SPS Eating Crab - Anyone Identify?

[Wolfmann81]

A couple of days ago, I had a crab wandering around one of my Acro colonies. Hmmm... Acro crab? After talking to my LFS, he let me know that *most* acro crabs are white. Mine is/was not. Just 2 days later, I figured out that the crab had been eating the polyps off of the Acro colony. Time to go buddy! Finally got him with the tweezers and put him in a bag. I first ripped off a claw trying to get him - but here is what he looked like before visiting the porcelain tunnel. Any ID for him?

 

[snorvich]

Not a reef fish topic. Try it in invertebrates or SPS forum for better results. .

 

[Wolfmann81]

My fault, wrong forum - sorry mods. Apologize.

 

[dzhuo]

Any ID for him?

This is a common Cymo andreossyi. In the wild, they behave similarly like Tetralia or Trapezia (the good white ones your LFS told you) but in our tank, many report damage from the crab eating the host coral while both Tetralia and Trapezia remains harmless.

 

[Wolfmann81]

dzhuo - you seemed to have nailed it on the head. Thank you for your feedback. Glad I got him out of the tank - I had to remove my acro today, because my wife thought she saw another crab on it. Turned out I couldn't find another one. The andreossyi really did some significant damage on the acro; glad I got him out of there.