Brad
Aquarium Advice FINatic
The crime: Attack, murder and ingestion of innocent bristle worm.
The witness: Me
The punishment: Death by Mantis
I'm not one to dole out this kind of punishment based on simply BEING a nastly looking crab. I waited until I witnessed the act in person. This crab was simply becoming too bold and was clearly predatory.
He was easily caught using a glass jigger. I jammed the jigger into the sand bed, leaned over with one edge of the jigger against the LR. The jigger stayed like this for 2 days. On the 3rd day, I waited until the lights went out, then added a piece of silverside (frozen fish) to the jigger. In less than 2 minutes, this crab entered the jigger and was trapped. If I had not been watching, one of my emerald crabs would have been in there also in another minute or two.
So, into the mantis tank he goes. Maybe he could live in there in peace....My mantis is about the same size as this crab...but it was no contest. In fact, it was horrible to watch. It look about 15 minutes, during which not less than 40 violent whacks removed legs, and just generally beat the crab to death.
Until you see a mantis in action against a crab, you really don't understand how violent these little predators can be. Strikes happen way to fast to get photos...but here you go.
The witness: Me
The punishment: Death by Mantis
I'm not one to dole out this kind of punishment based on simply BEING a nastly looking crab. I waited until I witnessed the act in person. This crab was simply becoming too bold and was clearly predatory.
He was easily caught using a glass jigger. I jammed the jigger into the sand bed, leaned over with one edge of the jigger against the LR. The jigger stayed like this for 2 days. On the 3rd day, I waited until the lights went out, then added a piece of silverside (frozen fish) to the jigger. In less than 2 minutes, this crab entered the jigger and was trapped. If I had not been watching, one of my emerald crabs would have been in there also in another minute or two.
So, into the mantis tank he goes. Maybe he could live in there in peace....My mantis is about the same size as this crab...but it was no contest. In fact, it was horrible to watch. It look about 15 minutes, during which not less than 40 violent whacks removed legs, and just generally beat the crab to death.
Until you see a mantis in action against a crab, you really don't understand how violent these little predators can be. Strikes happen way to fast to get photos...but here you go.