Let me blow your mind!!! Pics!

[mickey204]

So, I've had my tank up for almost 5 months, I started with 100 Lb's of cured live rock, Some tonga, some indo pacific, some from established tanks so I dont even know where it came from.....and well I one night came across a crab, well...I fiqured it "must" be a crab, but its way of eating, etc...really creeped me out. Especially since besides one Emerald crab, I have zero in my tank, I've chosen to go the snail route (tonga nassarus, deepwater turbo's, giant turbos, zebra turbo's) Months went by and I couldnt find him...Until last night!

Got out the SLR, moved myself into retarded positions with a flashlight, trying to get shots of it upside down on a rock. Family members must have thought I lost my mind hahaha.

So, lets check er' out. I'm shooting through halfinch glass on my tank, so the pics are the best I could get.

Any idea what is it? I've burned through hundreds of pages of online crab books like "all the crabs in the world" the Hitchhikers guides, etc...But to no avail. He's free roaming. Quite gorgeous with neon blue and orange and leopard spots, yet he has huge arms above his head that hold massive fans that he feed's himself with. I'm aware of "maxillipeds" how-ever they're mouth parts, and some porcelain crabs are high evolved and have little fans to filter feed...This guy has 3 separate fans on each big arm. It's a little mind blowing watching this guy. He also has a spiderlike body which makes him even more creepy lol.

Enough talk, On to the pics!

And since he saw the camera and posed for me, (he's oddly sociable) Jobin my mandarin lol

Let me know what you think, Maybe he's a common occurance and I've just been unlucky in my searches. Maybe not, lets ID this guy if possible. Thanks for viewing!

 

[Zire]

Wow, it really is a cool porcelain crab. Don't know any specific species unfortunately though .

 

[nanshaw2001]

Gorgeous crab....I'm jealous!!!!

 

[AJSTITAN14]

+1 porcelain. The fans catch food from the water column. really cool little bugs. I want one.

 

[650-IS350]

it IS a porcelain crab thats not dependant on anemones. These darker ones burgandy/bluish hide around rocks. I got a lot of them when I had a large order of rocks from the gulf of mexico... They are completely harmless, will mostly filter feed with those apendages but will eat some algae.

 

[commonstranger]

That is a sweet crab

 

[susan92368]

definitely porcelain/anenome crab! i picked up 2 of them this week. LOVE these guys. both bright blue, and very busy! lol
p.s. Jobin is very handsome!

 

[mystery_reef]

awesome!!!!

 

[kevantheman35]

sweet porcelain crab! i saw one at the shed aquarium and it blew my mind

 

[mickey204]

Thanks for the compliments! Makes me feel better about hanging upside down for an hour taking photo's hahaha.

I'm glad I know what he is now, I had a feeling he may be a porcelain crab but I didnt know some species were free roaming. I was worried some people would say "when in doubt, get it out" because I'd quietly keep him anyway haha. Makes me feel alot better now.

He's quite amazing, and has lived since day one I had the tank up *started with 100 lb's of cured live rock*

Hopefully he has a long time to go!

Is there a general rule of thumb for how long certain inverts usually live?

 

[Elysia]

The anemone crabs are usually (perhaps only, I'm not sure) Neopetrolisthes spp. These porcelain crabs (like the one in your photos, the so-called "free-living" kind) are Petrolisthes spp. I absolutely love the Petrolisthes spp. and I would not want to be without one. I have found them to be the best crab in the hobby for a community tank -- they stay relatively small, are peaceful, and are pretty easy to take care of. I try to assure that my porcelains get some kind of planktonic food, like cyclopeeze, just in case that is something that they need. But I often see mine doing excited little jumps to catch enriched brine (I have some fish that spit out all other food!) The best thing about the porcelains is that I can "hand" feed them with forcepts. If you put a mysis by them, they will eagerly use their claws to grasp it and feed on it! To me, it is interesting to be able to "interact" with my invertebrates like that! The only problems I ever have with my porcelains is making sure that the person who is catching and bagging them knows to be gentle -- as a way to escape predation, the crab will "shed" one of its large claws and flee while the predator eats the claw. One clueless employee, and it doesn't take long for all the crabs to be clawless...

I don't know how long a porcelain can live. Considering that people report emerald crabs, scarlet hermits, peppermint shrimp, and the various cleaner shrimp to live for four years or more... not that every one gets such a life, but one can always hope. I'm glad you are enjoying your hitchhiker.

 

[matman4u]

I purchased a full set up Nano reef tank a few weeks ago. My goal was to obtain the corals and like rock in the tank, and didn't ask much about the other inhibatantes. As I was taking apart the reef to move it, I saw 2 clowns, blue wrasse, and a blue starfish. The women told me that there is a pistol shrimp in there also. But I did not see it. I took out the 50lbs of live rock into buckets, and took everything home. After setting everything back into the tank. I found a blue wrasse that had been hiding in the rock. ALSO, the most amazing Crab.
It was one of these porcelain crabs. He was hanging out right under the ledge of rock in the front of the tank. I watched him for at least 2 hours as the wrasse and crab played a game. The wrasse would dart up to the crab and the crab would swing one of his giant claws at the wrasse. They did this over and over and over again. I should have taken pictures and video when I had the perfect chance.
Now the crab has moved way back to the very back botton of the tank. I can see him with a flashlight, but it is to far for me to get a picture. One of these days, I hope to catch him coming out at night so I can snap a shot.
P.S. I have only seen the pistol shrimp 2 times as he made his burrows under the rock. I see alot of tunnels but not the shrimp.