hitchhiker question

angelsrock

Member
i work at a petstore and we got a shipment of live rock in a couple days ago. i noticed today that there was a small crab that i didn't order on the rock. this crab is all brownish grey and looks like it has pebbles for a body almost. then the other thing you notice is it has these bright red eyes. it also likes to bury itself in sand or under rocks. what kind of crab is it and is it harmful to other inverts like hermits, snails, and shrimps and to fish as well?
 

carshark

Active Member
Originally Posted by angelsrock
i work at a petstore and we got a shipment of live rock in a couple days ago. i noticed today that there was a small crab that i didn't order on the rock. this crab is all brownish grey and looks like it has pebbles for a body almost. then the other thing you notice is it has these bright red eyes. it also likes to bury itself in sand or under rocks. what kind of crab is it and is it harmful to other inverts like hermits, snails, and shrimps and to fish as well?

i wonder if it is a decorator crab... those are cool specimen check out this thread witha pic of one a bit grown..
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...=decorator+cra
 

angelsrock

Member
no it's not a decorator, i don't know if you've ever gone crabbing before in new jersey(i'm sure they have these types of crabs everywhere), but i use to catch blue crab in new jersey and among all the blue crab we would occasionally catch this crab we use to call a mud crab because it's legs and body was sort of spider like and use to have mud all over it(and it's not an arrow crab either)the legs weren't skinny, they were thick like a tarantula. well this crab reminds me of the mud crabs. it's stocky kindof too.
 

angelsrock

Member
finally got a pic. it looks almost exactly like this except the back is a little bit more bumpy and it's twice as dark as this one.
 

jlm

Member
I have one of these. I don't know what it is but he's been in there for over a year now and getting pretty big. But doesn't seem to bother anything. Only really see him at night now. Hides in the rocks all day
 
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