help identify crab (pic)

[bellorusha]

can anybody tell me the name of this crab? i cannot find anythink like this on internet. is it reef safe? is it fish safe?

thanks


http://www.wowru.com/tank/crab.jpg

[ClamIAm]

It is some sort of hermit crab. Whether or not it is safe depends largely on how big it is. The bigger it is, the more damage it can cause. Small ones are generally harmless except to a snail here or there.

[fufi5]

I saw a lot of those when I went to Fort Walton Beach, Florida (AFB air force base), it's a caribbean hermit crab (couldn't find a website to confirm). It was an inlet waterway (saw them on the rocks above the waterline, crawling near the shoreline, in and out of the water), there were a lot of algae patches in that area, not sure if they are reef safe. They ranged in size from smaller that a dime to as big as a baseball (maybe a little bit bigger). I would keep an eye on it to make sure it won't cause any harm.

[Kgoarmy17]

Possibly a Red-Stripe Hermit; Phimochirus holthuisi.
Picture is kinda dark, hard to tell though. Although I grew up in FL and have seen a ton of em.