dryvern
New Member
Well I couldn't sleep, had an annoying day....so what did I do - catch the teddy bear!
Yep after 4 days of distainfull trapping tonight I got close......you guessed it ended up ripping up over a quater of my reef tank! Was kind of used to the way it looked...they never go back the same. Oh well, I finally got it.
Here's the culprit a 3" (leg to leg) Xanthid crab, aka teddy bear, hairy crab, bristle crab, perhaps even a gorilla crab (though no black claws....oh those black marks on its underbody could have been the claws) or so I seem to have found out:
The little sods do seem to creat bigger holes in rock. But glad as I am to have him out I wonder:
Question: What To Do With It?
I know the LFS will take the freebee & will warn against small fish & reef use etc, but are these things too bad even in a FOWLR tank of deacent sized fish?? I.e. would it be irresponsible to give it them?
I do have a reacent FOWLR tank with a undulatus trigger & moray eel, but I am loath to disturb them as they are still settling in.
Don't know much about this crab apart from 'bad teddy' but I also don't like to kill it...boy it put up a fight!
Any ideas?
PS. Curious thing...when I was viewing the crab prior to attack, there was tiny fry swimming & swooping around practically on top of it in the LR. Odd it seemed not to be bothered with them (no not mini crabs). Perhaps they were too small be worried & were afforded a little protection.
Yep after 4 days of distainfull trapping tonight I got close......you guessed it ended up ripping up over a quater of my reef tank! Was kind of used to the way it looked...they never go back the same. Oh well, I finally got it.
Here's the culprit a 3" (leg to leg) Xanthid crab, aka teddy bear, hairy crab, bristle crab, perhaps even a gorilla crab (though no black claws....oh those black marks on its underbody could have been the claws) or so I seem to have found out:
The little sods do seem to creat bigger holes in rock. But glad as I am to have him out I wonder:
Question: What To Do With It?
I know the LFS will take the freebee & will warn against small fish & reef use etc, but are these things too bad even in a FOWLR tank of deacent sized fish?? I.e. would it be irresponsible to give it them?
I do have a reacent FOWLR tank with a undulatus trigger & moray eel, but I am loath to disturb them as they are still settling in.
Don't know much about this crab apart from 'bad teddy' but I also don't like to kill it...boy it put up a fight!
Any ideas?
PS. Curious thing...when I was viewing the crab prior to attack, there was tiny fry swimming & swooping around practically on top of it in the LR. Odd it seemed not to be bothered with them (no not mini crabs). Perhaps they were too small be worried & were afforded a little protection.
