crab ID please

[Kigs]

I can't take a picture of this guy, he is literally TINY. Maybe 1/4'' big, even smaller but I found him on my zoa colony tonight after adding two new zoa rocks. This is my first hitchhicker.

He has black claw tips with white for the rest of the claws. Rest of the body is regular brown. His legs seem to be hairy but then again I can't tell for sure since he is so tiny. Should I be worried about him or should I leave him in there?

[Ooulophilia]

Stone Crab/rock crab - take him out, they can be fairly destructive

[gman0526]

Out with it, better safe than sorry. ;)

[Kigs]

Do you have a picture of any Stone Crab/rock crab so I could compare? Also should I be worried about more in my tank or are they solitary?

[sabodish]

sounds exactly like the stone crab i yanked from my tank a few months back....only after he ate about 2000 zoanthids and 15 ricordia...take him out now, save the heartache.

[Kigs]

:eek1: good thing i decided to night watch my tank that night. thank you for the ID guys.

[Gimplar]

I would get him nice and fat and harvest his claws... Mmmmm gooooood eaten! :p

[lynetteww125]

Does he look like this crab?

http://zoosrus.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3696

I found a hitchhiker in my tank a few months back and that's what mine looked like...only nobody was able to ID it for me...maybe if I had known about RC back then....

oh well, I ended up waiting until I knew what rock he was in and took that single rock out of the tank, found him, and removed him with tweezers. I would have given him away as a sump crab had he not grabbed onto the rock so tight he came out in 3 pieces instead of 2.

If it is the same type of crab....remove him ASAP

The pointy claws are not good since non-destructive crabs typically have flattened tips to their claws. Also, this one was clipping at a skeleton of a polyp that was in my live rock...so he can cut through hard corals with no problem.

Not to mention what he would be able to do to your softies!


I vote you do anything you can to get him out of your tank if it's that same crab.

[Blown 346]

I had that exacot sam crab as above in my tank, he ate $150 worth of livestock.
In my eyes any hitchhiker crab should be pulled out, they will eat what they can catch.
Even the supposed algae grazes will go after shrimp, starfish, snails hermits etc.