have now positively ID'd him as a gorilla crab. He is about the size of my thumb nail. My question is this. Will I need to worry about how to get rid of him or will he die as my tank cycles. Do I need to physically extract him from the tank (I'm getting the heebee jeebees just thinking about it) Or what? What do you suggest. Thanks!

 

[spanko]

I suggest getting over the heebeejeebees and get the critter out. Here is a blurb from Tampa Bay Saltwater;
"GORILLA AND STONE CRABS
You want to keep a lookout for Gorilla Crabs (xanthid species) and Stone Crabs. These pesky buggers are predators that can cause damage to your reef, eating anemones, clams, and anything else they can get their claws around. They might look cute when they're small, but it's just not worth putting them into the tank. If you really want to keep them, you could put them into your sump/fuge (if you have one).
The sure-fire way to spot one of these is to look for the black tips on their claws. As Gorilla crabs get larger, they become quite "hairy" all over. You can smash these guys pretty easily using a chopstick. "

 

[1guydude]

Quote:
You can smash these guys pretty easily using a chopstick. "
+1 idk why i didnt think of that. I had 2 hitchiker crabs in my syestem. I let em be and before u know it they where eating things they wernt supposed too. Cant remember wat but it took me hrs to get em out of the rock holes!