catching godzilla the emerald crab

[jedimaster1138]

I added a bunch of emerald crabs a few months ago to cull the bubble algae that was blooming. It seems the bubbles have subsided, but now I have a new problem. One of the crabs has grown HUGE. His head piece is easily as big as a gold dollar. His claws are scary big.

I'm starting to get worried he's going to take a poke at a sleeping (or awake) fish. He waves at them when they swim by. Most of my fish, including my anthias, like to sleep on or near the sand and in caves...

Any bright ideas on catching and removing him? Twice I've been able to grab him with my forceps, but both times he's wiggled out. He's a strong, fast dude. Netting is hard as he's almost always on the rock work where i'd snaggle tooth and break a coral thus resulting in a lot of swearing..

 

[dherrera83]

put a bottle with food inside and just wait for him to get it. Worked for me.

 

[PhoenixOne]

I know how you feel. LOL!

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/photography/159594-he-keeps-growing-growing.html

First it was 1 Hulk. Now there's 3. They bench press rocks, compare claws etc. I started out with 6 dime sized crabs. Now I have 3 monsters and 3 that are still dime sized.

 

[jedimaster1138]

HUGE. Love the I LIFT THINGS UP AND PUT THEM DOWN. Looks just like mine. He can move my 5" Derasa clam around. Granted in the water the clam weighs next to nothing, but still. My wife noticed how big he'd gotten yesterday and was shocked/horrified.

Were you able to remove them with the beer glass idea? That's a good one. I figured some kind of trap would have to be employed as he's too fast and strong for my grabbers or net.

I was hoping my not-completely-reef-safe yellow wrasse would take him out...but no. He's probably scared. LOL Godzilla on the other hand doesn't mind tearing apart his smaller crab cousins though. SIGH

I planned on re-homing him into my overflow where there's still some bubble algae ...

 

[PhoenixOne]

I still have them in my tank since I barely have anything in my tank. But when the time comes, I'm going to use KathyC's bottle idea.

 

[SirReefalot]

I just went through this myself. I used Poland spring water bottles with some flakes in it instead of a glass bottle worked for all my emeralds took a few nights but got them all. Good luck!