Reef Discussion

[craige]

So i have a suspicion that i may have a crab in my tank as i found some shedding legs today i have never seen a crab in the tank what is the best way of finding it

 

[Agent M]

Could the shed legs be from your hermit?

Crabs often skulk around under the rock with their legs facing backwards, holding on to the rock above them like this:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/cr...True-Crab-Photo-Gallery/Chris--Stone-Crab.htm

I would just patiently keep an eye out for it, especially at feeding time. You may also catch a glimpse of one claw picking at some food. You can have a look in the tank at night and see if you can spot it with a torch too.

If you absolutely must find it, take each rock out of the tank one at a time and dip them in a bucket of fresh water for a few seconds - anything living in the rock will come shooting out and you can collect up the things you want to keep and put them straight back in the tank. I wouldn't do this unless you really want to remove it from the tank though as its unnecessary to put the critters living on the live rock under stress otherwise. I am basing this recommendation on the pic of your tank in your profile pic which looks like you just have live rock and no coral? Don't FW dip any rocks with corals growing on them.