Crab eating my fish?!

67RedDonzi

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About a week ago we found a crab hiding in our liverock. Only saw one leg pop out from a hole but it was a good 2 inches long, very hairy, black, with a almost gold foot. We have 2 hermit crabs in the tank but nothing like this.

About 3 weeks ago we added a Christmas wrasse into the tank, after adding him we never saw him again. The same goes for a watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair. Lastly, we had a smaller hippo tang in the tank for about 2 weeks, he was doing great...and now he has disappeared.

Could this crab be eating the easier to catch fish? How can I get him out of my tank? Thank you
 

fhd

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Yes it can eat you also, I had one ate 4 damsel and one goby.
Finally my take is save cuz I cached it after 1 month of trying. The wrasse maybe hiding in the sand as mine do always 1to2 time I can see it in the week. By the way u catch him by puting deep glass cup near the rock with insert of small rock and glue on it small shrimp check below link: How to Catch an Aquarium Crab!: http://youtu.be/QTRjbE5T5fs hope you catch it.
 
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67RedDonzi

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funny enough, about 2 hours after posting this we caught the crab. I saw him poking a leg out of one of the top rocks. Picked up the rock/coral and placed it into the QT. Was able to push him out with a wooden dowel. He is now living in the QT until Friday when I will take him to my LFS and try to identify him. He's not as big as I thought (I swear his leg looked as thick as a pencil the first time I saw it)....maybe there is two of them in the tank? I would say he is an inch, maybe and inch and a half. Could a crab this size eat a small hippo tang (about 1 1/2"), a watchman goby (2", haven't seen the pistol shrimp either),and a Christmas wrasse(was probably 3")? The day after we placed a leopard wrasse in the tank we found him dead as well. It looked like part of his side had been burnt or chewed at, almost looked like the scales were melted? Could this little crab be doing all this damage?
 
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67RedDonzi

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alright, here are some pictures.
 

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67RedDonzi

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The only other thing I can think of would be the coral banded shrimp, he's pretty large. Could he be the problem?
 

Xingu

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Do you have a top on your tank? If not check the floor around the tank. I once had a jumper that hit the floor and apparently flopped around until he fell into a floor register/diffuser and into the ductwork.
 
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67RedDonzi

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No top on the tank yet, working on building a screen one at 5th moment. Our dwarf lionfish jumped last week :( none of the others have jumped though we've checked. They're simply disappearing. No bodies of anything ( except for the leopard wrasse. Only other thing that makes sense is the coral banded shrimp, he's a good 5" or more
 

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