Can you please ID this crab?

[amphiprion]

Ok,
I am using somebody's picture, but I have a same crab like this in my 37 Reef Tank. I have no idea what kind of crab this is. However, he's starting to scare me.

Originally, he was really tiny, but day by day, he's getting bigger and bigger. Look more hairy than in the pic (almost like a Tarantula).

He usually comes out from inside or underneath the rock during feeding time and often I see him burrowing hole in my sandbed (under a rock).

Anyway, so far, I have lost some damsels, cleaner wrasse, scotter blenny and some turbos. He is the primary suspect, but I noticed many times tiny papermint shrimp are moving around him very closely, but he's not bugging them, not only that, a Royal Gramma move around him often, but he never even touched them.

I think I will move him, but he could be just a harmless cleanup crew and other fishes are vanishing because of other causes

 

[harryclay]

I have a crab that looks just like your. I too would like to know what it is. I don't seem to have any problems with it killing anything in tank, and he is doing a great job a cleaning up LR in tank. Hope we get someone to ID this crab.

 

[amphiprion]

I have no proof that he's killed any of those missing animal. Usually he's mostly active at night time or feeding time. He's very fast and like to dig.

He may not be killing in your tank because its big? My tank is only 37 Gallon and easier to catch other animal?

Just thinking out loud.

Thank

 

[harryclay]

Hello again

My tank is only a 29gal. My crab, since first found about a month ago, has shed 3 times and seems to get larger by the day. In my tank I have damsels(3), manderine gobys(2), camel shrimp(1), goby (1) very small, hermit crabs, brittle star, chocolate chip star, anenomies, mushroom coral, and a whole lot of stuff growing in LR. 3/4 of which I have no idea what it is. I think some of stuff on LR is hard coral cause they seem to be building hard white shells and extending.

Hope we find out soon, but until he seems to do damage I will let him live.

Harry

 

[amphiprion]

Mine is 37 as I mentioned before

Fish (only 4)
-Scopas Tang
-False Perc
-Royal Gramma
-Scotter Blenny

Invert
- Lots of coral
- Two Camelback Shrimp
- 6-7 Peppermint Shrimp
- 1 coral banded shrimp
- 4-5 Emerald Crab
- 10-15 Turbo
- 20-30 Blue Legg and Scarlet Reef Hermit
and of course the creature

Mine also has been shedding and getting bigger every time I see him. As I said, I never saw him killing, even some Peppermint shrimp that are really really tiny are not touched. But whenever I am near, he is checking me out and very skittish. So, I’m not sure if he's in the hunting mood that time. But I have seen some Hermit legs, and empty turbo shell.

Well, he is simply very scary looking. That’s why I fear that he can do damage. You have to see it in person. Picture doesn't represent half the hairy look he has in person. Crawl just like a tarantula. If I could, I have caught him and kept in a separate eclipse tank of its own.

It did one good though. I know try not to mess with my tank unless I really have to.

 

[carver]

Have you had any luck identifying that crab?? Is is still in your tanks?? I have one that looks similar except it is yellow/green. It sure is an ugly little sucker. Only about 3/4 inch in size. It only comes out at feeding time. Very shy so generally all I see is it's hairy leggs coming out from under my hairy mushrooms where it lives in a hole. Have you had any problems that you are aware of from it??

 

[davelin315]

Talk about having a bad hair day!

I think you described your culprit when you said he's active at night and very quick. Fish will sleep at night and that's when crabs often take advantage of the situation and hunt. I would blame the crab.

By the way, Harry Clay, I would ditch the chocolate chip star, they're voracious predators and will take down anything they can catch, including fish, which means your mushrooms are probably going to be the first to go, followed by your anemone.

 

[amphiprion]

Hey ...
Well, no ID yet. Nobody has any clue but at least 5 people came across this Crab in their tank....nobody feels good about it. In my book, if I don't know it, I don't want it..

here's some common situation...

- it looks really pretty (depending on how you see it)
- mostly comes out at night
- sheds a lot and get bigger quickly
- very shy
- burrows hole in the substrate
- Usually comes with Fiji Rock (so pacific animal)

As I stated before, I've never seen it killing anything even after monitoring at night for hours.... I noticed tiny Peppermint, Camel shrimp moving around it very closely, Gramma, Scooter... but "she" always left them alone. But I started loosing fish every now and then. One day I noticed another one from another whole.. I knew, that was it. I moved him to my quarintine tank with the whole Rock.

Since then, I haven't seen him (I think he's died, but I was fooled many times before) and I have yet to loose any fish from my other tank ...

 

[amphiprion]

HE IS ALIVE!!!!!!

Wow... this tank that I moved him to had two Damsel ... It's been quite sometimes, and I haven't done anything to the tank... Slowly slowly, it turned totally green (algae bloom

)

I did not notice any life, so I left it alone ...didn't even change water, no top off and so on. So, finally the other day I was checking salinity and noticed it was hitting the roof

I turned the NO lights off and changed the water a little (thinking, finally I should clean the tank ready for quarintine purpose.....

Guess who I discover....yes, you guessed it... He's alive and big! What the heck did he eat?

Oh, one of the Damsel is alive and well..... I didn't know what to think... started calling everybody who thought I was a freak

 

[Anonymous]

I had several brown-colored variants of the above picture. They must have come into the tank via live rock. One of these guys killed the others and then proceeded to triple in size in about a year. I finally caught it and took it to the fish store where they identified it as a stone crab. That's my best guess as to what you have (although I may be dead wrong). My crab never attacked any of the fish in the tank but it did kill several snails. HTH!

 

[jdebellis]

I have the same crabs. Richard at Tampa Bay Saltwater told me it is not a stone crab, but a gorilla crab. He said it's ok in the tank until it gets to 1 inch, then needs to come out.