another crab to look at/id

mr_x

mr_x

Active Member
i hate to kill anything, so when i get in a piece of coral, that happens to have a crab on it, i take him/her off and toss him in the sump. all the crabs up to date have been tiny things..about the size of a lima bean, tops.
tonight while i was dumping the skimmer cup, i looked down into the skimmer area and spotted a crab just about the diameter of an egg. i guess he lived on macros.....
 
oceanlover

oceanlover

Member
Any chance you can get a picture of the front of the crab?
It might be a Shameface crab (Calappa sp.) although they are not common in aquariums. They have large flattened claws that they appear to be hiding behind. If it is a Shaemface crab, they eat snails and they like to bury in the sand. They are not good for a reef.
It might be a form of Porcelain Crab too as they have the flatter front claws. Does it have feathery appendages? They like plankton.
 
mr_x

mr_x

Active Member
it's definitely not a porcelain crab. i'll pull him out and shoot a few pics after work tonight. oh, i wasn't thinking of adding him to the reef- that's the reason he ended up in the sump in the first place.
the thing is, if it eats snails, what did he live on in the sump? stomatellas maybe?
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
I would feed him frozen foods like silversides and krill. Are they omnivores? (If it's a shame face). If they are you can give him a little veggie or macro.... but I'm not sure if they are omnivores or not.
Can't wait to see the pic... he looks very interesting.
EDIT: Oh sorry, you said you thought he was living on macros... so he probably is omnivore unless he was one starved carnivore.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
someone had posted a picture of a paddle legged crab, it's been a while but i'll see if i can find it.
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
He looks awesome! Although i have no idea what he is. If he is living in the sump he does have other crabs to eat if he is a meat eater...
 
scrombus2

scrombus2

Member
Looks like a stone crab to me. There's a bunch of different species, so an exact ID will be difficult. They are indeed omnivores. I had one in a FOWLR and couldn't believe how aggressive he was. He was collected locally, about the size of a dime at first, in less than a year was 2 inches across the carapace. Had to tear down the tank to remove him.Rule of thumb: black tips on the claws= bad crab.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
it doesnt appear to have red eyes, which is a sign of maybe not being a predator... those pincers though are pretty sharp
 
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