Hitchhiker Crab

[Durbelethwen]

Last night I saw a crab that I had not bought in my aquarium and I am trying to figure out what it might be. I watched it move around some what and when nudged with a turkey baster it ran into hiding. I have not seen it since so I cannot post a picture of it. I think it came on the coral I bought on Wednesday (it is a flower leather coral if that helps). It is probably about an inch long, is the general shape of a your typical crab, and it appeared to be the same color as the macro algae on the rock it was sitting on. I am afraid it may have eaten the smaller of my sexy shrimp because I have not seen it since I reorganized my tank on Thursday, though I have seen the larger one many times. Thank you for your theories I will keep you posted if I see it again.

btw: Has anyone here ever bought a snail over the internet and when it arrived discovered another snail of a different species and very much smaller, on its back. It happened to me this week. I bought the snail at the same time as the coral to save on shipping. ($34.99)

I just remembered if it makes any difference I have a Pom Pom Crab that just molted in my tank. It is definitely not the same thing, also it appeared that the pom poms were given a brush cut.

 

[Durbelethwen]

Update on my crab:
It has not made a repeat appearance yet (perhaps tonight it will).
I saw my smaller sexy shrimp,:bounce3: I suppose it was just molting.
Also I looked at a thread of various hitchhikers. For a while I was afraid it could be a rock crab. Though fortunately after comparing the picture and what was seen last night it most likely is not a rock crab. The front claws are much smaller then a rock crab's front claws.

 

[Dratini]

See what color it's claws are and if they have the same flt tips as an emerald crab. That way we can at least narrow it down to what family it's from. If the claws are black and appear sharp then you need to find a way to remove it. Look up glass jar removal methods.

 

[89Foxbody]

What do the claws look like? If they are dark at the tips it's probably a Gorilla crab which will murder anything that looks at it funny.

 

[Durbelethwen]

I did not see it last night, but I recall from Friday night that I think its claws were the uniformly the same color as the rest of his body. The color was a light green.

 

[BEASTIEPENDENT]

You might take a look at http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html if you find something similar to what You have seen. Without a picture we will not be able to determine it but maybe we can level it down to at least a family as Dratini noted.