Is This A An Emerald Crab??! Or Something Else?

[mpcolson]

Apparently I had a Stowaway in my LR the size of a small red potato. He is more camarea shy than Greta Garbo. I never really see the thing out like my store bought Emerald crab but I spoke to my LFS and they said it might be or it might not. They said if it had hairy legs to remove it. At that time I hadn't gotten a good look at the guy.

Today I finally caught him out and shot some pics. So all you Jedi Masters out there.. Help me out please. I need to figure this out be fore I really get started heavily stocking my tank.

For reference the crab is approx. 2 inches across his shoulders and an 1 1/2 inches nose to butt. About the size of a river rock or as I said earlier a small red potato. He lives in that dark hole you see on the left most of the time and will burrow in the sand bed when aggitated.

Look at this slide show and let me know what you think.






Thanks in advance,

[CarmieJo]

He doesn't look like an emerald to me.

[Rostr02]

Going to have to go with Carmie on this one, my emerald crabs look nothing like this. Have you tried trapping him yet? might give someone a better chance to id.

[mpcolson]

Today was the first time I saw it out long enough to grab my Iphone and get a picture. I don't think it's an Emerald either. It doesn't act like one.

But it could still be a beneficial crab if its not going to kill everything in the tank. I know it's from Indonesia. That's where the LR came from.

How do you go about trapping a crab??

[Rostr02]

Well I really don't know what kind it is or what it eats. I was always partial to the pop bottle trap for critters baited with some frozen food. Basically take a plastic 20oz bottle cut the top off re glue it (super glue) so the cap end is now inside the bottle, bait and wait after that basically. I would put it near the entrance to his burrow. PSA make sure you wear gloves.

Bobby

[SaltyDawg]

Looks like a type of Xanthidae crab to me. I'll try to post a link.
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

[mpcolson]

BINGO! You nailed that one. At least he's close enough to the picture to be removed as a err on the side of caution.


Now I gotta get my frog gigger out and spike that SOB. I also have 3 other smaller ones that were listed on that webpage as bad neighbors.

At least I haven't dropped $400 in corals yet just to find out he likes to nibble on polyps.

And before I get flamed to death, I won't gig the guy but I am gonna remove him. If you want to adopt the little fella please respond by Monday August 23rd, and we can arrange a fed-ex delivery.

Thanks for the visual reference, a great reference sheet!

[CarmieJo]

Good detective work Bob! Chuck's a great guy and really knowledgeable. It is well worth your time to explore his whole site!