that's no pod...it's a tiny little crab!!!

[El Langostino]

just a few moments ago I was observing the millions of pods in my tank and my emerald crab scaling the LR with a red flashlight, when I saw...a never before seen hitchhiker of my tank. a crab, unbeliveably infinitessimally small.

What should I do? I guess I should have reason to believe this could be a gorilla or other potentially dangerous, non-reef safe crab at a very young stage in its development

Should I swiftly eradicate it? Or let it grow and remove it a few months later to see if it is a bad guy for certain?

 

[iCam]

Most crabs are oppurtunistic feeders, so more than likely it isn't reefsafe.

Did you see it well enough to be able to describe it, other than that it's small?

 

[Teremei]

does it look like this?

http://melevsreef.com/id/paguritta.html

 

[El Langostino]

Yes, and wow..on further inspection it appears to be a tiny decorator crab...yikes, yikes indeed! It's really cool looking so I'm oscillating between leaving it and the removal. I know he won't be a very suitable tank mate for long....how long before he'd mature and I'd see him scurrying around?

 

[El Langostino]

it seriously looked like a very small deep sea decorator crab. Like this: http://www.kochersdiving.com/images/Longhorn_Decorator_Crab.jpg

Would it even be possible for one of these to have come in on my LR?

 

[Teremei]

Where did you get your live rock? lol. I've had some things come with my live rock. Nothing too exotic though. Depends where you get it. Some suppliers have more exotic things on their live rock.

 

[El Langostino]

at a great fish store in Athens with a couple of huge vats full of cured rock in the backroom. I have a mixture of Fiji, Atlantic, and Tonga Branch rock. I'm sure it's just a sea of life moving around back there since the rock is all together so who knows.

 

[ahill3780]

Hey fellow Atlantan! Where is this store you're talking about? I have been looking for other places around here to go for marine supplies and livestock. So far all I know of are The Aviarium by Gwinnett Place Mall, Under The Waves in the same area, and Nemos Tropical Fish near where I work in Lilburn.

 

[Pandora]

It's very, very difficult to identify crabs in their planktonic form, just like many mammals look similar when they are in their fetal stage. If it were me, i'd think that was extremely cool, and I wouldn't pass judgement quite yet. I'd throw him in the sump or refugium if you have a grid that prevents escape to the main tank. If he grows and it is not reef safe, you could try to sell it to an LFS or someone with a SW nonreef tank.