What in the world?!

[d2mini]

Never seen one of these before!
Appears to be some kind of sponge host?
He is the same color as this sponge and the green stuff on him looks like the green plant that is growing on the little piece of rock this sponge is attached to. He was on the plant first and then moved to the actual sponge. At first I thought a tiny piece of sponge had broken off. He's about 1/8" or 3/16" tall and has crab/shrimp-like claws. :shock:

 

[pagojoe]

Leslie's gonna like this one....

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Leslie's gonna like this one....

...leslie and I, that's sweet. I think it's a sponge crab.

Leslie?

 

[Octoshark]

Very interesting, it looks like frozen vegetables.

 

[LeslieH]

Adorable! :-D But I can't tell what it is for sure beyond some kind of small sponge. More likely to be some kind of majoid (family Majiidae & relatives) just because it has several small pieces of things & I think there's 5 visible pairs of legs. Sponge crabs (family Dromiidae) usually have just 1 hollowed out piece of sponge (or wood or rock) and the 5th pair of leg is hidden under the sponge.

 

[d2mini]

Here's another shot.
He was not on the sponge any longer. And when my urchin walked over, this little guy grabbed one of the urchin's tentacles!

 

[Octoshark]

Where the heck did this guy hitchhike in from? Do you know what he came on?

 

[Milky3]

That looks like its from Mars

 

[LeslieH]

:inlove: Yeah, that is just the cutest little crab. Good pics d2mini! I'm going to stick with majoid. Can't tell if it's an adult of a small species or a baby that's going to grow larger.

 

[d2mini]

So i got confirmation from Richard at TBS that this is a Decorator Crab. They disguise themselves with things in their surroundings. He said mine is special though because 99% of them are brown and this one is bright orange.

Well now that he is on my yellow sponge he decided it was time for a wardrobe change!

 

[jnbrex]

wow! thats amazing

 

[tahoe61]

Id

Id

Just too cool, thanks for sharing.:rollface:

 

[LeslieH]

99% are brown? Richard must be seeing just one species over & over again. There are hundreds of species in a rainbow of colors. Here's one my friend Art photographed - with all the decorations cleaned off - that very similar to yours. http://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/3209595893

 

[Elysia]

I love it when people look at their tanks this closely! Great photos, too. Its nice that you can see the crab's eye in the first of the "yellow" photos.

 

[d2mini]

99% are brown? Richard must be seeing just one species over & over again. There are hundreds of species in a rainbow of colors. Here's one my friend Art photographed - with all the decorations cleaned off - that very similar to yours. http://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/3209595893

Ya, maybe he has mostly brown ones in his area of the gulf?

Thanks for the pic, that one does look very close to mine.

 

[barnabus's gimp]

awww cute little decorator crab.

 

[NewWorldWater]

thats an awesome little crab!

 

[Bru]

That crab is SWEET keep the pictures coming.. maybe he shall grow in size might have a mini treasure right there.

 

[lostintheocean]

that thing is awsome, i have only seen brownish one at my local shops they are big though like a stocky arrow cab size, i wonder if this one is a little baby, great pics. did he try to eat the urchin tube feet?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

What a cool little critter!