Crab ID

[Mishri]

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/Mobile%20Uploads/20150207_194346_zpsb9aa1776.jpg


Just got Tampa Bay Saltwater rock/sand in. Ordered the 40 gallon package. Found a gorrila crab and a couple of other crabs that I believe are mithrax... they were small though, hard to tell for sure(Tips of claws weren't black), bigger than this guy, closer to the size of the gorilla crab I found. During the excitement I forgot to take pictures. Looks like this little tiny guy has black tips on his claws, thinking baby gorilla... ive got several of them. Lots of cool stuff in the 1st shipment of the package, starfish galore, urchins, snails. I'll do some pics tomorrow when the water clears and i aquascape.

for reference, thats my air hockey table I have him on, so those holes are tiny. I saved all of my crabs in buckets, till I know for sure what to do with them.

[reefchase]

looks like an Emerald crab to me love them they eat bubble algae and left over food!

[murdock84]

Kind of looks like an emerald to me as well. Is it green in color and have red on the inside of the "elbows"? If so it's and emerald. TBS has some good shots of hitchhikers on his website too.

[tkeracer619]

Put them in the sump.

[billsreef]

Need a good look at the claws. Are they pointy tipped? Black coloring at the tips? Flat tipped?

[Mishri]

black tipped, pointy. not green at all. Which is why it still isn't in my tank :)

[Mishri]

Here are some more pics, feel free to id anything, considering how long I've been in this hobby I should know more of these guys. I never looked up what a lot of the little critters are though... I have a ton of barnacles.

In the first pic at the bottom of the rock you can see the crab that I decided is a good one, and guessed it is a red mithrax.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_085724_zps7fa440e7.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_085807_zps36ff7214.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_085749_zpsbe892ad6.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_085756_zpsec1b5cb9.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_085829_zps55017f5b.jpg

Full tank shot, keep in mind I haven't aquascaped it at all... just set them in there the way I thought they should be (face up vs face down)

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_091152_zps4e1f69d4.jpg


Tank specs: 40 gallon breeder, xf130 Gyre, 8 year old aqua c maxx pro protein skimmer (To be replaced with a new remora pro-s skimmer on monday), 150watt MH HQI (To be replaced with a 36" 4x 39w T5 aquaticlife fixture on monday).


as you can see, no sump... was considering putting my unknown crabs in a 24 gallon tank I have, which i've had for 2 years, live rock only... water changes every 3-6 months. All pics were taken with my phone, samsung note 4.

I'm also prepping my 75 gallon tank to be a reef. it will run a gyre xf130, reef octopus 2000h skimmer, 2x 150watt mh hqi.

[Mishri]

pretty sure this one is a red mithrax

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/20150208_123714_zpsf68d5263.jpg

[Mishri]

So.. I mis-identified both those crabs. They are porcelain crabs. (Once they stuck their fans out it was pretty obvious) They are hanging out together now on the backside of one of the rocks.

[Mishri]

SO.. what do you think about this guy? I would guess gorilla except that the claws are tipped white instead of black, and hook more than being straight.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/crabidentification_zpsab99ab7f.png

It looks like he is stalking this little crab in a neighboring hole.. so I'm going to guess this white tipped crab is going to be a problem.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/crabid2_zpscdab45b2.jpg

These guys are small.. one in the hole is smaller than a dime, including the legs. the other guy is about the size of a penny, including legs.

I have 3 porcelain crabs that i've seen now. and this urchin

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd285/Mishre/Aquarium/20150211_205422_zpsou31t5ad.jpg

I have another thing that I think is a decorator crab, except he looks white, but he is covered in things, mostly algae, and he doesn't move much.. stays on the same rock, moves very slowly. I can't get a good pic of him.. the algae moves so the pics come out blurry. I might turn everything off and try another pic.