Oh look another hitchhiker crab thread!

[sfsuphysics]

Sorry if these get posted a ton, no one seems to get a decent picture, so here goes mine!

Ok so coming back from the local club event with $45 worth of gift cards I won, I decided to get a nice millepora colony (currently in detox.. aka TMPCC dipping). Well before I put it there I notice a crab... OOOH AN ACROCRAB!!!! Wait.. there's another.. that doesn't look anything like an acrocrab.... infact it has all those warning signs... Hairy... black tipped claws... large claws that look more than simply algae picking.. so I'm wondering how bad these crabs are.

They are not going into my main tank that's for damn sure! However I do feel a little bad about just chucking them in the garbage disposal (I don't know anyone with a mantis or octopus nearby) Anyways, i wonder if they'd do any damage in my sump? I have a bunch of rock in it and detrius tends to settle there as well as uneatten food (mysis mostly) , could they potentially be a good scavenger? I know they couldn't survive a trip out, but whynot?

Here's the picture.

 

[romunov]

Ban him to the sump if you must. I have a few of them living their for about two years.

 

[saltycreefer]

They love milli polyps!

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah, I had other advise tell me he was a Xanthidae Cymo, completely reef safe, that is quite communial with corals (feeds of their mucus)... however what happens if there's a mis-identification... yikes I do not want to have to yank out all that stuff to find a crab.

 

[LeslieH]

It might be. Unless the person who did the id either had the crab in front of him/her or was an expert I'd be cautious about trusting the id. It is a xanthid which overall have a bad reputation for eating anything around them. Your sump would be a good home for him.