Bad Crab?

[J. Montgomery]

I found this very small crab on a colony of zoanthids. Anyone know what it is? Good or bad? He's not going back into the tank to err on the side of caution.

 

[twon8]

looks bad, i'd stick him in the sump

 

[surfn]

bad! bring him over for mantis food!

maybe the mantis will actually go after it since its way smaller than the other 2 crabs.

 

[fishtankdon]

What makes it a bad crab?

 

[Kigs!]

i found a similar crab on a wild colony piece i got awhile back. i didn't really notice my zoas disappearing or anything, but i didn't really want to risk it so i flushed it. =\ i think the black tips are usually an indication of harmful crabs though

 

[Hypertek99]

I hate finding Hitchhiker crabs. Once i found one and it had red eyes and it scared the living crap out of me. It was dark and i was sneaking a peek with my flashlight and right in front of me was a giant crab with blood red eyes. Too creepy.

 

[jessp]

it is bad it will eat zoa polyps as well as rics.

 

[Carolina Frags]

I get them on shippment alot.As I look over the corals before I dip I find them hiding, pick them off and throw them in the sump.I throw them in the 105 gal sump so I'm not sure if they kill each other or get alone but there is no coral for them.
Few fish in there to include lakewoods 6" Rabbit fish.LOL.
Last shippment I found 11 pistol shrimp.At night when light go off you can hear the sump popping.

But I would not put in in my display, anytime you are not sure,just say no.

 

[143gadgets]

ALL crabs are bad!

 

[J. Montgomery]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I've received alot more responses here than on RC. As I don't have a sump, this guy will probably become mantis food for Al.

 

[coralfan]

they are not all bad, some are even helpful

 

[Hypertek99]

They will become bad once they get big. The small ones are good at first.

 

[rackyrane]

A Reefer friend of mine started noticing that some of her smaller fish were missing. Then she saw her mandarin dragonet lying on the bottom of the tank with its tail pulled/torn off. She got out her red light also and saw a crab just like Hypertek described. Took her about two weeks to get that sucker out of there and man was it mean and evil looking. Took it to the LFS. This guy was a killer.

 

[Hypertek99]

Yeah i wish i took a pic of it. It was brown or black looking and had evil red eyes. It was in my tank for over 6 months and i didn't even know about it. I did have shrimps and other stuff disappearing. I'm glad i got rid of it.

 

[rackyrane]

Did yours have black claws? Her's did.