Crab Id Please

[Ducati283]

Looking through my tank tonight I found a crab that I did not put in...I'm not too sure where he came from and it's not small.

I'm pretty sure we've seen it before but not the entire body ...just the pinchers. My cucumber was torn apart the other day...could this be the culprit? Any idea what it is and if it's good or bad? Sorry for the poor camera work and my phone storage is full so this was the longest video I could take :/


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[nathan]

Crabs can usually be little bastards.... it's really hard to tell what it is with him hiding where it is.... what color is it. Give us at least a better description and we shall go from there... how big do u think it is .

 

[Ducati283]

It looks like a translucent red. The body seems to be just under 1/2" across. Pincher arms look to be over 1/2" long and it appears as though there are white markings on the pinches almost like they are painted on. It was hard to see him because of his location too.


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[Janice]

Looks similar to the little B--ard that came into our tank a few months ago in a zooanthoiad. He was eating our snails until I used a 12 inch paid of tweezers to fight with him and put him out of the coral and get rid of him.

 

[Ducati283]

Hmmm....interesting. I've had 3 snails get dead also for no reason that I could find.


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[nathan]

Is the crab hairy?

 

[Ducati283]

Not that I could see. The body was hard to see


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[Nicole New Lowell]

For me crabs are the number one hitchhikers I get. Luckily recently I got a small emerald crab . A few weeks ago I found a crab that must have been in the tank 2 years since I hadn't added anything big enough in that long for him to come in. I'm pretty sure he is a baddy but so far he hasn't caused me any problems that I know of.
Something I was told is that if the claws are very pointy it's predatory and bad news, if they are blunt they likely eat algae. Of course I believe there are always exceptions, as I've heard even emeralds are a pain once they get bigger.
You probably already know this but looking in the tank at night with a red light can be very helpful, you may get a better look at this crab as well as find out if there is something else that could have ripped apart your cucumber and/or is killing your snails. I once found 2 very large fireworms and promptly removed them. I figure they were responsible for killing $500 in shrimp, hermits and snails. One very large snail was found half alive in the morning, full of bristles. He did unfortunately die.

 

[Ducati283]

I can't find the little bugger again. I had a very big mishap in my tank today i came home and a powerhead had fallen and blew all my sand to one side of the tank. I had to remove everything and clean up as well as a 30%water change hopefully I don't get a big alge outbreak or nitrate spike


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