First time posting, I hope this is the correct sub forum. I found this little hitchhiker hiding in my GSP rock. Today it was snacking on my hammer so definitely not friendly.
Can anyone ID it, please? It's not a gorilla crab, and someone on Reddit said it's a Calico crab. I'm in Southeast Asia, the corals are imported from Thailand or China.
I really need to work on familiarizing myself with crab taxonomy more (I'll get around to it eventually), as this is like the fifth brown and white crab that's popped up in the past few months that I haven't been able to ID properly.
I can tell you for sure that it's not a Calico Crab or Lissocarcinus laevis (sorry MoshJosh - the colors are right though).
At this point, my best guess is a Xanthid (Stone/"Gorilla") crab of some kind, probably an Atergatis species, as I know of a few species in that genus with a similar pattern and color on the shell (see the links below).
Atergatis sp.01 is commonly referred to as Atergatis sp.. Difficulty in the aquarium: Easy. A aquarium size of at least 50 Liter is recommended. Toxicity: Toxic.
Atergatis floridus is commonly referred to as toxic tiny crab, floral egg crab, green egg crab or shawl crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: Very easy. Toxicity: toxic.
Atergatis sp.02 is commonly referred to as crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: There are no reports available yet that this animal has already been kept in captivity successfully. Toxicity: Toxic.
www.reeflex.net
With regards to the "Gorilla" name for crabs (the discussion was on emerald crabs with furry legs):
Technically no because the hairy legs alone don’t make it a gorilla crab. Colloquially, you could almost make that argument, but they have the wrong kind/shape of claws for it.
Technically, the term gorilla crab pretty well only applies to crabs from the taxonomic family Xanthidae (emerald crabs are from the same taxonomic subsection - Heterotremata - but a different superfamily and - thus by default - a different family, Mithracidae).
Colloquially, however, the term is applied to pretty much any hairy crab with scissor-shaped claws (emerald crabs have more spoon-shaped claws), and, in the hobby, the term is basically used to mean any crab (regardless of claw shape or if it’s hairy or not) that isn’t reef-safe/would be likely to attack other inhabitants of the tank.
I really need to work on familiarizing myself with crab taxonomy more (I'll get around to it eventually), as this is like the fifth brown and white crab that's popped up in the past few months that I haven't been able to ID properly.
I can tell you for sure that it's not a Calico Crab or Lissocarcinus laevis (sorry MoshJosh - the colors are right though).
At this point, my best guess is a Xanthid (Stone/"Gorilla") crab of some kind, probably an Atergatis species, as I know of a few species in that genus with a similar pattern and color on the shell (see the links below).
Atergatis sp.01 is commonly referred to as Atergatis sp.. Difficulty in the aquarium: Easy. A aquarium size of at least 50 Liter is recommended. Toxicity: Toxic.
Atergatis floridus is commonly referred to as toxic tiny crab, floral egg crab, green egg crab or shawl crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: Very easy. Toxicity: toxic.
Atergatis sp.02 is commonly referred to as crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: There are no reports available yet that this animal has already been kept in captivity successfully. Toxicity: Toxic.
www.reeflex.net
With regards to the "Gorilla" name for crabs (the discussion was on emerald crabs with furry legs):
Thank you for taking the time to comment. So awesome a guy like him can end up all the way here! He's currently in a breeder box with my chaeto and sea grapes, I do feed it some protein sinking pellets. Next month, I plan on expanding my breeder box to something custom made that hangs against 2 sides of my tank (back and left side) so he has more room to move. There's no one near me that want crabs unfortunately and my reef LFS outright refused.
I really need to work on familiarizing myself with crab taxonomy more (I'll get around to it eventually), as this is like the fifth brown and white crab that's popped up in the past few months that I haven't been able to ID properly.
I can tell you for sure that it's not a Calico Crab or Lissocarcinus laevis (sorry MoshJosh - the colors are right though).
At this point, my best guess is a Xanthid (Stone/"Gorilla") crab of some kind, probably an Atergatis species, as I know of a few species in that genus with a similar pattern and color on the shell (see the links below).
Atergatis sp.01 is commonly referred to as Atergatis sp.. Difficulty in the aquarium: Easy. A aquarium size of at least 50 Liter is recommended. Toxicity: Toxic.
Atergatis floridus is commonly referred to as toxic tiny crab, floral egg crab, green egg crab or shawl crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: Very easy. Toxicity: toxic.
Atergatis sp.02 is commonly referred to as crab. Difficulty in the aquarium: There are no reports available yet that this animal has already been kept in captivity successfully. Toxicity: Toxic.
www.reeflex.net
With regards to the "Gorilla" name for crabs (the discussion was on emerald crabs with furry legs):
Thank you for taking the time to comment! He might quite possibly be a gorilla crab, though I was initially skeptical because his legs aren't hairy. The little guy in your third link looks like mine.
He's going to be living with me as no one from my reef community or LFS would take him. I have a breeder box with chaeto and sea grapes as a temporary home, but I'm in the process of designing a custom acrylic box that hangs off of two sides of my tank walls (back and left side) so he has room to roam. Have fed him protein sinking pellets, and now I can do a bit of research on what else to feed him that aren't corals. Unless there's a coral I really really don't like...
Thank you for taking the time to comment. So awesome a guy like him can end up all the way here! He's currently in a breeder box with my chaeto and sea grapes, I do feed it some protein sinking pellets. Next month, I plan on expanding my breeder box to something custom made that hangs against 2 sides of my tank (back and left side) so he has more room to move. There's no one near me that want crabs unfortunately and my reef LFS outright refused.
He's currently in a breeder box with chaeto and sea grapes as a temporary home. I'm in the process of designing a custom acrylic box that hangs off of two sides of my tank walls (back and left side) so he has room to roam but also limit his small rampages against my corals. None of my other reefers and LFS would take him, actually outright refused lol.
