Brown Mithrax Crab

[Trenton Henderson]

I had a pair of brown mithrax crabs come in on some live rock. Early on I killed the smaller of the two thinking it was bad. As I started looking at the other one it resembled a brown slightly hairier version of an emerald crab. It hasn't caused any problems that I know of. The only things I am wondering about include hermits. I put in about five dwarf zebra hermits and they all disappeared within the week. Then lately I saw him under the shell of my one inch Halloween hermit and it was eating broken a broken off claw. I moved the halloween and he is still alive, but he only has one claw. Could that brown mithrax be the culprit? Should I remove him? I tried but he escaped.

[matty]

I would remove it, they look like Mythrax but usually aren't. Does it have rounded points on it's claws like an emerald or pointed?

[Trenton Henderson]

Rounded. It looks almost the same. The only difference is that its brown with lighter spots and has some hair, but not a lot. When I tried to get it out I stabbed at it a lot. It crawled away and I saw it for a little while, but haven't seen it since. Do you think I killed it?

[matty]

Probably not, they are very good at hiding. I would keep watching, use a flashlight at night maybe.

[Trenton Henderson]

So I take it thats a get it out of there. And once I do, what do I do with it?

[matty]

If you have a sump you could put it there. If not ?

[ChrisQ]

take a baited mason jar and lean it up against a rock at night, he will go investigate and fall in and won't be able to get back out.