Hyde?

We came back home today to find our beloved emerald crab dead! His body was lying in a pocket of one of our favorite rocks. At first, I thought it was probably just a molt, but when I pulled it out, I didn't see any evidence that it was split open like an old shell should look like. I looked back into the tank again, and saw another, much larger emerald crab moving in our tank!

This new emerald had to have been a hitchhiker that came in with the live rock. That would mean it was alive in the tank and hidden from view for 6-7 weeks! We were shocked and simply could not believe it. We decided this emerald should be called Hyde. In our opinion, it was possible/likely that this hitchhiker crab was responsible for our emerald's death and possibly the fish was well. It had to go.

Allie read about a way to set up a crab trap using a smooth side glass/jar with some smelly treat inside (we used shrimp). The idea is that the crab enters the glass to get the food but cannot climb back out. This sounded much better than having to tear up the rockwork to get him, so we gave it a try. We put the trap in and turned off all of the lights since crabs are more active after dark. We checked periodically using a flashlight. No success! A few of the nassarius snails did enter, grab a bite and then leave. The emerald steered clear though.

I saw the emerald perched up on top of the mushroom coral rock and decided to make an attempt at netting him. After a couple tries, I was able to get him to basically jump off the rock and was able to net him while he floated down. Again, much simpler than I had anticipated.

After this hitchhiker crab was removed from the tank, we did a census in the tank. Our cerith that we presumed dead was back!