eeeekkkkk, scary huge emerald crab

[Picasso]

So, I thought my emerald crab died. I pulled him out of the tank a few months ago and gave him his funeral. Well, tonight, I was feeding the ponies and this HUGE crab came crawling out of the cave. I mean hes a couple inches across! His mouth is the size of a large lima bean. Ugh, will this thing eat living creatures? I'm so worried for my ponies!
:shock: How do you get him outta there?

thanks,
C

 

[Rcpilot]

If you want to get him out - pretty easy to bait him out with a big hunk of fresh meat. Try the Yote method and tease him into a net with a string attached to the handle. When he's all the way in the net, jerk it out in one quick motion.

 

[SeaBee]

Build a small crab trap from a soda bottle. Cut the top off, turn it around and put some meat in there, near the cave. Make the opening big enough for him to crawl in. Then lights out and you go on fire watch and wait for him to crawl in there. Then pull the bottle out. I forgot to say tie a string to the neck so you can pull it out when he crawls in there.

 

[dcantucson]

I wouldn't trust him around my ponies. But... then again I don't have any. :)

 

[Picasso]

Great, now I can't sleep worrying this thing's gonna eat a horse. How the heck did he get so big? How big do they get anyway? I don't have any meat, do you think he would go for some tofu?

C

 

[Colin]

you need to take a picture of this guy. I cant imagine something going unseen and get so big. Thats so cool.

 

[SeaBee]

Put fish food in the trap then. I have a predator crab in one of my rocks. I can only see his legs, he wont come out. i bought a small yellow baby tang the other day and he's gone now. So I know he slept in that rock and now....

 

[Rcpilot]

Better get that sucker on film so we can have a look at it.

Might have to call in the SWAT team and take it out .... :chair:

 

[yote]

The only time I've ever seen an emerald crab go after meat.The animal is was eating was already dead.
Emerald crabs perfer algae as their food source,and as long as they have that,they're fine.

 

[Picasso]

Yote, how big have you seen them? I really love this crab. His name is Oz and I was pretty upset when I thought he was dead. If he's going to be a good member of my CUC then I would like to keep him.

C

 

[d2mini]

So was it his molt that you gave a funeral?

Mine disappeared not long after introducing to my new tank, and i did find green crab parts in the tank, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up showing up sooner or later, bigger than ever.

 

[Picasso]

turns out it was his molt. Next time, I'll check the insides for crab meat.

 

[yote]

The biggest emerald I've seen personally was about 3 inches across.
He was in the rock sump at the LFS,until a mantis got him.

 

[Bluespace]

My emerald is one of my favs in my tank. He's always out munchin on stuff. I would say he's about 1 inch across. He'll throw his claws up at passing fish but he's soooo slow I doubt he would ever catch anything even if he wanted to.

 

[Picasso]

I'll bet mine is close to three inches if you stretch out his legs. I think the only reason I saw him last night is that class ran late and I was feeding the ponies so late. My crab bolted pretty quick when he saw me and he would have absolutely no problem getting one of my horses. grrrrrrrr

 

[yote]

I really doubt you have to worry about him bothering your horses.
They can move pretty quick when startled.

 

[Picasso]

He wouldn't come outta the stupid cave so this is the best shot I could get...

 

[yote]

He is a biggun.:D

 

[puttycat]

Great, now I can't sleep worrying this thing's gonna eat a horse. How the heck did he get so big? How big do they get anyway? I don't have any meat, do you think he would go for some tofu?

C

I think he meant fish food meat. like a piece of shrimp

 

[CDaubs]

Hmm, fuzzy - grainy picture. Isn't that how the whole UFO thing started??

Let's see a REAL picture. :)