Mystery Crab

Shawn_Palmer · Mar 21, 2017

This guy was a hitchhiker in my tank and never knew he was even in there until he was already this size! If anyone could identify what kind of crab he is that would be greatly appreciated.

sureal00 · Mar 21, 2017

I saw a crab like that once and was told it is in the xanthidae class(poisonious). .Offical name I don't know

Untamedrose · Mar 21, 2017

Aww she's cute

Any chance you get a good close up of his claws? Really thats the best way to id what kinda crab she is, least as far as predator vs opportunist vs scavenger.

Shawn_Palmer · Mar 21, 2017

Best I could do he is pretty shy

94Roarge · Mar 22, 2017

Does it look as alike to this one as I think it does?

eliramos · Mar 22, 2017

lol I love how easy it is for you to get pics usually people have the hardest time trying to get pics of their crabs!
And I've never heard of a poisonous crab .
It doesn't look like a gorilla crab so that is a good sign.
Bump for someone else to id!

Hyde2406 · Mar 22, 2017

Lionfishlair might know but I don't know how to tag her

Rakie · Mar 22, 2017

@94Roarge not even close to my eyes. The one in your pics has a bumpy/lumpy carapace, the one in question doesn't.

Untamedrose · Mar 22, 2017

Atergatis floridus is my guess... but its clearly in the xanthidae family. I'd pull it and put into the refugium..

http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=crabs_of_japan&id=1274
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/xanthidae/floridus.htm

MicroPico · Mar 22, 2017

Hyde2406 said:
Lionfishlair might know but I don't know how to tag her

To tag (notify or call) someone, you just need to put @ in front of their name. Like this: @Lionfish Lair

94Roarge · Mar 22, 2017

Rakie said:
@94Roarge not even close to my eyes. The one in your pics has a bumpy/lumpy carapace, the one in question doesn't.

Looking from front on it has exactly the same claw, eye and leg stance as mine does. A different back yes, but everything else matches [emoji14] Either way, if it is, it's not in the xanthidae family IMO.

Daniel@R2R · Mar 23, 2017

Cool specimen for sure! @Lionfish Lair will be the best person I can think of to help identify this critter.

Roboson · Mar 23, 2017

Hmmm, that's a really really hard call. It really could go mithrax or xanthid. The claws are the only thing that worry me, because everything else looks mithrax. Especially the coloration.

buzzword · Mar 23, 2017

Xanthid crab. Pull it out put it in refugium, feed it to a trigger whatever.

Bradley Crocker · Mar 24, 2017

There's just too many different species out there, literally hundreds in the family Xanthidae alone. Atergatis has a handful of species that are very similar. Some Platypodiella look dead on except for most of their colors are more vibrant (they're called clown crabs for good reason).

If you're very patient and have nothing else to do, there's about 20 pages of crab ID's on WWM, or you could just ask them.

Great pics BTW!

94Roarge · Mar 24, 2017

Bradley Crocker said:
There's just too many different species out there, literally hundreds in the family Xanthidae alone. Atergatis has a handful of species that are very similar. Some Platypodiella look dead on except for most of their colors are more vibrant (they're called clown crabs for good reason).

If you're very patient and have nothing else to do, there's about 20 pages of crab ID's on WWM, or you could just ask them.

Great pics BTW!

What is WWM? [emoji14]

94Roarge · Mar 24, 2017

Bradley Crocker said:
There's just too many different species out there, literally hundreds in the family Xanthidae alone. Atergatis has a handful of species that are very similar. Some Platypodiella look dead on except for most of their colors are more vibrant (they're called clown crabs for good reason).

If you're very patient and have nothing else to do, there's about 20 pages of crab ID's on WWM, or you could just ask them.

Great pics BTW!

I think you are on the money with Atergatis sp.

Bradley Crocker · Mar 24, 2017

94Roarge said:
What is WWM? [emoji14]

wetwebmedia.com

It's a difficult site to navigate at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's loaded with all sorts of goodies.

94Roarge said:
I think you are on the money with Atergatis sp.

It seems the closest, but just in the Xanthidae family there's almost 600 species and counting. Maybe this is +1 to the species list?

It's a real shame that crabs as a whole can't behave, I almost forgot how cool they can be until now.

94Roarge · Mar 24, 2017

Bradley Crocker said:
wetwebmedia.com

It's a difficult site to navigate at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's loaded with all sorts of goodies.

It seems the closest, but just in the Xanthidae family there's almost 600 species and counting. Maybe this is +1 to the species list?

It's a real shame that crabs as a whole can't behave, I almost forgot how cool they can be until now.

My one ate a baby sweetlips :'(