Mystery Crab

[Jay York]

Recently set up my tank again and bought some live rock from a local fish store. Noticed this guy last night when it stuck a claw out from a rock at feeding time. I captured a picture this morning before I left for work. Appears to had red and white stripes on legs and black at the end of claws. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Tautog]

If it's got big claws, it's not reef save, jmo, remove it to the sump to be sure and safe

 

[Dom]

That isn't a very good picture, so it is difficult to tell.

It appears to be a brown rock crab. Someone at the LFS where you purchased live rock may have captured it at a local beach and tossed it in the live rock tank.

I find them to be aggressive predators of the bristle worm, which is why I placed two in my display. They didn't bother any of my coral or inhabitants. However, they did make a mess of my aquascape while turning rocks over to find bristle worms.

I have since placed them in the sump where they appear very happy. I placed them in the refugium chamber and somehow, they found their way in to the live rock chamber. Now, I will occasionally lift a rock in the display tank and grab any worms with a tweezers, then drop them in the live rock chamber. They come right out and eat.

 

[Jay York]

That isn't a very good picture, so it is difficult to tell.

It appears to be a brown rock crab. Someone at the LFS where you purchased live rock may have captured it at a local beach and tossed it in the live rock tank.

I find them to be aggressive predators of the bristle worm, which is why I placed two in my display. They didn't bother any of my coral or inhabitants. However, they did make a mess of my aquascape while turning rocks over to find bristle worms.

I have since placed them in the sump where they appear very happy. I placed them in the refugium chamber and somehow, they found their way in to the live rock chamber. Now, I will occasionally lift a rock in the display tank and grab any worms with a tweezers, then drop them in the live rock chamber. They come right out and eat.

Yeah, I had to take the picture with the tank lights off so the image quality isn't very good. I did notice 2 bristleworms last night as well so I might just let it hang out in the tank to see if it can snack on those.

Thanks.