potentially friendly looking crab

[RouJr]

Hey guys.

anyone have any thought on species for this crab? It has really chunky claws and seems to hold the larger one out the front for showing off. He has some hair but not much. Kind of looks like a 1cm version of the mudcrabs we eat.

all my live rock came from the great barrier reef.

 

[RouJr]

P.s. deffinetely male

 

[RouJr]

underbelly

 

[RouJr]

he is currently in a kids juice bottle with a hundred or so holes drilled into it waiting for an ID

 

[sfin52]

he is currently in a kids juice bottle with a hundred or so holes drilled into it waiting for an ID

Do you have a sump. That would make one fine sump lord

 

[RouJr]

he has been in my cannister filter for a few days but i just replaced my carbon and brought him back up to the DT while i find out what species he is. He seems friendly. If i picked up my lobster id get a nip. he doesnt attack me at all

 

[Katrina71]

Do you have a sump. That would make one fine sump lord

Agreed.

 

[ScottR]

I’ve had a few “friendly” crabs. If friendly means costly that is. When they look up at you with sweet eyes, then turn around and eat fish and mow down whole colonies of corals....

ID that thing. Sump it or dump it.

 

[SoggyNW]

A better photo, especially of the claws would be useful (daylight?). It looks like a lot of different crabs, and with so many potential crabs and no way to positively I'd it I would strongly recommend an acclimation box in the sump.

 

[Rover]

Can't say definitively, but that type of Crab I have always understood to be a 'into the sump' kind of crab.

It doesn't have the characteristic black marks on the end of its claws as a Gorilla crab, but its got the same leg style and hairy legs.

 

[RouJr]

its got bulky claws with the left claw being a show claw compared to the right. its got hairs on its movement legs but nots its claws. Does anyone have good knowledge for great barrier reef crabs?

 

[RouJr]

 

[RouJr]

#reefsquad

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, I have no idea what kind of crab that is or if it is safe or not.

That said, I have issues like this occasionally as I do some wild collecting in the Florida Keys and even along the Gulf of Mexico on the beaches of Sanibel Island and Lovers Key (SW Florida). Whenever I get an animal I'can't ID, it either stays in a holding tank or goes in the sump. I used to have a 65g (4'x2'x14") shallow reef tank that was just for local collections. Now all I have in a 40g reef tank full of zoas and RFA's and a 16g 'spare' tank with some overflow critters. So I just came back from a snorkel trip to the Keys and came home with quite a few small creatures. They all go in a 10g temporary tank until I can place them in one of the other 2 tanks. If I couldn't ID one it would probably go in the 'spare' tank if I felt it was safe, or in the sump if I had concerns over it's being reef safe.

Good luck.

 

[kireek]

Friend or Foe the little guy could go either way.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/x-is-for-xanthid-crab.273635/

 

[KJ]

Xanthid sp.

 

[RouJr]

It really bugs me when people say xanthid as though that tells you much at all. As wiki says

“Xanthidae is still the largest crab family in terms of species richness, with 572 species in 133 genera divided among the thirteen subfamilies:[3]”

The species variation is huge from several pound crabs down to crabs weighing a gram or two.

 

[RouJr]

#double post

 

[RouJr]

Best photo

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

It really bugs me when people say xanthid as though that tells you much at all. As wiki says

“Xanthidae is still the largest crab family in terms of species richness, with 572 species in 133 genera divided among the thirteen subfamilies:[3]”

The species variation is huge from several pound crabs down to crabs weighing a gram or two.

Well I understand your frustration in finding an ID I think you just stated the exact reason no one could narrow down this crab to species level unless they were a professional, you supplied high quality super macro photos of key identifying features and both of those things are assuming that this is a described species in the first place. I think if you sincerely want a species level ID that you'd be better off consulting a biologist at a local university's marine department with some High res photos (or the specimen itself) and more specific location/habitat data than the great barrier reef. Although to truly narrow it down to the species level its possible they may need to check some internal structures so... I'd be ecstatic to just get it down to genus- I think narrowing it down to 572 is a solid start in the world of invertebrates.

Hopefully I'm not coming across as rude, just trying to express the magnitude of the task at hand. Very interesting crab nonetheless!