Bad Crab?

[J. Montgomery]

I found this very small crab on a colony of zoanthids. Anyone know what it is? Good or bad? He's not going back into the tank to err on the side of caution.

 

[JetCat USA]

kinda hard to tell from the pic, but looks like an acro crab.

 

[LeslieH]

Nearly all acro crabs have much bigger 1st legs/claws and different body shapes than this one. It's an ordinary crab and an opportunistic feeder like most of them.

 

[ginger7286]

It could be a red mithrex crab. I had one of those and needless to say he went to my LFS after I caught him eating everything he could wrap his claws around.

 

[jubjub]

i thought anything with dark claws like that one, gets yanked?

 

[Canarygirl]

Is that true even if the whole body is black? I found a hitchiker crab in my 30 gallon nano last week, with shiny black claws and irridescent green tinge...I think his whole body was black.

Is black a bad color for a crab? I thought he was maybe in the emerald crab family.

 

[coralnut99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10950870#post10950870 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeslieH
Nearly all acro crabs have much bigger 1st legs/claws and different body shapes than this one. It's an ordinary crab and an opportunistic feeder like most of them.

I'm with LeslieH on this one. Since you have him segregated, try feeding him a small piece of shimp. If he goes for it, you'd best find him a new home.

 

[yiliyang]

kina cute, how much damage can he do? I say put it in the tank. He will probably eat left overs and thrive.

 

[coralnut99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11034502#post11034502 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yiliyang
kina cute, how much damage can he do? I say put it in the tank. He will probably eat left overs and thrive.

I had a "cute" crab eat about $40 worth of astreas. Then there was the "cute" one that had a taste for sleeping firefish. I could go on, but I hope this makes a point.

They belong on the reef. Not in our boxes.

 

[MikeyNYC]

looks like a gorilla crab, kinda hard to tell from the picture. A good rule of thumb, sharp clawed crab are usually predator's