Studies in tropical streams have shown a marked lack of shredding macro-invertebrates, possibly due to an underestimation of the impact of large mobile shredders.  This study was conducted in a third order tropical African stream to investigate the impact of shredders on leaf decomposition.  Fine and coarse mesh packs were used to assess the impact of excluding all shredders while a cage exclusion was used to exclude only large mobile crabs.  Leaves of black alder (Alnus glutinosa) from central New York and a local tree species, Pseudospondias microcarpa, both decayed rapidly (k>0.1) and broke down significantly faster in coarse packs than in fine mesh packs.  The local leaves Saba comorensis and Monanthotaxis poggei, however, decayed at only moderate rates (k<.03) and showed no significant difference between treatments.  Surprisingly, no significant differences were observed between crab treatments.  Leaf nitrogen content did not explain differences in breakdown between P. microcarpa and other local leaves.  Only 1% of invertebrates found were identified as shredders, which appear to be a small but important part of leaf breakdown in this system.  In contrast to other tropical sites with large crustaceans, crabs are not an important contributor to the breakdown of the leaf species studied.