Help id this crab...mithrax???

[Husky_1]

Hey all,
I have a hitchhiker on my rocks which I caught today. I do not have a refuge, so I either need to keep him in the tank, give him away or kill him.

Unfortunately the wife has the camera at work so I cannot take a picture, but the users fade32 posted the picture below in another thread and it looks like the leg on my crab.

Other than that he is red, the body is smooth, 4 pairs of legs and 2 claw (legs). The non claw legs are hairy, and his body shape is sided, kind of like a diamond with the sharp tip cutoff: Very similar to the other mithrax that I have seen.

Please let me know what you think he is, he is currently in a water filled plastic bag in my tank, awaiting his fate.

If he is a mithrax, I will probably keep him and make sure he is fed, if not he is going to a buddies refuge or the ocean.

Also, we saw him during the day, he seems to like to see us.
Thanks

 

[nmprisons]

looks kind of like the claw on my mithrix crab, but all that black on the claw tip throws it off a bit. was the body red? it may have been a red mithrix.

 

[Husky_1]

Yes, it is all red except just the tip of the claw..like the picture.

 

[nmprisons]

i would guess red mithrix, but i have never seen one in person so i am definately not sure.

 

[Paliya]

This morning I caught a crab in my tank that I think might be the one you all are talking about. He came on some live rock.

He's a really pretty orange/red color, and his body is about the size of a nickle. He has hairly legs and black tips on his claws... one claw is bigger than the other one. If this is a Mithrax, is he reef safe? I'm going to have a lot of soft corals in my tank and I don't want him eating them! But I'd love to keep him if he's harmless, because he's so cool looking.

He's super secretive, only comes out late at night and gets scared away really easily even with my red flashlight. I caught him by putting a peice of raw shrimp in a glass and tilting it against a rock. He got in, but couldn't climb out.

Regards,
-P

edit: Sorry for the crappy pic... I shot it with my cellphone :artist:

 

[Husky_1]

Looks similar to my guy, wish someone could confirm if this is mithrax, or something a little more dangerous like the gorilla.

 

[Paliya]

Another pic:

He has white dots on his head... and some on his legs. I let him go back in to the tank (I felt bad for keeping him in the glass). If he's a bad crab, I hope I can catch him again!

Any crab experts have an opinion on what he is?

-P

Oh, and my digital camera takes crappy up-close shots, so i had to snap another pic with my cellphone. sorry!

 

[TOURKID]

Do those claws look like friendly claws to you??
Banish him to the bathroom bowl.

You will not regret it. and it WILL be harder and harder to catch...

It took me monthe to catch mine. It ate snails 1 a day after it got large. (i could see in its cave) then hed roll the shells out

once i got a very small clown i got very nervous about it jumping on it at night and killing it.. so I boiled it seriously. (shot boiling water in its cave, and body parts came flying out)

 

[Husky_1]

Tourkid,
I think you are right, after some research the claws were my main concern, they do not look like the other mithrax that I have seen.

 

[LeslieH]

There's really no way to identify a crab with just the claw unless it's totally unique for some reason ---- and this one isn't. You can't even go to family as lots of crabs in different families have black tipped claws. The original owner of the claw might be a xanthid just because they are hardy survivors which are commonly found on live rock but that's all we can say. Xanthids do tend to be omnivores which will feed on anything they can catch and are not considered reef safe.

The other pictures don't show enough detail either, sorry......