What is this crab?

[monkeypie102]

He looks super cool and i want it but refuse to get it if its no somewhat reef safe... (I know the speeches about hating crabs and blah blah but I've never had many bad experiences with crabs) any ideas what it is... he wouldn't move to a better spot...

 

[joedc]

Sally light foot

 

[monkeypie102]

Seriously... I always thought they were more white... oh well these guys are just to cool in person... guess I'm getting one for sure thanks!

 

[Paul B]

They are cool, but they are not totally sub marine. In the tropics, they spend more time out of the water than in. And if they can climb out of your tank, they may. I lost quite a few like that, and un fortunately, my wife found most of them before I did

 

[jdhuyvetter]

I have never seen one that is "sub" marine. Sally's are usually found in the rubble zones of reefs. Most I have personally collected were 3-10 miles from land and in 5-20 feet of water.

Are you sure you are not confusing them with fiddler's?

 

[Paul B]

They are crawling all over the place on rocks eating algae above the water. There are also probably 2 or 3 of them in my house someplace.
On any Caribbean Island you can find them just at the water line by the hundreds.
Of course they also live totally underwater.
We here in NY have fiddler crabs all over the place and they are also not sub marine, but a totally different crab. I usually have a tank full of them which is half water and half sand.

 

[peasofme]

sally's are one of the more aggressive crabs due to their speed

 

[sellersmd]

they also get larger than one may expect.

 

[GerritM]

It is a Percnon gibbesi.

 

[peasofme]

i've seen sally's get to the size of an open hand. monsters. really cool crabs but i haven'
t replaced mine due to aggression.

 

[Paul B]

really cool crabs but i haven'
t replaced mine due to aggression.

You want aggression? I'll show you aggression.
This guy eats Sally Lightfoot crabs for appetisers. :lol:

 

[peasofme]

i actually tried keeping one of those alive. it lasted about a month.

 

[Rbs07fxstc]

What is this crab?

I've kept Sally's in my reef tank. But I only keep one at a time & last one got to the size of my open hand. Had to take out of 85 hex tank & put in 265. Awesome looking crabs!

 

[Paul B]

That blue claw crab and the 70 or so I collected and are now comfortable in my freezer I like to call "dinner"
Especially this 9" guy in a 5 gallon bucket :rolleye1:

 

[peasofme]

those blue crabs can actually swim. it's pretty awesome to see.

 

[Paul B]

They swim relatively fast. I catch them this time of the year as many here do to eat.
This rock crab is also very common here, but you can't eat them.
That one pictured above is some sort of spider crab, but there are so many that look like that.

 

[peasofme]

i went blue crab fishing once with fishing line and chicken. it was really fun.

 

[Calappidae]

I have never seen one that is "sub" marine. Sally's are usually found in the rubble zones of reefs. Most I have personally collected were 3-10 miles from land and in 5-20 feet of water.

Are you sure you are not confusing them with fiddler's?

I remember watching on animal planet that showed sally lightfoots catching baby turtles running to sea. They are nasty little things I personally would only put them with very very fast and large fish and very large crabs.

 

[Paul B]

i went blue crab fishing once with fishing line and chicken. it was really fun.

That's how you do it.

I remember watching on animal planet that showed sally lightfoots catching baby turtles running to sea.

So if you get one, feed it turtles. :uhoh3:

 

[Calappidae]

That's how you do it.


So if you get one, feed it turtles. :uhoh3:

... nah too expensive :debi: lol just kidding, they are just a pretty nasty crab, they are a perfect example of how oppertunistic crabs in general are and is a good reason to avoid adding them to reef tanks. Ingeneral sallys are very very VERY fast and despite the claw size the speed makes up for it and they are very capable of being killing predators when they feel like it.