Purple Lobster

S

SharkSnack

Premium Member
I have a Purple Lobster in my reef tank and I believe he is getting some of my fish a night. Anyone have any idea how to catch him for removal without tearing up my whole tank? He hides behind a ton of live rock that is all but impossible to move without up-ending the whole setup. I added a Blue Spot Jawfish the other day and don't want it to becode a nice dinner.
 
I had to tear down my last tank finally to get one out. It ate up about $100 worth of small fish....not counting the snail's and hermit's before I realized what was happening. I didn't have room to put a trap in big enough to catch it but you can make a trap with a 2 liter bottle and then bait it, bad part is you gotta stay up after lights out so you can close the trap on it when it goes in. Good luck bro.

Cheers,
 
That sucks, I thought those were supposed to be reef safe? I almost bought one a while back. Do you ever see yours in the tank? I heard they were pretty reclusive during the day.
 
@nano-newbie wrote:
That sucks said:
Well they are....... right up till they start catching and eating your fish. :lol: They are scavengers and very opportunistic, why else do ya think they mainly come out at night. :lol:

Cheers,
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@nano-newbie wrote:
That sucks said:
This think is very nice looking. But, I rarely get to see it. It never comes out during the day. I only see it when I look in the tank with a flashlight at night. The only other problem is that I occasionally loose a fish, small ones that tend to sleep by the botton of the tank. This was not an issue before it's arrival. It does not seem to touch any of my corals. I did have a Sally Lightfoot crab get dismantled once as well.
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We suspect ours ate a couple small fish, and he got the name "the beast".

he is very shy but comes out at night to hunt down food. Every once and a while you will see him dart out to get some pellets if we drop them in front of his cave. I thiknk he's french because he eats snails. He also has a collection of food clips in his cave.

beautiful animal, mine is going on 8 or 9 years in a reef tank.
 
@psteeleb wrote:
We suspect ours ate a couple small fish said:
I didn't believe you about the food clips until I saw one in his cave. :lol:

He must come out at night to collect them. To get them back you have to leave him an offering of sinking pellets. :lol:
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I can't see in my Lobsters cave, but some clips are missing. He has a very well hidden cave. Do you think they may bother clams? I hope not because he will have to have a new home if he bothers clams. Pete, how did you get the great picture of yours? Mine would never come out for a picture.
Mary
 
I don't think mine ever bothers the clams.

I got the picture at night with a flash. He just happend to be there out but near that opening, and did not appear frightful of my flashlight. I thought that maybe, just by chance, he may stay there long enough for me to run in the other room to get my camera. So I did and sure enough he was still there and even seemed to pose for a couple snap shots. The light from the flashlight (or flash of the camera) may have put him in a slight trance, otherwise I have no idea why he stayed there as usually he'll back off into a cave when he sees us.
 
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